What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?
Three questions
Why did our Lord select these figures rather than others?
I. Our Lord’s three questions RECALL THE WRY SCENE, THE PECULIAR FORM, AND THE ANIMATING SPIRIT OF THE BAPTIST’S MINISTRY.
1. The first would recall, to the listening crowd, Jordan, with its reedy, wind-swept banks--the strong rapid stream, by which they had listened to the prophet’s call, and in which they had been plunged for the remission of their sins.
2. The second would recall the asceticism of the Baptist, the rude simplicity of his garb, the rustic fare with which he was content.
3. The third would recall the fervour and inspiration with which he spoke, whom “all men confessed to be a prophet indeed,” and the profound impression he had made upon their light, fluctuating hearts.
II. We may take these questions as SETTING FORTH THE BAPTIST’S RELATIONS TO MAN, TO SELF, TO GOD.
1. John was no reed to be shaken by the breath of popular applause. He delivered his rebukes with fearlessness.
2. Severe to others, he was also severe to himself. He might have dwelt in king’s houses, yet he made the desert his home. A preacher of temperance, he carried his own temperance to asceticism.
3. Severe in the demands he made on men, still more severe in his demands on himself; he devoted himself wholly to the will and service of God. In his relation to God he proved himself a true prophet, yea, and very much more than a prophet, a man of God who was not disobedient to the word of the Lord.
III. We may take these questions as ADDRESSED TO THE THOUGHTS AND INTENTS, THE WISHES AND HOPES, OF THE CROWD WHO LISTENED TO THEM. What did you want and expect to find? Did you not covertly hope that, as John became popular, he would bend before the popular currents of thought and aim? And yet, could this have been your expectation and your hope? Had you wanted a courtier who would speak smooth things to you, would you not have gone to the palace for him? But, whatever drew you into the wilderness, whatever you thought or hoped, did not you find a prophet? As you listened to him, did not you find that life grew large and solemn? (S. Cox, D. D.)
Sight-seers
Thrice, in as many minutes, our Lord demands of the multitude, “What went ye out to see?” Here was their error: professing concern to know the will of God, to prepare themselves for His service and kingdom, they were bent on sights, on spectacles, on indulging their curiosity and love of the marvellous. They went out not to hear a prophet, but to see a prophet; not to imitate the temperance and abstinence of the Baptist, but to gaze on a man who could prefer camel’s hair to soft clothing; not to feel the Divine regenerating mind of the Spirit, but to gape at the reed which shook and trembled in it. And this is the error against which we must guard. We are not to be over-much concerned with the spectacular, the external, the marvellous in religion, but to fix our thoughts and affections on its interior and eternal realities. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The unshaken prophet
The form into which Christ in this passage throws His view of the character of John the Baptist illustrates more than the symbolic method of His teaching. One sees in the choice of a natural object like the reed shaking in the wind in order to form a contrast to the unshaken temper of the Baptist, the same love of symbolism which led Him in His parables to make the ordinary things of Nature and of human nature images of the relations and laws of the spiritual kingdom. In the case of the parables, symbolism is deliberately used for the purpose of instruction. In the case before us it is used, as it were, unconsciously, and it reveals the natural way in which His mind united the world of Nature to the world of Man. When the image of the Baptist rose before Him--stern, uncompromising, fixed in moral strength, and with it the Jordan bank where first He met him, and the baptismal hour when He stood in the flowing river--He remembered the reeds as they shook in impotent vacillation in the wind, clasped the two images together in vivid contrast, and said, “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind in the stream of the Jordan? nay, a rock, deep-rooted, firm, removable.”
I. EVERYTHING WE KNOW OF THE BAPTIST CONFIRMS THIS VIEW He learnt concentration of will in the solitary life of the desert. With the unshaken firmness which Christ saw as a root in his character, he accepted his position at once and for ever. Not one step did be take beyond his mission, though he must have seen to some distance beyond it. Never for a moment did he cease to point to Another away from himself. Iris as noble a piece of self-renunciation as history affords, and it was unshaken. Though a hundred temptations beset him to do so, he never allowed his teaching to step beyond the limits of its special work. He met his death because he was no reed to be shaken by the promises of a wicked king.
II. AND NOW TO MAKE THIS REAL TO OURSELVES.
1. Fidelity to our vocation in life.
2. The sinking of self in religious work.
3. The being unshaken in our truth and right, both in act and speech, against worldly influences when they are evil; and even When they are not evil in themselves, when they make us weak and vacillating. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.)
The Christian ministry
I. IT IS NOT A LINE OF PRIESTS. The principle of the priesthood rests upon a truth, the mediatorial power which man exercises over man. The apostles were in a sense mediators, and so far priests. But the prophecy of old was taken up joyfully by the apostles as the richest tune in the mediatorial kingdom, when the last offices of the priesthood should be taken away, when they should no longer teach every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all should know Him, from the least even unto the greatest. This, then, is the spiritual priesthood. But the priestly system-1. Removes God from the soul, whereas God is ever near.
2. Degrades humanity, for its language tells us not of the affinity of man to God, but of the immense distance between the two.
3. Produces a slavish worship. Pass on to consider what the ministry is.
II. IT IS PROPHETICAL, not priestly. We greatly mistake if we think that the office of the prophet was simply to predict future events.
1. It was the office of the prophet to teach eternal truths. John’s only prediction was, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
2. All the most sublime passages in the Bible are from the writings of the prophets. The priestly writings were but temporary.
3. The difference between the prophet and the priest was that it was the office of the prophet to counteract the priestly office. “Bring no more vain oblations,” &c. “Wash you, make you clean.”
III. THE MINISTRY OF OUR BLESSED LORD HIMSELF, HERE ON EARTH, WAS PROPHETICAL AND NOT PRIESTLY. I lay a stress on that expression “here on earth,” because unquestionably He is a priest in heaven above. The high priesthood of the Son of Man is spoken of in the Hebrews. There it is denied on earth, but asserted to be in heaven. “For if He were on earth, He should not be a priest”; in other words, there is a priesthood now, but no earthly priesthood. In conclusion, I notice two points which seem to favour the notion of a priesthood:--
1. Absolution. Unquestionably, there is a power of absolution in the ministry of the Church of Christ, but it is the power of the prophet and not of the priest.
2. Apostolical succession. There is such a thing; but it is a succession of prophets and not of priests, a succession never extinct or broken. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Good and bad ends in attending ministrations
I. WE OUGHT ALWAYS TO HAVE AN END IN VIEW IN ATTENDING THE MINISTRATIONS OF THE SANCTUARY.
1. It is due to ourselves.
2. It is due to God.
3. It is due to the occasion.
II. THERE ARE SOME ENDS WE OUGHT NOT TO PROPOSE TO OURSELVES.
1. The gratification of curiosity.
2. The exercise of a critical and censorious spirit.
3. The improvement of our social position.
4. The pacifying of our conscience.
III. THERE ARE SOME ENDS THAT SHOULD ALWAYS BE PRESENT TO OUR THOUGHTS.
1. Conversion.
2. Instruction.
3. Impression.
4. The diffusion of the gospel. (G. Brooks.)
A reed shaken by the wind
The ordinary interpretation of this expression has been this: “Did you suppose that John was one of the weaklings of this world, a mere courtier with delicate words and flowing robes, who would be tremulously seeking popular approval, who would turn and trim in order to secure favour, now one thing and now another, like a rush shivering in the breeze? “But lately, a new suggestion has been made by one who was born in Palestine, and who has been educated in the Greek language. He says that shepherd-boys often shelter them selves among the tall grass, and while away the hours of hot sunshine by playing on their native flutes; hence one frequently almost stumbles upon such a musician by the rivers or along the hillsides. So soft is the tone of the feeble instrument that it appears effeminate, and might well be the symbol of a gentle sweetness of entertainment without vigour or force. So here the exposition may be somewhat like this--“ Did ye come down here beside the Jordan to hear a timid little flute-player, a reed blown with one’s breath?” (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)