The Ministry of John the Baptist. The Messiah Is Revealed To The World (3:1-17).
Many years had passed by of which Matthew tells us nothing. He is not concerned to give us a biography of Jesus' life. He is more concerned with Him in connection with His mission and purpose in coming into the world. For he has already informed us that He has come into the world as the Messiah (Matthew 1:1; Matthew 1:16), in order to be a Saviour from sin (Matthew 1:21).
He has told us that the Messiah has come into the world:
· As the One Who would bring to completion the promises of God to Abraham and David (Matthew 1:1), and would ‘fill full' the history of Israel as encompassed and delineated in their kings and in the Exile (Matthew 1:2-17).
· As the One miraculously born to fulfil the prophecies of Isaiah concerning the coming King and to save His people from their sins, a concept central to the second half of Isaiah (Matthew 1:18-25).
· As the King to Whom creation (the heavenly light - Matthew 2:2) and the Scriptures (Matthew 2:5) bore witness, and Who was honoured by the Gentiles (Matthew 2:1-12).
· As the One Who as the Representative of His people was a part of their exile and sufferings, and was called by God ‘out of Egypt' in order to fill full the purposes of God as revealed in the Scriptures (Matthew 2:13-18).
· And as the One Who walked the path of lowliness as the prophets had foretold (Matthew 2:19-23).
Now, when the fullness of the time has come, He has to be introduced to the world and anointed for His work. And for this purpose God sent a forerunner, a herald, in the person of John the Baptist. He came ‘to make ready the way of the Lord', (the way of both God and Jesus), and to prepare the path in front of Him, as men prepared the way before kings, just as Isaiah had said (Matthew 3:3). It was ever the practise when an important king was visiting a city that the roads were patched up and straightened, holes were filled in, rough places were smoothed, undulations were flattened out, and all was made ready for his arrival. This was figuratively what John the Baptist would do for Jesus. And the way in which he would do it was by calling on the people to make themselves ready, ‘prepare the way of the Lord, all of you' (compare Luke 1:16-17).
This citation from Isaiah is the first of a number of such citations, in each case described as Isaianic, which will be made in the next ten Chapter s. Indeed, apart from one citation from the Psalms he cites no other. This suggests that Matthew saw these promises of the prophet Isaiah as underlying what he has written throughout these Chapter s. In them He will be revealed as both Son and Servant (Matthew 3:17), bearing their infirmities and diseases (Matthew 8:17, compare Isaiah 53:3)), bringing justice to the world while at the same time dealing gently with His people as He ministers through the power of the Spirit to both Jew and Gentile (Matthew 12:18-22, compare Isaiah 42:1-4), active among them as a people who are hardened, deaf and blind (Matthew 13:14-15, compare Isaiah 6:9-10), opening the eyes of the blind, enabling the lame to walk, cleansing the skin-diseased, making the deaf hear, and proclaiming the good news to the poor and lowly (Matthew 11:4-5, compare Isaiah 35:5-6; Isaiah 32:3; Isaiah 61:1-2), all as Isaiah had promised. These Scriptures are not casual, unconnected quotations, added on out of interest, for while they do not obviously influence the construction of the text they underlie His whole message.
Analysis of Matthew 3:1-17.
a In those days comes John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying, “Repent you, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:1-2).
b For this is he who was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make you ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3).
c Now John himself had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins, and his food was locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4).
d Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about the Jordan, and they were baptised of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins (Matthew 3:5-6).
e But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7).
f “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham to our father,' for I say to you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Matthew 3:8-9).
g “And even now the axe lies at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10).
f “I indeed baptise you in water to repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11).
e “Whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12).
d Then comes Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him (Matthew 3:13).
c But John would have prevented him, saying, “I have need to be baptised of you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14).
b But Jesus answering said to him, “Allow it now, for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness (or ‘do fully what is right').” Then he allows him (Matthew 3:15).
a And Jesus when he was baptised, went up immediately from the water, and lo, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him, and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17).
Note that in ‘a' John came in the wilderness proclaiming the Kingly Rule of Heaven and calling for repentance, and in the parallel Jesus receives the Holy Spirit from Heaven, and needs no repentance (in Whom I am well pleased). In Him the Kingly Rule of Heaven has come. While John is a son of the wilderness, Jesus is God's beloved Son. In ‘b' John is to make ready the way of the Lord, and in the parallel this includes enabling Him to ‘fulfil all righteousness'. In ‘c' John is clothed as a prophet from the wilderness, depicting his recognition of his own unworthiness, and in the parallel he acknowledges that Jesus has no such unworthiness. In ‘d' Jerusalem and Judea and Beyond Jordan come to be baptised of John confessing their sins, and in the parallel Jesus comes to be baptised by him. The parallel is demonstrating that Jesus sums up in Himself the whole of Israel, and is being baptised as it were on their behalf, so that on their behalf He might receive the Holy Spirit, of which baptism is the symbol. In ‘e' John warns the Pharisees and Sadducees (possibly members of the Sanhedrin coming to check him out) of the wrath to come, and in the parallel describes the work of the coming One Who will cleanse His threshing-floor and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. In ‘f' John calls on them to produce fruits worthy of repentance, and in the parallel reminds them that his baptism is a baptism unto repentance. They are not to look to Abraham, whose sons can be produced by God from stones, but to the Coming One who can drench them with the Holy Spirit and fire. And centrally in ‘f' is the declaration that this is the time of salvation and the day of vengeance. The axe is being set against the root of the trees. Those which produce good fruit will be allowed to survive, those which do not will be cut down and cast in the fire.