Matthew 3:6

John the Baptist was a prophet who appeared in the wilderness of Judea just before Jesus began his public ministry. He called people to genuinely turn from their wrong ways and be baptized as a visible sign of that repentance — repentance meaning not just feeling bad, but actually changing direction. The Jordan River was the most historically significant river in ancient Israel: it was the boundary the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land under Joshua, and stepping into it carried enormous symbolic weight. Being baptized there was a public act — done in front of neighbors, strangers, and God — of naming what had gone wrong and choosing a different path. The crowds coming to John suggest a deep collective hunger for that kind of honest reckoning.

God, I don't like the exposed feeling of confession, but I know I need it. There are things I've been carrying quietly that I need to name. Give me the courage to be honest — with you, with myself, and when it matters, with others. Thank you that confession leads somewhere better than shame. Amen.

Confession is the part most of us want to skip. We'd rather go straight to forgiveness — to the clean feeling after — without the exposed moment in between. But something important happens in those crowds at the Jordan: people are saying out loud, in public, in front of neighbors and strangers, "I've gotten things wrong." Not in a private journal. Not in a therapy session with confidentiality protections. At the water's edge, with the current moving past their waists and everyone watching. There's a reason confession has always been part of spiritual life — not because God needs the information, but because you do. Saying it out loud changes something in you. The thing you've been carrying quietly in your chest, half-hoping no one noticed, gets named. And named things lose some of their grip. You don't have to wade into a river today — but you might sit with what you've been keeping quiet that deserves to be said.