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Chapter 3 -- A Voice in the Wilderness
Back in Judea, in the wilderness, there was a new preacher that people were calling "John the Baptist."
"Repent!" said he. "The kingdom of heaven is here!"
He was as the prophet had said, "a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord" He wore rough camel's hair and leather, and he ate wild insects and honey. People from all around Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordan River went out to him. They confessed their sins and were baptized by John in the Jordan.
But when the political party leaders came to be baptized, he called them vipers and required evidence of their change of heart. Here comes a political schmoozer and John says, "Don't think you're so well set just because of your connections. The stones are better connected than you are because the axe is here to cut down every tree that fails to bear good fruit. That tree will be burned!"
"I baptize you with water and a change of heart," said John. "The one who comes after me, the one so much more powerful than I that I'm not even worthy to carry his shoes, that one will baptize you with God and with fire. He will gather his wheat into safety, but he will burn up the chaff."
Then Jesus came all the way from Galilee down to Jordan to be baptized by John.
"You come to me for baptism?" cried John in astonishment. "That will not happen. I should be baptized by you!"
"Let it be," said Jesus quietly. "We must do this to make sure we take all the right steps." Then John baptized him.
As Jesus came out of the water, some around him saw God like a dove descend through an opening in the heavens and light on him. Then they heard a voice from heaven, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased."
That is the moment some people have cited to me as the beginning of their belief that Jesus was the son of God. My next report was given to me by a teenager who saw the baptism and heard the voice, and then wondered what had become off this quiet but powerful man. He followed some tracks and this is what he uncovered (next chapter).
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