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I think you have to look at the example He set. If Christ found it necessary, and yet was quite outspoken regarding itmes of mosaic law, shouldn't that mean that baptism is important?
Also, he was baptised as a consenting adult.
As for the thief, we don't know if he was baptised or not. Because he was on a cross doesn't indicate that he wasn't. Baptism was a very popular event back then, hence the 'Baptist' tag for John. Also, remember that the words paradise, heaven, eternal glory can be quite significant in what they mean. So are hell, purgatory, limbo. (Another dicussion)
I for one think that baptism is an outward indicator of the inner self. I feel that it's to be undertaken by rational understanding of what you are promising to do by the act.
Baptism (traditionally by immersion) was a symbol of death and rebirth. The laying away of the old person and the assumption of a new, re-innocent life.
It's also symbolic of Christ's death and resurrection, reminding you to whom you need to be dedicating the act in order to gain the desired reward of entering heaven.
I think it's important, but only in the sense of what it represents, just as I don't think it's necessary for all rich people to sell all they own and give it to the poor as the young rich man was commanded, as long as they have the charity and desire to serve their fellow man to act as though they would have.
Would a just and merciful god sentence the soul of a mistreated child to hell for being born to parents who didn't seek to have them baptised?
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