Struggling to understand the Crucifixion

[tiny_augustine]

Hey Grannymh,

Wesrock’s comment on the cross being Christ’s Baptism is from Mark 10:

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33* saying,** “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; 34* and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise.”** 35* And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him, and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37* And they said to him, **“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

God Bless

 

[Wesrock]

I would sincerely like to know the source of this comment – “The Cross was Christ’s baptism. He refers to it as such.”

Christ, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity did not personally need the Sacrament of Baptism. My guess is that the above comment is not meant for the Sacrament of Baptism. Most likely, it is one of the many ways we can describe the actions of the great Jesus Christ.

The Sacrament of Baptism imparts “the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God, …” (CCC 405)

I think there was a misunderstanding, and that may be my fault for lack of clarity. The cross was a baptism. He did not need baptism. The cross was not just the Passover, it was also the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, and the High Priest is stripped and baptized before he ascends to the holy place, and this symbolism plays out on the cross and the ascension, too. You are not disputing that we are baptized into his death, burial, and resurrection, correct?

I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! (Lk 12:50)

But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; (Mk 10:38-39)

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4)

and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12)

Luke 12:50 is a very explicit reference to the crucifixion, and Mark 10:38-39 is pretty explicit too, especially following upon the heels of his pronouncement of his death to his apostles.

And the Church Fathers also drew connections between Jesus’s descent to the dead to a baptism as well.