It all sounds so simple. It’s just so nice, so easy, and so straightforward; almost comfortable. And we’ve heard the story told so many times that many of us know it by heart.

“This John the Baptist guy was standing in the middle of the Jordan River, yelling at people and baptizing them. He was yelling at some of the priests who didn’t like him, when suddenly Jesus stepped out of the crowd, walked into the water, and stood next to John. At first, John wanted Jesus to baptize him, but finally, he went ahead and baptized Jesus. There was a dove, and a voice saying that Jesus was God’s Son, then Jesus left to go into the desert for forty days and didn’t do much more until he heard that John had died.”

It actually does sound fairly straightforward, doesn’t it? But the problem with stopping h…