370

Now some Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor a Prophet?"

"I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie."

This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan where John was baptizing.

John 1:24-28


I baptize with water...I think this is an important corrective for those of us who get tempted into placing too much significance onto things. The water does not clean you. The bread, the wine doesn't forgive you. The ring doesn't marry you. Those are the obvious ones. And we still get tempted sometimes by them. We humans are tempted by things. We are in our very essence materialistic. Matter matters. And it matters too much! 


And in a very matter of fact way, Jesus came to free us of this. He came to show us the true significance that exists beyond what we can see and feel. The intangible became tangible so that he could show us the intangible. That is why John the Baptist, who understood this would describe Jesus' baptism this way...while his was with water, Jesus' would be with the Holy Spirit...(Mark 1:8)