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The Gospel of Matthew John the Baptist (3:1–12)
At the heart of John’s prophetic message is the challenge to repent, which in Greek means to change one’s mind or perspective. In the Jewish tradition the Hebrew word for repent means to turn around, or return. John is calling for a complete change in thinking and conduct—a decisive, fundamental change of direction in one’s life.
At the heart of John’s prophetic message is the challenge to repent, which in Greek means to change one’s mind or perspective. In the Jewish tradition the Hebrew word for repent means to turn around, or return. John is calling for a complete change in thinking and conduct—a decisive, fundamental change of direction in one’s life.
In this, John stands in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets who called on Israel to turn away from sin and return to the Lord.
But John’s call to repentance comes with an even greater sense of urgency because he announces something no prophet before him could proclaim: the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The “kingdom of heaven” is an important theme in Matthew’s gospel. The word “kingdom” mentioned 51 times.
Matthew next shows how John’s preaching in the desert and announcing the kingdom of heaven fulfills a prophecy in Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert,
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.” (; see )
In the original context of this prophecy, the voice in the desert calls the people to prepare the way for God to return to Jerusalem, begin his reign, and reveal his glory to all humanity (, ). With this prophecy, Matthew is making a remarkable statement about John the Baptist. John is not simply one more prophetic figure in Israel’s history: he is the great prophetic herald of who announces the coming of God and his kingdom. Matthew also seems to be hinting at something amazing about Jesus. In the voice in the desert calls Israel to prepare for her divine Lord. If John is that voice in the desert and he is calling people to prepare the way for Jesus, then Jesus is linked with the coming of God himself to Israel.
3:4–5 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. In making this statement Matthew is not informing us of John the Baptist’s taste in clothing but is highlighting something important about his mission: his connection with Elijah, the great prophet from the Old Testament who was known for wearing similar garb ().
This connection with Elijah is significant because the Jews were expecting the return of Elijah before the great “day of the Lord” (Mal 3:23). But the biblical connections between John and Elijah are deeper than clothing. Both prophets confronted wicked kings with their sinfulness and were persecuted for it. Both prepared the way for another prophetic figure who would succeed them. Elijah’s ministry was passed on to the prophet Elisha, who cleansed a leper (), raised a child from the dead (), and multiplied loaves of bread to feed a crowd (). Similarly, John the Baptist was the forerunner of an even greater prophet, Jesus, who also cured a leper (8:2–4), raised a child from the dead (9:23–25), and multiplied loaves to feed a multitude (14:15–21; 15:32–38).
But the biblical connections between John and Elijah are deeper than clothing. Both prophets confronted wicked kings with their sinfulness and were persecuted for it. Both prepared the way for another prophetic figure who would succeed them. Elijah’s ministry was passed on to the prophet Elisha, who cleansed a leper (), raised a child from the dead (), and multiplied loaves of bread to feed a crowd (). Similarly, John the Baptist was the forerunner of an even greater prophet, Jesus, who also cured a leper (8:2–4), raised a child from the dead (9:23–25), and multiplied loaves to feed a multitude (14:15–21; 15:32–38).
Perhaps the most significant link between John and Elijah is the place that marked the culmination of their ministries: the Jordan River. Elijah passed on his ministry to Elisha at the Jordan just before being taken up to heaven in the fiery chariot (). Now, centuries later, John appears as a prophet, at the same river, dressed like Elijah and calling people to repent. And there at the Jordan, John, like Elijah, will pass on his ministry to the one who comes after him, Jesus Christ (3:13–17).
Reflection and Application (3:1–12)
3:6 The word baptize (baptizō) literally means to dip or immerse. Jews participating in John’s baptism might have noticed similarities with other Jewish customs, which might have served as influences in shaping this ritual. However, significant dissimilarities indicate that John’s baptism is a distinctive practice of his own.
For example, the Jews had various water ceremonies for maintaining ritual purity. These were practiced regularly and dealt with ceremonial impurity as defined by the Torah (e.g., ). John’s baptism, however, was a single, decisive act of repentance, and it concerned one’s sins, not ritual impurities. A parallel might be found in the ritual washings of the Qumran community, a Jewish sect in the Judean desert not far from where John was baptizing. As in John’s movement, the Qumran rituals combined ritual washing with an inner commitment to live purely in God’s sight. Unlike John’s baptism, however, the Qumran washings were part of the community’s regular routine and not a one-time, decisive act.
A third possible background to John’s baptism is the Jewish practice of proselyte baptism: the ritual cleansing of a Gentile converting to Judaism that symbolized the rejection of one’s sinful ways and a commitment to the Jewish way of life. Although it is not certain that this practice was already in place in the time of John the Baptist, John’s rite does seem to entail the same kind of radical renunciation of a lifestyle found among Gentiles converting to Judaism. If John’s baptism does reflect proselyte baptism, he would be requiring all of Israel to repent like the Gentiles. Such a view is consistent with John’s challenge to the Jews in 3:9 about not presuming that their ethnic identity as the descendants of Abraham guarantees their membership in God’s covenant family. As F. F. Bruce explains, “If John’s baptism was an extension of proselyte baptism to the chosen people, then his baptism, like his preaching, meant that even the descendants of Abraham must … enter … by repentance and baptism just as Gentiles had to do.”
Biblical Background
Who’s Who in First-Century Judaism
Two first-century Jewish groups that appear most prominently in Matthew’s Gospel as opponents to Jesus are the Sadducees (alluded to in 2:4 and reappearing in 3:7; 16:1, 6, 11–12; 22:23, 34) and the Pharisees (who represent Jesus’ chief critics throughout his public ministry). Together, these parties constituted the religious elite of Palestinian Judaism.
The Sadducees arose as a religious, political group during the Maccabean period of the second century BC. They consisted mostly of the chief priests (the priests in charge of the temple, many of whom were appointed by Rome) and the Jewish aristocracy in Jerusalem, and they held many of the official leadership positions in first-century Judaism. The Sadducees served as a liaison between the Jewish nation and Rome and, for the most part, collaborated with the Roman rulers.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, were a renewal movement originating also in second century BC. They emphasized rigorous following of the Torah and oral traditions that grew up around it. They were especially concerned with those ceremonial laws that demarcated the Jews from the Gentiles, and they intensified Torah observance in areas where many Jews might be tempted to compromise (e.g., ritual purity, table fellowship, tithing, Sabbath observance, etc.). Though occupying seats alongside the Sadducees in the Jewish high court known as the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees were more influential with the masses. They urged the people to follow God’s laws carefully, believing that attentiveness to the Law would usher in the new era when God would restore Israel and liberate them from their oppressors.
The scribes are often mentioned alongside the Pharisees in Matthew. They were men who had reading, writing, and record-keeping skills, and they served as judges, synagogue leaders, assistants to priests, and professional teachers of the law. Many scribes were Pharisees but some were priests and Sadducees.
3:7–8 Matthew introduces two groups that will figure prominently in the life of Jesus: the Pharisees and Sadducees (see Biblical Background sidebar on page 65). Their presence at the Jordan indicates that the Jewish leaders felt the need to investigate this new movement in the desert. They do not seem to be moved to repent and be baptized, for Matthew describes the Pharisees and Sadducees as merely coming to his baptism—in contrast with the crowds who were actually “being baptized” by John “as they acknowledged their sins” (3:6). The religious leaders were coming as investigators, not as sincere penitents interested in participating in John’s movement. This is why John responds to them so severely, calling them a brood of vipers and ironically asking them, Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?—as if the Pharisees and Sadducees desired to be a part of the repentant crowd! John warns that the “day of wrath” (e.g., ; ; Mal 3:19)—the tribulations and judgment of God that the prophets declared would come when history reached its final phase—is drawing near. Only those who sincerely repent of their sins will escape the fury of this judgment.
3:9 John then pinpoints the main reason the Pharisees and Sadducees do not repent: And do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” Many Jews believed that their ethnic identity—their physical descent from Abraham—provided their membership in God’s covenant family and would protect them from condemnation on the day of judgment. John points out the folly of this presumption. In the kingdom that John is announcing, the people of God will be marked not by ethnic lineage but by sincere repentance. For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Those who repent—no matter what their ethnic background may be—can become true sons of Abraham, members of God’s covenant family. Those Jews who think that their biological descent from Abraham exempts them from radical repentance and makes them immune to God’s judgment have a false sense of security. The Pharisees and Sadducees may designate themselves as Abraham’s children, but because they refuse to repent of their sins with the rest of the people at the Jordan they are, from a spiritual perspective, just the opposite of what they claim. John sharply calls them not the sons of “Abraham” but the offspring of “vipers”—an image used to depict the evil of the Pharisees in and 23:33, and one associated with Satan elsewhere in the Bible (; ; see ; ).
3:10 John uses stinging images to describe the judgment facing those who do not repent. In the prophets the image of trees being cut down often refers to God’s judgment on pagan nations (e.g., ; ). John now surprisingly uses the image to describe God’s judgment not on Israel’s enemies but on her religious leaders. The burning of trees was another symbol of judgment, while the ax lying at the root of the trees dramatically portrays not a simple pruning of unfruitful branches but the felling of the entire tree—implying impending doom for those who do not repent.
3:11–12 Next, John addresses those who have come to actually receive baptism, informing them of two things. First, John declares that someone is coming who is mightier than he. John even says, “I am not worthy to carry his sandals.” Of all the tasks a servant in the ancient Mediterranean world would perform for his master, the most demeaning involved touching his master’s feet. Later Jewish disciples were expected to do everything for their rabbi that servants would do for their master except take off his sandals. Yet remarkably, John the Baptist says he is not worthy to do even that most base task for Jesus.
Second, John contrasts his baptism with that of the coming one, who will baptize with the holy Spirit and fire. Spirit and fire were associated with purification in the Old Testament. The Jews hoped for a purifying outpouring of the Spirit in the future (; ; ; ). in particular linked the idea of water and spirit with the moral and spiritual renewal of God’s people: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities.… I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you.… I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees” (). Similarly, the prophets foretold a fire that would burn away what is evil and purify the repentant people (; ; ). Thus while John’s ritual expresses repentance, his proclamation of a coming one who will baptize with “Spirit and fire” points to the purifying effect the latter’s baptism will have, “making effective that return to the holiness of the people of God which John’s water-baptism could only symbolize.”
Spirit and fire were associated also with God’s judgment in the Old Testament—an association that fits well with John’s severe warnings in the preceding verses (vv. 7–10) and with the metaphor of the wheat and the chaff in verse 12. Villagers carried their wheat to the local threshing floor, where grain would be tossed up into the air with a fork-like shovel called a winnowing fan. The heavier grain would fall to the floor to be collected and stored, while the lighter, inedible chaff that was blown off by the wind would be gathered and burned. This image symbolizes that at the judgment, here implicitly imaged as a harvest, God will gather the purified people of Israel like the good, heavy wheat kernels that were collected from the threshing floor, while he will remove from Israel all evil, which, like the chaff, will be burned.
Reflection and Application (3:1–12)
John the Baptist’s words remind us of the tremendous power of Christian baptism. John’s baptism at the Jordan served as an important visible expression of one’s repentance in preparation for the messiah. Nevertheless, John recognized that his baptism paled in comparison to what Christ would offer: “The one who is coming after me is mightier than I.… He will baptize you with the holy Spirit” (3:11).
What makes the baptism that Christ offers so powerful? It imparts an identity that we could never earn on our own. Through baptism, God freely forgives all our sins and fills us with his Holy Spirit, making us his children—a status we could not achieve through our own efforts (Catechism 1262, 1265).
Mitch, C., & Sri, E. (2010). The Gospel of Matthew (pp. 62–68). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
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The road, the water, the fire and the axe. Four powerful symbols set the scene for where the story of Jesus really starts.
Think first of a police motorcade sweeping through a city street. First there appear motorcycles with flashing blue lights. People scurry to the side of the road as they approach. Everybody knows what’s happening: the king has been away a long time, and he’s come back at last. Two large black cars come by, filled with bodyguards and officials. Then the car with a flag at the front, containing the king himself. By this time the road is clear; no other cars are in sight; everyone is standing still and watching, waving flags and celebrating.
Now take this scene back 2,000 years, and into the hot, dusty desert. The king has been away a long time, and word goes round that he’s coming back at last. But how? There isn’t even a road. Well, we’d better get one ready. So off goes the herald, shouting to the peoples of the desert: the king is coming! Make a road for him! Make it good and straight!
That message had echoed through the life of the Jewish people for hundreds of years by the time of John the Baptist, ever since it was first uttered in . It was part of the great message of hope, of forgiveness, of healing for the nation after the horror of exile. God would at last come back, bringing comfort and rescue. Yes, John is saying; that’s what’s happening now. It’s time to get ready! The king, God himself, is coming back! Get ready for God’s kingdom! And John’s striking message made everyone sit up and take notice. In today’s language, they saw the blue flashing lights, and stopped what they were doing to get ready.
[In a highway for God is to be prepared along which the exiles will return home from Babylon. Ancient roads were notably poor. Efforts to make a road level and smooth were restricted to times when royalty was on its way. John calls for repentance so that God will have straight paths to travel into the hearts and lives of his people.
Again Matthew finds the fulfillment of prophecy in the events of his day. It was John the Baptist that Isaiah was talking about when he spoke of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord.” That the Hebrew text punctuates the passage differently and joins in the desert with what follows makes little difference. In a highway for God is to be prepared along which the exiles will return home from Babylon. Ancient roads were notably poor. Efforts to make a road level and smooth were restricted to times when royalty was on its way. John calls for repentance so that God will have straight paths to travel into the hearts and lives of his people. Response to John’s preaching was remarkable. People came from everywhere—Jerusalem, all of Judea, and the entire country around the Jordan River. Confessing openly their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
But the trouble was that they weren’t ready, not by a long way. You may think your house is reasonably tidy and well kept, but if you suddenly get word that the king is coming to visit you may well suddenly want to give it another spring-clean. And the Jewish people, even the devout ones who worshipped regularly in the Temple, knew in their bones that they weren’t ready for God to come back. The prophets had said that God would come back when the people repented, turning to him with all their hearts. That was what John summoned them to do; and they came in droves.
Mounce, R. H. (2011). Matthew (pp. 22–23). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.]
But the trouble was that they weren’t ready, not by a long way. You may think your house is reasonably tidy and well kept, but if you suddenly get word that the king is coming to visit you may well suddenly want to give it another spring-clean. And the Jewish people, even the devout ones who worshipped regularly in the Temple, knew in their bones that they weren’t ready for God to come back. The prophets had said that God would come back when the people repented, turning to him with all their hearts. That was what John summoned them to do; and they came in droves.
They came for baptism. John was plunging them in the water of the river Jordan as they confessed their sins. This wasn’t just a symbolic cleansing for individuals; it was a sign of the new thing that God was doing in history, for Israel and the world. Over a thousand years before, the children of Israel had crossed the Jordan when they first entered and conquered the promised land. Now they had to go through the river again, as a sign that they were getting ready for a greater conquest, God’s defeat of all evil and the establishment of his kingdom on earth as in heaven.
Wright, T. (2004). Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-15 (pp. 16–18). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Confession (2nd Baptism). Prepare Crhistmas with Advent Confession.
Mounce, R. H. (2011). Matthew (pp. 22–23). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.