‘Why Then Do You Baptize?’

While preaching in the Judean wilderness, John the Baptist proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt. 3:2). The Jewish people who came to John to be baptized did so because they had repented: They had changed their minds and acknowledged their sin after hearing his message of the soon-coming Messiah. John’s words stirred their hearts to be ready for the Messiah’s arri