T hat may be good advice from the world's point of view. But from the point of view of Jesus, that advice is completely wrong. And yet most churches promote the worldly value of never being a fanatic about anything, instead of Jesus' value that there are in fact some things about which it is appropriate to be a fanatic. The English translation misses the point that is made in the original Greek. A baptism of total immersion is what I have to be baptized with.
M ake no mistake about it.
This is radical language. Jesus stands for the fanatical fire and the total immersion of his passionate, incarnational plunge into human existence and his suffering and death for the sake of the world. It requires instead the utmost in passionate self-expenditure. It requires, in other words, that he be a fanatic in faithfulness to his Father in heaven. L uke is the only gospel writer who tells the story of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room with tongues of fire and drove them out to be immersed in the world to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.