Baptism Painting

This painting is on the wall of the landing on the way to the second floor of our building. It was painted by our friend, Troy Terpstra, finished in the summer of 2008. It stands 15 feet high and sitting on the stairs to take it in is a real joy. Sometimes we do a bible study just by talking through what we see in the painting. What do you see?

Troy's journey with this work began with work in the Skagit County Jail and gangs as he saw artwork coming out of the jail from Latino gangsters; one which depicted a Hispanic gangster Jesus on the cross. It got the creative wheels turning. The entire project took a year and a half and went through many forms before the final one.

Our primary places of ministry at Tierra Nueva are the jail and the migrant farmworker community. Our work in advocacy is standing along side those who are oppressed - by the choices of others and the systems, or by their own choices and how once you are on the wrong side of the system it is next to impossible to get out from under it.

One of the main themes we work with at Tierra Nueva is baptism - that in baptism, everything must die, everything must come under the water, all our allegiances other than our allegiance to God. We are to have no other gods before Him, to bow to no idols (the first two commandments) but we don't recognize our gods or idols (our allegiances) that need to come under the water. We need to be 'baptized' every day. What are the allegiances you see in the painting that are coming under the water?

When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, what was the baptism for? We talk about His dying to all forms of identity apart from the one the Father speaks over Him - You are My Beloved Son; I AM delighted in You. Perhaps He died to national identity as an Israelite; to family identity as the son of Mary and Joseph; to His occupational identity as a carpenter. When Jesus goes out into the wilderness, it is His identity as the Beloved Son of the Father that is challenged each time by the devil. Later, in the gospel of John 14:30, Jesus will say, "The ruler of this world is coming, but he has nothing in Me."

In dying to worldly forms of identity, Jesus is able to stand in solidarity with the poor and the oppressed. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God and was going back to God... Jesus was able to be the Advocate. When we are caught up in worldly forms of identity we feel we must advocate for ourselves against those who threaten our identity, but when we receive our identity as beloved daughters and sons of our heavenly Father who is delighted in us (before we do anything! Jesus hadn't done anything but be baptised), we are freed to be filled with the powerful Spirit of God (who is another Advocate) to partner with God on behalf of the poor, the broken, the widow and the orphan.

Ask the Holy Spirit to search you and know you and reveal to you allegiances and ways of creating identity for yourselves that need to come under the water of baptism again today.