Baptism (Luke 7:29-30) 4 of 5 The Baptist

Luke 7:29-30  29 (And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John's baptism.  30 But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers (the experts in religious law) rejected God's purpose for themselves.)

Think of the worse person you know... the very worse person or worse kind of person.  The way you feel about that person is how the 1st century Jews felt about the tax collectors.  The tax collectors took their fellow Jew's money and kept some for themselves and gave the rest to the Roman forces occupying Jerusalem.  But the tax collectors believed what John had taught - that they were sinners and needed to repent.  And in turn, they believed Jesus too.

BUT the religious rule keepers (Pharisees) and religious theologians (lawyers) rejected both John and Jesus.  I doubt they could see why they needed to repent since the Pharisees knew all the right rules to keep and kept them.  And the lawyers knew all the right truths.  Why did they need a Messiah... they were already good enough?

But it wasn't about being good enough... it was about recognizing that you weren't good enough and turning toward God.  Who do we identify with?