A time to put your imagination to work this morning. The scene is a large, ornate room in the palace of Herod the king. In it, you and others who comprise the best and the brightest in all of Judea - religious leaders, politicians, courtiers. There is an air of expectation in the hall, for you are about to meet a man whose reputation has spread across the land. The king's men have arrested him after reports that he has denounced Herod's marriage to Herodias, until recently the wife of Herod's brother Phillip. You want to see for yourselves what this strange man of the desert is all about. He is coming to offer a defense.

Suddenly, the great doors swing open, and into the hall he comes. He is dressed in homespun - camels' hair with a wide leather belt around his waist. Hair and beard somewha…