The Ministry Of John
THE MINISTRY OF JOHN
MATTHEW 3:1-12
Repentance isn’t just being sorry about our sins—it’s being sorry enough to stop … and turn our whole lives to God.
Wherever John the Baptist is mentioned in the New Testament he appears as making preparation for the ministry of Jesus. His distinctive theme was the urgent need of repentance, because of the near advent of the Coming One. “The kingdom of heaven” is a phrase peculiar to this Gospel in the New Testament; elsewhere, and occasionally even in this Gospel, the synonymous expression “the kingdom of God” is used. It refers more particularly to the universal and everlasting kingdom which, according to Daniel 2:44; 7:14,18,22,27, the God of heaven was about to establish on the ruins of successive pagan empires. On John’s lips the expression implies the day of judgment (cf. Daniel 7:9ff.); the judgment is the fiery baptism to be administered by the Coming One (3:11f.); hence the call to repent in time.
It may be that baptism was already established as one of the elements in the initiation of a convert from paganism into the commonwealth of Israel; if so, John warns his hearers that if they are to join the end-time people of God ready to greet the Coming One on his arrival they must first take the outside place, as no better than pagans, and enter the elect community by the baptism of repentance. Descent from Abraham was of no avail (3:9); here John anticipates Paul (Romans 9:7). Those then who confessed their sins were baptized in the Jordan.
John shows himself to stand in the prophetic succession (which had been in abeyance for generations) not only by his Elijah-like dress (3:4; cf. 2 Kings 1:8) and the convicting power of his preaching but also by the vigor with which he denounces the contemporary religious establishment (3:7). Worldly Sadducees and observant Pharisees are alike compared to serpents hastening away from the path of advancing flames.
Notes 3:1: “In those days”: a vague term; thirty years and more have elapsed since the end of chapter 2. “the wilderness of Judea”: the territory west of the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea; here the community of Qumran and other ascetics had their headquarters at this time. 3:3: “The voice of one crying …”: this quotation from Isaiah 40:3 originally referred to the glad announcement of liberation for exiles in Babylon. The Qumran community used it as a prophecy of their settlement in the wilderness of Judea. In the New Testament the whole of Isaiah 40–66 is treated as a prophecy of the gospel age. 3:11: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”: Matthew presents the following ministry of Jesus as in some degree fulfilling this prophecy. 3:12: “His winnowing fork is in his hand”: separation is an essential part of judgment (cf. 13:30-41f.).