Now we’re introduced to John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. This follows a prophecy made by Isaiah of a man who would prepare the way for Jesus.

The mention of camel hair clothes and eating bugs was common appearance and diet of desert nomads.

People came from all over to confess sins and be baptized. Baptize means to “plunge” and going under the water was the washing away of sin.

The Pharisees and Sadducees arrive and, with thanks to John getting right on their case, quickly established as people particularly hostile to God’s plans. In short, the Pharisees were laymen but followed a lot of extra rules and traditions outside the bounds of scripture and a strict adherence to law and their perception of purity. The Sadducees were an upper class, wealthy people focused on the written Torah and rejection of resurrection/afterlife.

They were generally held in high regard due to their status but you can see that meant nothing to John who goes on the attack, as he sees them as the target of God’s coming vengeance.

Here we also see the all-too-popular “brood of vipers” line for the first time. In these circles you often see this included in compilations of Jesus’s quotes condemning the Jews, but at this time John is a Jew, racially and religiously. We can split hairs and call that “proto-Christianity” if we like, but the point remains that John here and Jesus later are addressing these specific groups and for the reasons I gave. They added weight to trusting the Lord that the Lord did not include in His law and it was breaking people. The exterior of temples and people were beautiful and their interiors were rotten and without faith. This was not –The Jews– this was –THOSE Jews–. Whether or not you dear reader like a certain group of people in the world is not really of importance to me, but this quote will not support you, so that’s why it’s important to review so you’re not rebuked in the wild.

Neat. Moving on.

Stones as replacements for the children of Abraham begin laying the groundwork of “you Jews aren’t special because of your blood anymore because you blew it”. The promise is about to be extended to the world. Hopefully you can see how the political Jewish class would see this as shockingly disrespectful as he’s telling them they’re going to be replaced. Bold stuff. Not the last time we’re going to see it either. Jesus makes a lot of enemies by telling them precisely what they’re not accustomed to hearing.

Baptizing with fire: John is making it clear that he’s not the messiah. A lot of people thought this was the case. Even as Jesus walked among the people, they’d say John was the Christ. Not John’s fault, he humbles himself by saying he’s not worthy to carry the Messiah’s sandals and that the real baptism to come is with the Holy Spirit and fire. My first read on this forever ago I thought he was threatening them with Hell (fire) but God communicates through fire often and it has a purifying and holy presence. You’ll see later on Pentecost. …Now that said, yes he does threaten them with Hell the very next verse.

Then Jesus arrives and says He needs to be baptized which is wild to me. Can you imagine Jesus asking you to do that? John was a prophet and even he couldn’t as we see. No, Jesus, this must be the other way around. I come to YOU, right? That said, as a prophet, John had the authority to baptize people as a sign of repentance. But Jesus had no sin. John was fully aware of who he was looking at, what was the point of such a baptism? And from one so unworthy?

Jesus explains. And this paraphrase should be taken with a pillar of salt but “going through the motions” should make sense in our times. At least that’s the explanation I’ve heard most. It’s what a proper believer does and He wanted to model the perfect believer for us to imitate. He couldn’t set Himself apart from it and set a wrong example. We do as Christ does and Christ commands baptism and Christ RECEIVED baptism so who are we to say otherwise. There’s other explanations out there like it being symbolic for him as the sacrifice and another straight up says “God wanted to” lol so… We can do a deeper dive on that by request. My understanding is not “the” understanding. Cannot stress enough I am your peer, not a teacher :)

Upon coming up from the water, the Spirit of God descends as a dove to Jesus’s shoulder and a voice rings out “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Unclear if everyone present saw the Spirit and the heavens open or just Jesus. More importantly, all 3 persons of the Trinity were present for Jesus’s baptism which I think rocks and if you could go back in time, that would be a top 5 contender.