John Prepares the Way- A Zany Look at Matthew Chapter 3

Wow, things have been crazy so far! Let's recap, shall we? So, we had Angels invading dreams, super babies being born, angry killer kings, and GPS stars! This is one exciting adventure! Let's continue with this wagon train, shall we?

There was this man called John the Baptist.

Wait, John? Who is this John guy? I thought this was a story about baby Jesus! 

Well, we'll get back to Jesus in a moment. So John the baptist came into the wilderness to begin his preaching. He preached "Repent of your sins for the kingdom of Heaven is near!" And well, it made sense because it was-- I mean actually it still is near. People came from all over the country to see John.
"Thank you John, now I am clean of my sin!"
"Don't thank me, thank The Lord, for he has made you clean!"

But why do I have to repent of my sins if Heaven is near? Why did they all go so far to see John if Heaven is close by? Can't just I walk there if it's close by? Can I stop by there on my way to McDonalds? To me that's what I call near.

John was preparing the way for Jesus by baptising people with water in the lake. However, lots of Pharisees and Sadducees came and John got very angry at them!

What are Pharisees and Sad-- Saddu-- Sad Sausages?

Pharisees and Sadducees are the people from Jesus' time who studied the law of Moses from the old testament, but the problem was that they did not actually do it! How horrible! What if your mom had a jar of cookies out and she told you not to eat any, but you ate it anyway, but you said it was ok because you heard her say not to? That's totally backwards!

These guys also thought that they would go to heaven just because Abraham from the Old Testament (not the president on the penny) was their great-great-great-however-many-greats-grandfather.

However, John claimed that "God can create children of Abraham from these very stones." Which is funny, because He can. So the Pharisees are nothing special, but they don't like that idea because they want to go to Heaven but don't want to change who they are! And I tell you, they aren't very nice people!

John believed in Jesus and was serving him before he even met the guy, which is pretty cool. Imagine how stoked he was when he finally met him in person! This is like Jesus' number one fan at this point! However, John takes his fan club very seriously.


Did he baptise Jesus?

Well, at first he tried to talk Jesus out of it.

What!? Why!? That's crazy talk! This is like John's destiny! The ultimate baptist dream to baptise Jesus!

It was his destiny. John didn't want to do it because John felt it was all backwards. He felt like Jesus needed to baptise him. But Jesus knew that God requires everyone to be baptised to get into to Heaven, so Jesus convinced him and John did baptise Jesus the Messiah in the Jordan River.

When Jesus came out of the water when he was baptised, the spirit of God came down like a dove on Jesus and kinda made a nest in his hair. It must be hard to do though because he was all wet. And in case they were not convinced already, God straight up said "This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy."

Wow, this is some story! I should come over and read with you again some time!

Yes, you should.

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