Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:1-12 – NRSV)
Introductory notes
General
See parallel passages in Mark 1:2-8 and Luke 3:1-20. Matthew is clearly dependent on Mark in his text.
Matthew has John say the words that he also has Jesus say later: “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matthew 4:17). The context for John’s preaching – and the life and teaching of Jesus – is thus the coming of the kingdom.
Daniel Harrington SJ notes Josephus’ description of John the Baptist: “‘He was a good man and had exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practice justice toward their fellows and piety toward God, and so doing to join in baptism. In his view this was a necessary preliminary if baptism was to be acceptable to God. They must not employ it to gain pardon for whatever sins they committed, but as a consecration of the body implying that the soul was already thoroughly cleansed by right behavior’ (Ant. 18:117)” (Daniel J Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2007, 52).
Harrington continues: “Josephus’ picture of John the Baptist is basically positive. John appears as a Jewish preacher whose message concerns justice toward others and piety toward God. John’s ritual of baptism is described in a somewhat tortuous way, suggesting that Josephus was trying to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations. He insists that justice and piety were preliminaries to John’s baptism and that the baptism of the body symbolized the cleansing of the soul. …… Acts contains two stories (18:24–28; 19:1–7) that indicate the survival of John’s movement after the death of its founder (and of Jesus). Apollos of Alexandria is said to have known “only the baptism of John” (Acts 18:25). The disciples at Ephesus had been baptized only “into John’s baptism” (Acts 19:3). Such people need instruction from followers of Jesus and in the case of John’s disciples at Ephesus baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:5–6).
“The evidence about John the Baptist from Josephus and the New Testament indicates that in Matt 3:1–6 we are being introduced to an important historical character. His preaching and baptism attracted crowds of people, including Jesus. It was so popular that Herod Antipas feared an uprising and had John first imprisoned and then executed. John’s reputation was such that the early Christians took pains to differentiate him from Jesus and to underline John’s inferiority. The movement that he began survived his death and spread at least to Ephesus in Asia Minor.
“When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the late 1940s and the first documents were published, many writers argued that John the Baptist had been a member of the group that produced those scrolls. This identification was suggested by several factors: the general location (the Judean wilderness) in which John was active and the Qumran community lived, their ascetic lifestyles, their common interest in the coming kingdom of God, and their ritual uses of water (see below on Matt 3:11–12). While John could have been a member of the Qumran community at some point (see Luke 1:80: ‘and he was in the wilderness until the day of his manifestation’), one should be cautious about jumping to conclusions on this matter. On the one hand, there seem to have been many religious groups and movements in the general area of the Judean wilderness. John need not have been an Essene or a member of the Qumran community. On the other hand, John differed from the Qumran community on some matters, especially about the significance of the baptism that he proclaimed.
“The message to Matthew’s community would have been the standard early Christian message about John the Baptist. The text supplied them with basic information about a relation to Jesus and his preaching (they say the same thing), and suggested an ultimate relationship of inferior (‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness’), and superior (‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths’) between John and Jesus.
“In the Church year John the Baptist is most prominent in the Advent season. The role of ‘precursor’ attributed to him by way of Isa 40:3 gets particular emphasis. Attention to the Gospel tradition and to Josephus, however, suggests that his relationship to Jesus was not so simple and untroubled as the ‘precursor’ theme allows. Without denying this traditional role it may be useful to highlight the tensions about John’s popularity and the survival of his movement so that Christians today can appreciate what was at stake in assigning the role of precursor to John the Baptist” (Daniel J Harrington SJ, op cit, 53 & 54-55).
Specific
the wilderness of Judea: Probably an area east of Jerusalem, sloping down to the Dead Sea.
repent: Whereas Mark 1:4 and Luke 3:3 mention this word in their texts, Matthew puts the word on John’s lips. And it is a crucial word. It appears three times in this passage and a further six times elsewhere in the Gospel. The Greek imperative here is metanoeite from the verb metanoeō. The Greek literally means “change one’s mind”. The English word “repent” hardly does justice to the Greek expression. Harrington writes: “The biblical idea of repentance involves a willingness to turn one’s life around in the sense of a complete reorientation” (Daniel J Harrington, op cit, 51).
the kingdom of heaven: References to “the kingdom” are numerous in Matthew, though to call it “the kingdom of heaven” is a typical expression of his, being used thirty one times – see 4:17, 5:4, 10, 19 (twice) & 20; 7:21; 8:11; 10:7; 11:11 (twice); 13:10, 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47 & 51; 16:19; 18:1, 3, 4 & 23; 19:12, 14 & 23; 20:1; 22:2; 23:13; 25:1. On five occasions he uses the expression, “the kingdom of God” – see 6:33, 12:28, 19:24 and 21:31 & 43. On several other occasions the word “kingdom” is used on its own.
the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Isaiah 40:3 (“A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God”) is from the so-called Second Isaiah which carries a comforting message for the people returning from the Babylonian Exile (538 BCE). Here, the “one calling” is John and “the Lord” is Jesus.
camel’s hair and a leather belt: We are reminded of the prophet Elijah – see 2 Kgs 1:8. Harrington observes: “This apparel may have marked John simply as a prophetic figure in general. But given the interest in John as a ‘new Elijah’ (see Mal 3:1; 4:5) this outfit may have been intended more specifically with reference to Elijah (see Matt 11:7–15; 17:10–13)” (Daniel J Harrington, SJ, op cit, 51).
being baptized: From the Greek verb baptizō meaning “dip in/under water” or “immerse”. This ritual signifies the intention to turn one’s life around (metanoeite).
brood of vipers: The Pharisees and Sadducees are explicitly named here. However, Matthew puts similar words on the lips of Jesus concerning the religious authorities, especially the Pharisees – see 25:13-36, with its repeated “woes” to these religious authorities for their hypocrisy. Claiming Abraham as their father is not going to save them either!
The journey continues
In today’s Gospel – Matthew 3:1-12 – there is a powerful interplay of three primary symbols: Elijah, the Jordan River and the wilderness. In the prophecy of Malachi: “‘Look, I shall send you the prophet Elijah before the great and awesome Day of Yahweh comes” (3:23). John the Baptist’s clothing would call to mind the Elijah described in the Second book of Kings as “a hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist” (1:8). Matthew later reports Jesus as saying to the disciples, “‘it was towards John that all the prophecies of the prophets and of the Law were leading; and he … is the Elijah who was to return” (11:13-14).
God performed wonders at the Jordan. He healed Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-14); Elijah passed on his ministry to Elisha there and was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:4); God led the Israelites across the Jordan River at the end of their journey in the wilderness (Joshua 3:1).
Which brings us to the hugely symbolic “wilderness of Judea.” In the Book of Exodus, we are told of Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush in the wilderness on Sinai – this theophany is a foundational event in the history of Israel (3:1). Moses is sent (3:10) and the promise is given – “I will be with you” (3:12). The Exodus story begins on Sinai and is to be completed in the Jesus story: “John called the people to come out to the desert and be baptized in the Jordan. Such a summons would have signalled that everything the Jews had been longing for was about to be fulfilled. In this particular place, the ritual of baptism was a powerful symbolic action. In calling the people to journey into the wilderness to step into the Jordan River to be baptized, and to re-enter the promised land, John was summoning them to re-enact the exodus story. Such an action was most likely intended to signal that a new exodus was finally about to occur. No wonder so many people from ‘Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan’ (3:5) went out to the Jordan wilderness to be baptized by John” (Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri, The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture) (p. 62). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition).
Jesus is the enfleshing of God’s choice and God’s intention, not only for the Israelites, but for all humanity. His is a story of liberation from all forms of oppression, a story of the fulfilment of the deepest yearnings of every human heart to love and be loved. This season of Advent reveals its twofold coming. It has come to the world in the birth of Jesus. It will come in the victory of the kingdom of God at the end of time. Living in the tension of the past and the future, is both our gift and task.