Actor and TV host Mario Lopez is currently on a tour of Israel, visiting various holy sites and reconnecting with his Christian faith. The father-of-two recently stopped at the Sea of Galilee to explore the very area where Jesus walked on water, the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus is thought to have delivered his famed “Sermon on the Mount.”
But perhaps the most significant moment of his trip so far came when the “Extra” host decided to get baptized at the very location where Christ himself was submerged by John the Baptist, as described in Matthew 3:13-17.
“13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
“We are at the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ. I’m about to get baptized,” Lopez announced before he took the plunge. “It’s a beautiful day. There’s a really cool Catholic priest that’s gonna do me the honors. And there’s a sermon going on right now. So I’m going to join these fine folks and then, bam! It’s on!”
Got baptized in the same river Jesus did…#JordanRiver #Jesus #JohnTheBaptist pic.twitter.com/WIuPtqEk9b
— Mario Lopez (@MarioLopezExtra) March 22, 2018
Lopez was led into the river by the two priests, before being asked, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” and “Do you intend to serve him all your life?”
“Yes, I do,” Lopez declared, as an assembled crowd of Romanian tourists began to sing “I have decided to follow Jesus” on the river bank.
The priests then dunked him under the water:
Spiritual moment…#Baptized #JordanRiver #Catholic pic.twitter.com/d2dNGyCAUQ
— Mario Lopez (@MarioLopezExtra) March 22, 2018
“Thank you,” Lopez said. “Beautiful people here. This is awesome. Wow. I just got baptized in the Jordan River. Hallelujah.”
As he climbed out of the river, Lopez turned to camera and said, “That was awesome, that was so cool and I was so fortunate to meet these very nice people from Romania. They sang the song for me and everything. That was moving. That was cool.”
In an interview with Fox News Latino back in 2015, Lopez spoke of the vital importance of his deeply-held faith in God.
“I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve just tried to build a more spiritual muscle in a business that is very unpredictable,” he explained. “It’s nice to have something that is consistent in our life — family and faith is that for me.”
(H/T: The Jerusalem Post)