"I wonder what that was all about?" That must have been the thought in the minds of most of the people who stood in a crowd on the riverbank that day of Jesus' baptism. They came some distance expecting to see something unique, but they had just seen something they had not expected to see and they didn't know what to make of it.

They came to a place that was far out of the way for most of them. But the place was in some ways a crossroads. They were standing on the banks of the River Jordan, not far from the oasis city of Jericho. To the west was the steep mountain road that led up to the capital city, Jerusalem, with its temple, the spiritual center of the Jewish people. To the south was the harsh desert wilderness, the Dead Sea, the enclaves of the radical religious sect called the Essen…