“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented.” – Matthew 3:13-15

I wonder.

How many of the senior teachers,
how many of the higher priests
who gathered with the laborers,
the tax collectors, soldiers, on
the riverbank in search of some
forgiveness through the flowing stream,
thought secretly or not so secretly
that they, not John, should wash away
the sins to be forgiven, or
would rather send the penitent
to climb the slopes and pay the price
charged by the Temple vendors who
would scatter later at the wrath of Christ?

How many would have said, “Let it be so
for now,” and bowed their heads to wash
as Jesus did? Or did they huff upon the bank
and claim that they were justified
no matter what they’d done, or others seen,
recorded, understood, and known for wrong?
How many would have roared that they alone
determined right or wrong, despite the blood
which dripped into the Jordan from their hands?

How many would have humbled pride of place?

Events of then or now suggest it would be very few.

Perhaps: just one.

A poem/prayer based on Matthew 3:13-17, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year A, Baptism of Christ.

The image is the ceiling mosaic in the Arian Baptistry, Ravenna, Italy, 5th-6th cent. Photo by Petar Milošević – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39891909.