Matthew 3:1–17
3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”1 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare2 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.”
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him,3 and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son,4 with whom I am well pleased.”
1 Or the kingdom of heaven has come near 2 Or crying: Prepare in the wilderness 3 Some manuscripts omit to him 4 Or my Son, my (or the) Beloved
Section Overview
A thirty-year gap separates Matthew 2 and 3. In Matthew 3 the ministry of John the Baptist prepares for Jesus’ public ministry by calling Israel to repent and “prepare the way of the Lord.” By baptizing Jesus, John also prepares him for his ministry. In Matthew 4, Jesus bursts upon the world, but his baptism teaches that he comes in the power of the Spirit and the blessing of the Father.
Section Outline
II. The Preparation and Early Ministry in Galilee (3:1–4:25)
A. The Ministry of John the Baptist (3:1–17)
1. The Prophetic Ministry of John (3:1–12)
2. John’s Baptism of Jesus (3:13–17)
Matthew 3:1–6 describes John’s wilderness preaching. He proclaims that the kingdom is at hand (v. 2), and Matthew connects this message with Isaiah’s prophecy: John prepares “the way of the Lord” (v. 3). John’s garb and food are austere (v. 4), and his audience is vast and receptive (v. 5). Many receive baptism “for repentance” and confess their sins (vv. 6, 11). To repent is to prepare to join God’s new work: the kingdom is at hand, for the Messiah has come (vv. 2, 8, 12). But John doubts the sincerity of the scribes and Pharisees. He calls them “vipers” (i.e., seed of the Serpent) and says he will believe their “repentance” when he sees fruit (vv. 7–8). Their lineage will not deliver them from the judgment that must soon fall on fruitless trees (vv. 9–10). Finally, John points to his successor. John baptizes with water, but he who is far greater will baptize with the Spirit and with fire (vv. 11–12). Jesus joins the crowds that come to John, and he also seeks baptism (v. 13). After initial objections, John relents (vv. 14–15). Afterward, heaven opens, the Spirit descends on Jesus, and a voice from heaven remarks, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (vv. 16–17).
Response
Matthew 3 calls forth three great responses: repentance, sincerity, and faith. We will focus on repentance. The comments above distinguished several senses of repentance. A disciple repents in the second and third sense, by turning from sin to Christ and pursuing a new way of life. Full repentance is elusive—it is hard to repudiate all transgressions. No one recognizes all of his or her sins; certainly not at once. We are blind to habitual and culturally acceptable sins. Repentance is therefore a process. Disciples must strive to detect and reject ingrained sin patterns. Full repentance entails a change of mind, heart, and practice. The repentant turn to God in faith and obedience. Repentance may include sorrow that we have hurt someone, but it is possible to sin against someone without hurting them; one may harbor evil thoughts without acting on them. We can also inflict pain on others without sinning against them; dentists and physical therapists do so daily. Repentance is also more than sorrow over self-inflicted wounds, although the misery of sin may prompt self-examination (Prov. 5:22).
Paul reflects, “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10). The truly repentant take their sin and guilt to God and find mercy and restoration there. But godless sorrow leads to regret and spiritual death. Peter and Judas illustrate the point. Whatever his reasons, Judas betrayed Jesus. Then remorse overwhelmed him. He threw away the blood money and grieved over his sin but never took his grief to God or turned from what he had done. He despaired and committed suicide because he turned inward in self-condemnation rather than upward in repentance. Self-condemnation and self-recrimination are forms of selfishness that lead to death.
By contrast, the godly sorrow of Peter led to forgiveness and restoration to his role as an apostle. When Peter repented, he looked inward at his sin but also upward to the Lord, and he found grace. Peter later became a preacher of repentance in Acts 2; 10; and 11, where his words are recognized as offering “repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). Repentance is both God’s gift and a human act. Abraham Kuyper notes, “Scripture refers to conversion almost one hundred and forty times as being an act of man, and only six times as an act of the Holy Ghost.” True repentance includes openness to correction, a willingness to admit guilt, a sense that God himself is offended, and confidence that God removes sin’s guilt through Christ.
Matthew 3 also raises the difficult topic of hypocrisy, which teachers must address judiciously. They should not indiscriminately call believers “hypocrites,” for no disciple of Christ is a full-scale hypocrite. True hypocrisy is incompatible with faith in Christ. Nonetheless, believers can be inconsistent and act like Pharisees by boasting of deeds, status, or heritage, or by acting smug and complacent. The call to repentance summons the church, corporately and individually, to self-examination. In Luke, John’s call to repentance addresses sins common to various callings: tax collectors are to collect nothing extra, and soldiers are to be content with their pay (Luke 3:12–14). Thus repentance is twofold. It repudiates specific acts, yet first it is a heart disposition. The repentant have faith. They love the king and his kingdom, so they yield to his rule.
Or the kingdom of heaven has come near
Or crying: Prepare in the wilderness
Some manuscripts omit to him
Or my Son, my (or the) Beloved
3:1–6 John begins his ministry with a proclamation. He declares, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v. 2). John chooses to preach from “the wilderness” near the Jordan River, a dry, lightly populated region east of Jerusalem. Matthew does not explain why John labors so far from the temple, but many propose a link to the Essenes, separatists and purists who renounced the temple due to the corruption of its leaders and the attending deficits in its sacrifices and worship.
John is Israel’s first prophet in four centuries. That alone draws attention. The desert reminds some of Israel’s years of wilderness wandering after the exodus, when God disciplined and purified Israel. In John’s day, many believe the Messiah might come from the wilderness to reconstitute Israel. The term “kingdom” may have encouraged such thinking, but this misreads the message God gives John, a message Jesus repeats when he inaugurates his ministry.
The proclamation of the kingdom is easily misconstrued, then and now. Jews at that time readily thought of the overthrow of Rome and renewed independence. Today we have nations, states, and republics, not kingdoms. Today, kingdom can elicit thoughts of ancient regimes: knights on steeds or peasants and oxcarts. We occasionally notice characters in the Gospels thinking in concrete, even nationalistic, terms (20:20–24; Luke 1:68–75). But for Jesus the kingdom is not essentially political or geographical. When Jesus says, “The kingdom has come,” he refers to God’s exercising his royal authority in a new way through his Son’s ministry, so that his reign might be as visible on earth as it is in heaven.
The linguistic label for words like kingdom is “noun of action.” Such nouns, like love and play, have parallel verbs. In Greek, kingdom is a noun of action; the parallel verb means to rule or act like a king. We can say, therefore, that God’s kingdom comes not when Israel regains her territory but when God rules. When Jesus inaugurates his ministry, the kingdom comes near, because God gives him authority to rule (Matt. 28:18). God always reigns over everything, but his rule becomes more visible when Jesus teaches, heals, restrains Satan, and calls the redeemed to himself. When men and women repent, believe, and walk in God’s ways, they embrace his rule. To enter the kingdom (7:21; 18:3) is not to cross a border but to embrace God’s rule. When Jesus begins a parable by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like . . . ,” he is stating, “This is how God rules.”
We know that John will later experience doubts (11:2–3), so perhaps he does not fully grasp his own message. (Peter remarks in his epistles that prophets do not necessarily understand their own oracles; cf. 1 Pet. 1:10–12; 2 Pet. 1:21.) Still, John and Jesus agree that as God acts in Jesus’ ministry, redemption and judgment show themselves in new ways. As a starting point, Israel must repent and return to God (cf. also Matt. 4:17; 10:7).
In Scripture, repentance is more than sorrow for sins or failures, more than shame at getting caught or remorse for hurting oneself or a neighbor. “Repentance” has several senses in Scripture and culture. First, it can mean moral reform, a resolve to forsake wickedness but without turning to living faith in God. Some of Nineveh’s repentance following Jonah’s preaching might fit here. Second, repentance may be true conversion, a sorrow for sin that leads to God, who freely pardons iniquity (Ps. 103:3, 9–14; Isa. 55:7). Third, repentance can signify the renewed life that follows conversion. Consider Ezekiel’s cry, “Repent and turn from all your transgressions” (Ezek. 18:30). Converts repent when they turn from sin to God. Finally, repentance can mean the occasion when a church or individual returns to God after times of weak faith—a return to devotion. Thus the Lord tells the church at Ephesus, “You have abandoned the love you had at first. . . . Repent, and do the works you did at first” (Rev. 2:4–5).
John’s call to repentance includes features unique to his ministry context. Centuries earlier, Isaiah had foretold “the voice”—a prophet—“crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’” (Matt. 3:3; cf. Isa. 40:3). John’s food and clothing signify his austerity. “Camel’s hair” can sound luxurious to contemporary readers, but camel’s hair and leather belt are the clothes of Elijah, whom God called to declare judgment on Israel (2 Kings 1:5–17). And clearly a diet of “locusts and wild honey” is rough fare (Matt. 3:4). People from Jerusalem, Judea, and the region around the Jordan steadily travel to hear John (v. 5), to be baptized in the Jordan, and to confess their sins (v. 6). This baptism is less than Christian baptism, which occurs in the name of the triune God (28:19), but more than the ritual washings practiced by Jews in John’s day.
3:7–10 Here John confronts Israel’s religious leaders. Because the people travel such distances and because John’s message is austere, readers may think his auditors come sincerely. But John is skeptical when he sees “Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism” (v. 7). Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders of the day, saw themselves as the guardians of orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Israel’s leaders had often been hostile to prophets such as Elijah, Elisha, and Jeremiah. Later, the Pharisees and Sadducees watch Jesus with a gimlet eye. They find fault, condemn, and ultimately see him executed. So it is probable that they come in suspicion to investigate John. John, knowing this, warns them.
First, John calls them “vipers” and asks who has warned them to “flee from the wrath to come” (v. 7). Second, if any do come sincerely, they must “bear fruit in keeping with repentance,” since genuine repentance brings a change of heart and hands (v. 8). Third, John anticipates their objection. The leaders cannot argue, “We have Abraham as our father,” since God is not impressed by lineage (v. 9). No one avoids God’s judgment because of his ancestry. No one is saved by one’s parents’ faith, nor does a position as a spiritual leader save. Indeed, religious leaders are prone to the self-righteousness and moral display common to hypocrisy. Fourth, repentance is urgent: “Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (v. 10). It is not the hour for the Jewish leaders to judge John; it is the hour for them to repent or face God’s judgment.
3:11–12 Then John points away from himself and testifies to Jesus. John baptizes “with water for repentance,” but his successor will be “mightier” and more worthy. He will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire.” He will separate the wheat from the chaff and “the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (vv. 11–12). John is the greatest man of his day, but Jesus will be so much greater that John will not deserve to fulfill the tasks of his lowest slave—carrying his dirty sandals. So John tells his audience—and every audience—to repent of sin, to lay down sin, pride, and hypocrisy, and to look to Jesus.
3:13–17 Jesus joins the crowds and seeks John in order to receive his baptism. John attempts to deter Jesus, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (vv. 13–14). Evidently, John knows Jesus’ identity. John preaches a baptism of repentance, and he knows Jesus has not sinned and therefore does not need to repent. Jesus offers forgiveness (26:28), he does not need it. John also protests at a personal level. How can he, the lesser man, baptize Jesus, the greater? John also knows he offers a lesser baptism. He uses water, the symbol of purification, but Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit (who empowers the break with sin) and with fire (which burns away impurity).
Jesus replies, “Let it be so now” (3:15). John consents because he knows it is still his hour. Soon enough, Jesus will inaugurate his ministry. Three years later, after he has taught, healed, made disciples, suffered, died, and rose again, Jesus will charge his apostles to practice Christian baptism, for disciples in all nations, in the name of the triune God (28:18–20). But at this hour, John must baptize Jesus “to fulfill all righteousness” (3:15). By receiving John’s baptism, Jesus identifies with his people rather than distancing himself from them. The nation needs to repent of its sins, and Jesus is part of the nation, so Jesus comes to repent. He stands with Daniel and Nehemiah, both of whom led Israel in prayers of repentance.
Even though he did not commit the sins that led to exile, Daniel nevertheless confessed, “We have sinned. . . . We have not listened” (Dan. 9:3–19). Nehemiah likewise declared, “We have acted very corruptly,” even though he personally had not (Neh. 1:4–11). This is the biblical basis for corporate confession of sin. Even if we have not committed each confessed sin personally, we belong to a community that has. By seeking baptism, Jesus “binds himself to the destiny of Israel.” If John is a prophet, then Jesus will submit to his call to repentance, whether or not he personally needs to repent.
So Jesus is baptized. Afterward, he rises from the water, the heavens open, and he sees the “Spirit of God descending like a dove” and alighting on him (Matt. 3:16). John had said that Jesus would baptize with fire, yet the symbol at Jesus’ baptism is a dove, a gentle bird, for Jesus burns sin away, but he does so gently.
So the Spirit empowers Jesus for ministry. The Gospels often reflect this reality. One day, as he was teaching, “the power of the Lord was with him to heal” (Luke 5:17; cf. Luke 4:1, 14, 18). The Spirit was no static presence in Jesus’ life. The Spirit’s aid was essential for the ministry of Jesus, who laid aside certain divine prerogatives to live as a genuine human. His human body eschewed the eternal Word’s omnipresence, for as a human he was in one place at a time; his omniscience, for as a human he did not know certain things (Matt. 24:36; Mark 5:30–31); and his omnipotence, since as a human he needed food and sleep. So the Spirit led Jesus from place to place (Matt. 4:1) and empowered Jesus for his work, especially in its high points (12:18, 28). Above all, “through the eternal Spirit” Jesus “offered himself without blemish to God,” cleansing his people “from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14).
At the baptism a voice also comes from heaven, declaring, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). This statement completes the first phase of the revelation of the identity of Jesus. Matthew has already said Jesus is Son of David and Son of Abraham (1:1), conceived by the Holy Spirit, God with us (Immanuel), and the one who will save his people from their sins (1:20–23). Now the Father calls Jesus his unique and beloved Son. These events equip Jesus for his ministry. Next, the Spirit will lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tested, and then Jesus’ public ministry will begin.