Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Dear Partner in Preaching, You may remember from a New Testament class in seminary that Jesus’ baptism – which we typically take for granted as part of the biblical story and, for that matter, the church year – was actually quite scandalous. You can appreciate the logic. If baptism is for the remission of sin… and we confess Jesus was sinless… then why was Jesus baptized? Or, worse, are we contradicting ourselves: is baptism not about forgiveness, or was Jesus not sinless? That ambivalence, combined with a similar ambivalence about the character of John the Baptist (he also had disciples and was a...