1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.’”

4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Dear God, where did the whole baptism thing come from? This is the first time it appears in the Bible, to my knowledge. Did John just make it up out of his own eccentricities? Was it something that you wanted the Israelites to do all along? What is interesting is denominations have taken this issue through the years and used it as a way to divide us as Christians. But there is very little here that describes the practice from a theological perspective. Why do we do it? Why did it become so important? But it is something that even Jesus had to submit to for whatever reason, so it must be important.

Having grown up Baptist, I think I am definitely influenced by that tradition in how I see baptism. I see it mostly as an outward symbol of humility and submission to you. Other denominations see it as a cleansing of original sin from the soul, and that is why they do it with infants. I’m not sure where John got it, or what, if anything, he expected us to do with it after he was gone, but it became part of what Phillip did with the Ethiopian, and it became part of Jesus’ great commission.

Father, I need to know more about this. I want to understand it better and not ignore something that is obviously important to you. Help me to know if there is something here for me to pay attention to. Help me to also not be like the Pharisees and Sadducees. I do not want to be like a brood of vipers, but I want to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Help me to repent and be the best man I can be for your glory’s sake.