CHAPTER FIVE: JOHN AND JESUS AT THE JORDAN

When Jesus awoke numerous of those staying at the oasis had already packed up and left, either heading home from being with John the previous day, or heading down the slope into the water to be baptized by John. Jesus looked up into a sky in which there was not a single cloud, but there was a bird circling high overhead, so high that one could not tell what sort of bird it was. It did not have the long wings of a bird of prey, a vulture or an eagle, but it was hard to tell what sort of bird it was.

Rising and going over to the spring, Jesus dusted himself off and washed his hands and face, and then proceeded to unwrap the few figs and olives he had left in his little bag around his waist. Filling his wineskin with water, he said a brief morning prayer to G-d for guidance for the day, but his senses were all tingling, telling him something very significant indeed was going to happen on this day. Jesus had decided that he would wade across the river and observe John’s practice from the far shore, where John’s disciples stood. He would engage several of them in conversation and learn what he could from them. What he had already heard had led him to understand why the authorities might well come and object to what John was doing — offering forgiveness for sins quite apart from requiring any sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem.

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