Matthew 31–12 ESV – Bible Gateway
3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”
4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
They circumcise John the Baptizer on the eighth day, his neighbors and relatives declare:
“What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. (Lk 1:66) [1]
They only knew that God had mysteriously entered the lives of Elizabeth and Zechariah and Zechariah’s mouth being opened and his tongue loosed, confirms this. They talked about this event throughout Judea and now John the Baptist enters the scene showing the hand of the Lord in preaching repentance.
Turning to the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture regarding this passage:
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. Israel faces a unique, now-or-never opportunity to repent. The “kingdom of heaven” does not refer to a place—a place, for example, where God and the angels dwell—but to God’s dynamic activity as ruler. God alone was king over Israel, and the prophets foretold that he would come as king, establish his reign in Jerusalem, and bring justice on earth. Thus in proclaiming that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” John is announcing that God’s promised reign is now dawning on Israel and the world …[2]
John’s popularity is surprising. He was not a man to sugarcoat or make his message palatable. Usually, if you want to disperse a crowd, you simply call for those around you to repent of their sins. There was a heightened awareness in Israel of the imminent coming of the Messiah. That perhaps this man, talked about from his birth, appearing in the very garb of Elijah, might indeed by him. John’s location was not convenient and yet they sought him out. Expecting perhaps to hear about the glorious coming of the kingdom of God, only to be confronted by their personal need to repent of their sins. John told them what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear, and grace moved them to respond by acknowledging this and seeking John’s baptism.
Dr. Brant Pitre gives us an idea about the popularity of St. John the Baptist:
This is one of the reasons by the way, if you noticed the passage, John was so popular. It says all Jerusalem, all Judea, everyone around the Jordan, they all went out to him to be baptized. Sometimes we forget that although John was the forerunner of Jesus, he was actually in some ways more popular than Jesus in his day. In fact, if you read the writings of the first century Jewish historian Josephus, he gives much more space to his description of John the Baptist than he does to Jesus of Nazareth. And that is kind of indicative of the immense popularity that John the Baptist had with the Jewish people. He was an extremely popular prophet because they knew what he was doing. This guy is out at the river Jordan talking about the prophecies being fulfilled and the way in the wilderness being made. That means that the time for the new exodus is at hand, that the prophecies of God are going to be fulfilled.[3]
He further points out the excitement regarding him that “there hadn’t been a prophet, a true prophet of God, on the scene since the time of Daniel, Ezekiel and Malachi. Centuries had gone by without any true prophet arising and now John arises and everyone recognizes that this guy is a prophet of God, and he’s come to herald this one who is ‘mightier than I’” (Matt 3:11)[4]
Verse 4 mentions John’s clothing and diet and Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch comment on the importance of this:
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 (2 Kings 5:1–19), raised a child from the dead (2 Kings 4:32–37), and multiplied loaves of bread to feed a crowd (2 Kings 4:42–44). 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).[5]
and
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 (2 Kings 2:6–14). 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).[6]
Dr. John Bergsma in his commentary writes:
I think this is meant to indicate some typical foods, not that his diet was entirely limited to just these two items. This would mean he was living off the land, eating whatever was edible in the environment. Locusts and wild honey were clean foods and permissible, according to Mosaic Law.[7]
He also notes some interesting correlations between this and the possibility that John had once been part of the Essene community and expelled from it. We gathered this from what we have learned of this community from Josephus and other sources. He goes into these connections in his book Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Revealing the Jewish Roots of Christianity
While some note that John’s baptism does not include the remission of sins and only points to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is still significant. There had been various ceremonies using water to maintain ritual purity in the life of the Jews. The Qumran community, which was in proximity to where John was, practiced a routine of ritual washings.
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.[8]
In verse 7, John discerns the motive of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to see him. Like encounters between them and Jesus, there is likely some intellectual curiosity at play here, along with already making up their minds that John and Jesus are a threat to the status quo and their leadership.
Remigius. There is a tradition, that John preached at that place of the Jordan, where the twelve stones taken from the bed of the river had been set up by command of God. He might then be pointing to these, when he said, Of these stones.[9]
In verses 11–12, we get to the major thrust of John’s life. That he is a pointer to Jesus and desires repentance for others that they may know the Messiah. John is the oddity that knows he is a warm-up act and desires nothing more. Totally subsumed in this task to only decrease so that Christ may increase. When asked questions about who he is, he points to Christ. Totally content to live in Jesus’s shadow where there is no darkness at all.
This is an Advent reminder to myself to evaluate how much pride warps me by pointing to myself other than Jesus. Wanting to point to myself and Christ at the same time.
Sources
- The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
- Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
- The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A – John Bergsma
- Catena Aurea Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers, Volume 1 St. Matthew – Verbum
- Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
- (Lk 1:66). ESV-CE (2019). Augustine Institute. ↩
- The Gospel of Matthew, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch ↩
- Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre ↩
- ibid ↩
- The Gospel of Matthew, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch ↩
- ibid ↩
- The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A, John Bergsma ↩
- The Gospel of Matthew, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch ↩
- Remigius, Presbyter and Monk of Anxerre, A.D. 880. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew (J. H. Newman, Ed.; Vol. 1, p. 92) ↩
