Who will believe this? That I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of being baptized at the very spot Jesus was baptized but I refused. I flunked it! I let the opportunity pass me by!
My late friend and “twin brother” Pastor Dimgba Igwe was going to immerse me in the waters of the Jordan but I declined. Why did I decline? Was it a case of familiarity breeding contempt? Did Jesus not say that a prophet has honour, except among his own people?
In my case, it was not a case of familiarity breeding contempt for Pastor Igwe whom I respect a lot as a true man of God. But I just wasn’t ready to be soaked into water that afternoon. In any case, who am I to be baptized in the very place my Lord and Saviour was baptized? The truth was that I had come to the River Jordan not to make news but to report news. I had come to see, to feel and to describe this holy river that I had heard about and sang about all my life, in my childhood, at school, in church, in hymns, in Negro spirituals. River Jordan is to Christians what the Ganges River is to Hindus. A river of holiness.
We had stayed five days in Jordan, the country named after River Jordan but we were yet to see the glorious river. So, one morning, from our hotel in Amman, the capital of Jordan, we set out to look for River Jordan. We had checked the map and we were told it would take close to six hours to and fro, going by a hired cab. First, we went to Mount Nebo, the mountain from where Moses saw the Promised Land but never entered it. We spent about an hour on Mount Nebo which gave us a panoramic view of the holy land. As we drove down a steep, dangerous road that led to the West Bank village of Bethany, you understood why the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 23 about the “valley of the shadow of death.” It was that beautiful yet scary. Bethany, according to the New Testament was the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. It was also the place Jesus lodged after his entry into Jerusalem. There is the tomb of Lazarus which is a big tourist attraction.
Eventually we got to the point where we had to disembark, buy a ticket and enter a bus that would take us to the River Jordan together with other tourists. Among the tourists were two Nigerian men who had come there before us. They were also on a pilgrimage to the River Jordan. We got talking. They wanted to know if we were pastors and we said yes.
As we drove down the tourists’ bus, we came to the point where Elijah is believed to have flown to heaven by means of a chariot of fire. There was the signboard featuring an artist’s impression of Elijah on a chariot bound for heaven.
At a point we alighted from the bus and made our way through the wilderness where Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. From a wooden platform, we caught our first view of the River Jordan. It was almost anticlimactic. We had expected a big river, but River Jordan turned out to be a stream. A muddy stream. The water brownish. The river served as the natural boundary dividing Jordan and Israel.
A voice in me started asking: Is that all to River Jordan? My thoughts went to Naaman, the Syrian army general who was asked to go and “wash yourself seven times in the Jordan and you will be healed of your leprosy” but an angry and disappointed Naaman fired back: “Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?”
Legend has it that Jesus was not baptized in the main River Jordan itself but a tributary of the river that has formed into a baptismal pond atop which is a church with a big cross. A barricade had been built around the baptismal pond and tourists were forbidden from entering the holy pond. We were about two dozen tourists being shepherded to the River Jordan but the four Nigerians had to “sweet talk” the guide into permitting us to step into the very spot where Jesus was baptized. We secretly struck an accord. He would permit us to go there but we should not let the other white tourists know or see us entering the hallowed spot. “At the end, you know what to do for me,” the Jordanian guide told us. Definitely, we knew what to do. As Nigerians we knew what to do. It was so emotional stepping into the venerable pond, touching the water and praying there. I was praying. Dimgba was praying. The two other Nigerians were also praying. There is no better place to pray. I prayed for forgiveness of my sins. I quickly baptized myself right there, touching my head with the holy water. I prayed for myself, my family, my friends and my country. Time up! The guide came in to dismiss us. On our part, we contributed money and gave him. He quickly tucked it inside his pocket. Then we moved on to join the rest who were already in the church of John the Baptist, a small, ancient church situated near the Jordan. From the eastern bank where we stood, we saw other pilgrims at the western bank, all clothed in white, singing and praying.
Unknown to us, the two Nigerians with us had each bought a white baptismal garment from the church in readiness for baptism. But who will baptize them? In search of drama, I quickly pointed to Dimgba, saying: “Here is a Pastor! He can baptize you!” And Pastor Dimgba came to the rescue, dipping each of them in the water and proclaiming: “I baptize you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” It was a very emotional, dramatic moment. After the drama, I brought my notebook to conduct interviews. First to be baptized was Clement Olele from Edo State. He worships at Mountain of Fire ministry. He told me: “I came here because I wanted to see where Jesus was baptized. I want to be really close to Jesus. This is my first real baptism, my real water immersion. I didn’t plan it. It just happened.”
The second baptized man, Ailen Ehidiamen also from Edo State but worships at Assemblies of God church said: “I feel sanctified. I feel whole again. This is a turning point in my life. I came to Jordan for a programme on computer information security and Arabic language and took the opportunity to come here. We are now new creatures. No going back to sin.”
On his part, Pastor Igwe says there is no big deal about River Jordan baptism. “Whether you are baptized in Nigeria or in the River Jordan, it’s the same. Spiritual truths respond to the same principle. If you have given your life to Jesus and you are ready to publicly declare that you are for Jesus, then whether you did so in Nigeria or by the River Jordan, it has the same effect.”
