“A man named John was sent from God.

He came for testimony, to testify to the light,

so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light,

but came to testify to the light…

He said:

‘I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,

‘make straight the way of the Lord,’

as Isaiah the prophet said.’

Some Pharisees were also sent. 

They asked him,

‘Why then do you baptize

if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?’

John answered them,

‘I baptize with water;

but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,

the one who is coming after me,

whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.’

This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,

where John was baptizing.”

John the Baptist did, in fact, baptize. Baptism, the immersing in water, was not a common practice of the Jews of Jesus’s day, or before. There was a tradition of ritual cleansing for the priests before performing their priestly duties, for those who had been defiled for some reason, for the healing of illness, as at the pool of Siloam, or for lepers who had been healed, but nothing quite like baptism had existed for Jews themselves, especially for the forgiveness of sins. There was a ritual for converts to Judaism, few and far between, to submerge in the Jordan River as a symbolic act joining them to the chosen people who had passed through the Red Sea during the Exodus and passed through the Jordan upon entering the Promised Land. John the Baptist may have been aware of all of these connections, but like many prophets before him, he enacted a new symbolic action to represent the work of God in salvation history. Repent of your sins and be washed clean. Recommit to the covenant of God with his people by passing, again, through the waters. 

John was focused on judgement and escaping that judgment through repentance. Jesus was focused on salvation and receiving the grace of regeneration, being born again. This contrast is highlighted by Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel in the parable of the children in the marketplace, “It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” John’s message was one of judgment for repentance, but Jesus’s was one of salvation for sinners. Although John points to one greater than him to follow, it is unlikely that he expected Jesus. Even his disciples pose the question to Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” In response, Jesus alludes to our first reading, and what he proclaimed at the beginning of his ministry, from the Prophet Isaiah, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” The Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus. He has baptized us with that same Spirit.