Chapter 11—The Baptism
This chapter is based on
Matthew 3:13-17
;
Mark 1:9-11
;
Luke 3:21,
22
.
Tidings of the wilderness prophet and his wonderful announce-
ment, spread throughout Galilee. The message reached the peasants
in the remotest hill towns, and the fisher folk by the sea, and in these
simple, earnest hearts found its truest response. In Nazareth it was told
in the carpenter shop that had been Joseph’s, and One recognized the
call. His time had come. Turning from His daily toil, He bade farewell
to His mother, and followed in the steps of His countrymen who were
flocking to the Jordan.
Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins, and closely related by the
circumstances of their birth; yet they had had no direct acquaintance
with each other. The life of Jesus had been spent at Nazareth in Galilee;
that of John, in the wilderness of Judea. Amid widely different sur-
roundings they had lived in seclusion, and had had no communication
with each other. Providence had ordered this. No occasion was to be
given for the charge that they had conspired together to support each
other’s claims.
John was acquainted with the events that had marked the birth of
Jesus. He had heard of the visit to Jerusalem in His boyhood, and of
what had passed in the school of the rabbis. He knew of His sinless
life, and believed Him to be the Messiah; but of this he had no positive
assurance. The fact that Jesus had for so many years remained in
obscurity, giving no special evidence of His mission, gave occasion
for doubt as to whether He could be the Promised One. The Baptist,
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however, waited in faith, believing that in God’s own time all would be
made plain. It had been revealed to him that the Messiah would seek
baptism at his hands, and that a sign of His divine character should
then be given. Thus he would be enabled to present Him to the people.
When Jesus came to be baptized, John recognized in Him a purity
of character that he had never before perceived in any man. The very
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