A Baptism of Repentance

When the crowd hears John the Baptist warn that God was about ready to cut everyone off, "that the ax was at the root," they do what many of us do: They panic and try to find out what they need to do to stave off their imminent demise. Note that instead of saying, "Nothing," like Jesus does to Nicodemus who asks the Lord what he can do, John begins to tell the people how they can begin to repent.