The Baptist does not let people mistake him for the Messiah. He knows his limits and recognizes them. There is someone mightier and more decisive than he. He is the only one that the people should welcome. The reason is clear. The Baptist offers them a baptism of water. Only Jesus, the Messiah, will “baptize” them “with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Read: Can you … be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
Tags: A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings