“Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”, i.e., the long awaited government of God is here.  So, folks were baptized in the Jordan while confessing their sins (Mark 1:5).  What do sins have to do with the Kingdom?  Sins against the covenant drove the nation into exile.  The nation was lost.  To end exile and to rebuild God’s future for all people and ethnic groups required that their lives were realigned with the God of the New Covenant.  Further, it meant that whatever their political bents were toward the various party groups (Sadducees, Zealots, Pharisees, Herodians, etc.), these preferences had to give way by repentance to the new arriving reality of God’s government.