It was a time of
expectation like when the planets line up in a way they haven’t for a long
time and won’t ever again in one’s lifetime which of course must mean
something. In that kind of time a voice crying in the wilderness attracts
attention and even casual conversations end up speculating about cosmic events.
Most of the time the time does not live up to everyone’s expectation but this
time the expectation couldn’t live up to the time. They expected a Messiah
exactly like John even though he told them he wasn’t the One. But with speeches
full of fire, with clothes, diet and personal hygiene like the prophets of the
past he was a figure to behold. And so the people heard his hell fire brimstone
exhortation as good news and in the verses preceding these change their ways to
escape the wrath that is to come. No wonder Jesus gets lost in the crowd. He
can’t follow that sort of act and unless you were close enough to hear the
voice from heaven or happened to be looking when the dove landed Jesus would
have looked like one of the crowd dipping in the Jordan hoping to come up
clean. But if you were listening and looking your expectation would have been
met by something you never could have expected. Though the voice declared him
the beloved Son he was baptized like one of the crowd. That’s why expectation
can never live up to incarnation which in the end burns our chaff and saves our
wheat.
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