In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.'"
Now John Himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham even from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto 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. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
- Matthew 3:1-12
Yesterday, we read that when the
wise men had departed Bethlehem, behold, an angel
of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the
young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring
you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." When he
arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for
Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out
of Egypt I called My Son." Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was
exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male
children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years
old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the
wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet,
saying: "
A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a
dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His
mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young
Child's life are dead." Then he arose, took the young Child and His
mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that
Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was
afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside
into the region of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called
Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets,
"He shall be called a Nazarene."
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of
Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" For
this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.'" The Gospel skips from Jesus' early childhood to the ministry of John the Baptist. The wilderness of Judea, my study bible says, is the barren region which descends from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. This is the preparation for the ministry of Christ, and it begins with the Baptist's call to
repent. Repentance is a kind of constant in a life of faith; it indicates a complete about-face. It literally means to change one's mind in the Greek, or else to turn around in a general sense. My study bible says that repentance is a "radical change of one's spirit, mind, thought, and heart, a complete reorientation of the whole of one's life. It is the necessary first step
in the way of the LORD. It is accompanied by the confession of sins and the act of baptism, and is followed by a life filled with fruits worthy of this change," all of which is noted in today's reading in the acts and preaching of John the Baptist. John quotes Isaiah (
40:3), a prophet essential to the Gospels, who will often be quoted by Jesus. Once again, we are witnessing the fulfillment of the Prophets, of the spiritual history and heritage of Israel.
Now John Himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around
his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem,
all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were
baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. The description of John the Baptist echoes the image of another great prophet, Elijah. (See
2 Kings 1:8). This would be understood and striking to contemporaries and those who knew the Scripture. John's life of asceticism conformed to that of Jewish sects like the Essenes, who lived in the wilderness and were preparing for the coming Kingdom of God. In the early Church, the monastic movement into the wilderness (Desert Fathers and Mothers) was patterned after John the Baptist's way of life. John calls for a confession of sins to accompany baptism; my study bible says this was essential to baptism under both the Old Covenant and the New. But John's Baptism was a sign of repentance and forgiveness of sins alone -- it did not confer the power of total regeneration nor adoption as a child of God as does baptism "
with the Holy Spirit" (verse 11).
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his
baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from
the wrath to come?" The
Sadducees were members of the high-priestly and landowning class. They controlled the temple and the internal political affairs of the Jews. They were like an early aristocratic class based around Jerusalem and Judea. They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead and "had no messianic hope beyond this life," as my study bible puts it. The
Pharisees were a lay religious movement centered on the study of the Law and the strict observance of its regulations, around which were shaped additional traditions. They did believe in the resurrection of the dead (in contrast to the Sadducees) and looked to the coming of Messiah with hope. But they taught that righteousness is attained on the strength of works according to the Law, and that the Messiah would be a glorious man, not divine. Jesus will later use this same phrase for them, "
Brood of vipers!" (
Matthew 12:34; 23:33). My study bible says that it indicates their deception and malice and their being under the influence of Satan.
"Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to
yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God
is able to raise up children to Abraham even from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every
tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire." My study bible tells us that "repentance, confession, and baptism lead to
fruits worthy of repentance." That is, a way of life consistent with the Kingdom of God (see
Galatians 5:22-25). It says that if a fruitful life doesn't follow, then sacramental acts and spiritual discipline are useless. In many icons of Baptism, we see an ax (
lower left of this icon), reflecting John's warning. John says that
from these stones (Hebrew
'ebanimn)
God can raise up children (Hebrew
banim) as a memorable play on words. My study bible says, "God will not admit fruitless children into His house, but adopts other children from the Gentiles."
"I indeed baptize you with water unto 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. His winnowing fan is
in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and
gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire." My study bible says that "Christ baptizes in the fire of the Holy Spirit, the power and grace of God divinely poured out on all believers at baptism." It notes that in the culture of John the Baptist, a slave would carry the sandals of a king; so John is actually depicting himself as lower than a slave of Jesus. His inability to carry the sandals of Christ has another meaning, also, for it means another's responsibility (
Ruth 4:7). John could not have carried the responsibility that Christ does -- as, in parallel, John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the Old Testament-type prophets, gives us an image that teaches the Law could not redeem the world the world in the way that Christ has come to do. The
winnowing fan produces wind that separates wheat from chaff on the threshing floor, a metaphor for judgment.
This is the moment we are introduced to the Christ. What is John's emphasis, before Jesus' baptism in the Jordan? The Christ will bring the Holy Spirit, and His baptism will be a baptism of fire. That is, the Holy Spirit given as a kind of testing of fire, that which will try us and prove us out. John, the last and considered the greatest in the lineage of the Old Testament-type prophets, gives us the fullness of the age begun with the birth of the Messiah: the grace of the Spirit, anointing the world and testing it out, in preparation for judgment. He's introducing us to the time we live in now, the years labeled AD for
anno domini, year of the Lord. It is this age, for us, that is marked by the giving of the Spirit, the baptism of the Spirit -- that which is present in the world and is also an image of fire, such as at the
burning bush. We live in an age, initiated by Christ's Incarnation, in which the Spirit is present, poured out upon the world, interacting with us and with all of creation. But as John emphasizes in today's reading, everything depends, really, upon
our response. This is the whole thing. This is the fullness of the age and of mercy, the crux of how judgment happens. God is always prompting, always waiting, always loving. In the image of fire that purifies this is what we need to see. It is linked with repentance, as salvation is a kind of ongoing process of repentance, turning over our "worldly" ways for the way of God who is love, as taught by the interaction of the Spirit. That is the life in Christ, the life of baptism by Spirit and fire. A prayer life should be such fruits, turning over, bit by bit, things we've learned to a way of life and perception that sees things differently, in the lens of the love that the Spirit teaches. Christ teaches the same love, of course, as a proactive kind of reality, in which -- for example --
we are a neighbor by living as a neighbor. That's what it means to fulfill our God-likeness. Fire indicates a constant process of transformation, of energy at work in us and with us, creating a kind of repentance or change of mind that is ongoing, illuminating, burning away the things we don't need and mustn't hang onto. Purification is symbolized by fire, meaning that love doesn't just coddle, it changes, it tells you what's wrong and waits for a positive response to what is better. This is all contained in John's words today, warning those who should know better already, the experts in the Scripture and the Law, "Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" and calling them, "Brood of vipers!" This isn't a place for hypocrisy or acting, this fire reaches deep inside of us. It's not about a kind of obedience from fear, but from love. This is the faith we're called to, and the whole thing starts here. John's radical poverty is a sign of our total and complete dependence on God, and that nothing is hidden in that relationship.
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