A young man sat near a small river, his feet cooling in the gently rippling water. He had walked many miles that day through the desert dust. The river soothed him and calmed the restless longing in his soul. He was almost thirty years old. As he grew up in his father’s carpenter shop, his kinsfolk thought he would be a carpenter, too. But he left one day, never to return, to become a teacher, a wandering rabbi calling men and women to follow him.

As he sat there on the banks of the shallow river, another man appeared, walking in the river. A craggy, stick-iron man, he fixed his fiery eyes on the man by the shore. "Behold the Lamb of God," he cried, "Behold him who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)

John the Baptizer startled Jesus. Jesus had no followers at this time. He was …