Matthew 3

3 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”^[a] 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight.’”

⁴ Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, ⁶ and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷ But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bear fruit worthy of repentance. ⁹ Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. ¹⁰ Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹ “I baptize you with^[b] water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with^[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

The Baptism of Jesus

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. ¹⁶ And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him 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, the Beloved,^[d] with whom I am well pleased.”

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     John is an interesting guy.  We don't get a lot of his story here, but there are some strong indicators.  He dresses like Elijah out of the Old Testament stories, willingly taking on the role of prophet for a people who have not heard from God in centuries.  He is angry at the religious leaders and institutions.  There are some Pharisees and Sadducees who come out to investigate, maybe they even wanted to be baptized, and John just rips into them.  He blasts them for their elitism and corruption while painting a picture of the impending judgement.  The one who is coming will separate the holy from the wicked, the just from the corrupt and your actions...your fruit, will determine where the ax falls.

     All of scripture points to Jesus, but it is actually John's job to prepare everyone for the arrival of the Messiah.  He offers repentance through baptism...which is a message of hope and forgiveness.  But he also calls down justice and vengeance on the heads of those who are in power.  It is like Good Cop/Bad Cop from the lego movie: the head swivels around in a blink depending on his audience and message.

     Then Jesus appears and is baptized over John's protests.  Who sees the heavens opening and the dove descending?  Is it just Jesus?  Is it John too or the entire crowd?  This is an immensely significant moment for the world but I get the impression that most everyone missed it.  Between the running river, the crowds, the preaching and general white noise that comes at these types of events, I wonder who noticed.  I wonder how many miracles and holy moments happen during our days that we don't notice because we have important things that we are working on.  There was no notification, no signs or pamphlets handed out that advertised "Jesus being baptized today! Come see the delight of the Trinity!"  It just happened on a regular old day, surrounded by regular old people.

What do we miss?