According to the Gospel writer Luke, John the Baptist was baptizing people on the banks of the Jordan River. Then Luke makes one of the most startling pronouncements in the New Testament. He writes, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.”

Each year on the First Sunday after Epiphany, liturgical churches celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. For us, it is a major event. The Son of God submits to being baptized at the hands of a somewhat eccentric preacher called John the Baptist.

Mark describes John as wearing clothes of camel's hair, living on locusts and wild honey, making his home in the wilderness. John admits that he is not worthy to carry Christ’s sandals (Mt. 3:11). In fact, he seeks to deter Jesus from being baptized at his unworthy hands. And yet Jesus com…