“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
John 1:26-28
Behind barbed wire, a grand baptismal complex dominates Israel’s riverbank, and beyond it a lookout sits on the crest of a hill. Near the place where the Prince of Peace may have been baptized, a soldier with a machine gun watches us impassively, and steps away from any cameras that happen to point his way.
Today, the once grand Jordan River is little more than a slow-moving stream of green water. Much of it has been siphoned off for use in irrigation on both sides of the border, and what remains is too polluted for use in full emersion baptism. Instead, some of the Jordan’s water is held in a baptismal font nearby.
The Jordanian site boasts the ruins of no less than five churches, the earliest dating back to 551 AD. All were built in the same unstable place and were easily destroyed by flood or earthquake, but the site was important enough for generations of church builders to try again and again—a tenacity that suggests this has long been considered the site of Christ’s baptism.
“We have the church closest to the earth, but also the closest to heaven,” says Rustom Mkhjian, supervisor of archaeological works at Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan. Although his is one of several sites claiming to be Jesus’ baptism site, his passion for archeological evidence is almost tangible, as is his Christian faith.
Mkhjian hopes to build an interfaith centre in the near future. But ecumenism is nowhere in sight. No less than 10 churches are either in operation or construction in the area.
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