Matthew III
1. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2. And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
I. Convergent historic lines, — Christ in Nazareth, John in the wilderness. 2. One worker necessary to another. 3. Solitude a preparation for service; — every day at Nazareth means strength, wisdom, patience. 4. The cry of all civilisation has been “Repent,” — change your purposes, — turn round! How much more, in what fuller and profounder sense, is this so with Religion! This cry, “Repent,” shows (a) that men were in a false position; (6) that they had power to alter it; and (c) that such power was immediately associated with a great opportunity; “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 5. All servants of the highest interests of humanity have had to engage in a negative work; this is expressed in the cry, “Repent.” This negative work (a) brings them into collision with violent antagonisms; (b) absorbs strength which might have been employed in direct edification; and (c) prevents for a long period the full exhibition of what is superficially termed Success. The idea of success in spiritual work is much perverted and misunderstood. (Foreign missions, — look at initial difficulties, tradition, habit, prejudice, distrust of foreign race, &c.) 6. Every preacher of Repentance is a fulfilment of prophecy, inasmuch as he expresses and interprets the Divine purpose respecting apostate humanity. Such preachers are united with an illustrious line; yet the glory of their position is tarnished by the reflection that so many “voices” have cried in vain. 7. This call to “Repent” must be deepened and prolonged, though under the most depressing circumstances, for it is a Divine testimony in a corrupt age. 8. The moral majesty of an earnest man. John shakes Jerusalem and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan. He is only an individual, yet his march is like that of an army intent on victory. What is his work? Twofold — (a) Preaching; (b) Baptizing. This twofold work permanent during man’s apostacy; preaching calls to the truth; baptizing symbolises its acceptance, or preparation for its acceptance. The moral signification of John’s baptism was that all cleansing must come from beyond man; it must be done by another, and water was but as an emblem of that mightier Power.
7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
12. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
i. Men may come to religious ordinances from a wrong motive. 2. Men may come to such ordinances through misapprehension of their import. 3. Men may avail themselves of such ordinances for selfish purposes. 4. All men who come to religious ordinances should be faithfully warned of their spirit and duty; this faithful warning will (a) call things by their proper names; (b) will demand not ceremonialism, but heavenly fruitfulness of life; (c) will destroy all false grounds of moral descent, by throwing every man on his own personal character; (d) will keep up the grand judicial idea in all its awfulness and sublimity; (e) will broadly distinguish between outward observances and spiritual processes.
This is not such an inauguration of the Messianic era as we should have expected. The ages have been waiting for the Son of Peace, but there comes before Him a man whose voice is thunder, whose glance is lightning. No gentle word escapes the lips of this fierce man; the stormy whirlwind has caught him and borne him on through the wilderness of Judasa. and as if a great fire were behind him he urgently makes his way. Strangely terrible are his words, “Repent,” — “Prepare,” — “Ax,” — “Purge his floor,” — “Burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” In all this there is not one tone of conciliation, one smile of amiability, one overture of cordiality. Yet this man comes before the Prince of Peace! Nor does he allude to the gentler aspects of the Coming One. He is taken up with the idea of power; hence he says, “He that cometh after me is mightier than I.” This preacher in the wilderness dwelt on the idea of strength, — strength as a terror to evil, — strength as an irresistible judicial power. The soft, melodious hymn, such as Peace would sing in a garden of flowers, might have been expected; trembling, quivering with hopeful joy; but instead there is a roar as of a sudden storm, a cry as of unexpected terror. This circumstance is, however, quite coincident with the course of history. God is always setting aside human expectations, and building His temples in unlikely places or with unlikely materials. God uses the storm. The ages are not all made up of long, radiant, summer days. Night, and storm, and battle, as well as day, and calm, and peace, are God’s servants. This age requires “voices” that can be heard. The world’s vast wilderness is open — pray God to send into it men crying “Repent.” The Church is now in danger of over-feeding the few, and forgetting the hungering many. There is a work to be done in the wilderness. The manner appropriate to the wilderness may not be appropriate to the Church: what is wanted, therefore, is adaptation: the loud cry or the subdued tone, — both are required to meet the world’s great want.
A ministry of Repentance ought always to precede a ministry of salvation. In our day the former has been much overlooked. The ministry of Repentance should be modelled upon the ministry of John: — I. John dealt with the corruptions of the age; 2. John uttered the preparative, not the final word; 3. John demanded “fruits” in proof of sincerity; 4. John preached of judgment; 5. John grounded his ministry on first principles. He called to duty, “Repent;” he announced a fact, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is the business of some men simply to initiate. They blow a trumpet-blast, and having roused attention, they retire before the teacher sent from God. Let ministers be judged by this rule; there is a ministry of initiation, and there is a ministry of education. Some men, Christ for example, combine these ministries.
13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15. And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17. And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Christ’s baptism could not imply that he was called to “repentance.” It showed: — I. That Christ identified Himself with the current of the Divine purposes as shown in human history. He did not stand apart in an unapproachable loneliness; He worked with man as well as for man. This identification begets sympathy, and sympathy is one of the prime conditions of moral sovereignty. 2. That the right use of present dispensations is compatible with the highest ideal of destiny. The ages have been conducted to a great crisis; the prophets of an olden time had passed away; and now prophecy in its sublimest power was incarnated in one man; the past and the future converged, so to speak, upon this “voice crying in the wilderness.” Christ, then, identified Himself with the contemporary dispensation, and through that passed on to His mediation. Men should study the divinity of each age, and become co-workers with God. God has some method of working in every generation, and our business should be to ally ourselves with Him, according to the speciality of the revelation. 3. That obedience to the spirit of the time ever brings fuller disclosures and attestations of the Divine blessing. In a peculiar sense this was so with Christ, yet each of His followers is honoured, proportionally, in the same way. The heavens are opened to every obedient man, and the Spirit of God descends on the last as on the first. Christ’s was, of course, a special inauguration; so far He stands entirely and for ever alone, yet all who come within His mediation, penitently and believingly, receive according to their degree the same tokens of Divine complacency. 4. That the less is auxiliary to the greater. John shrunk from the service, saying, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me.” Men must “come to” one another, sometimes even in an inverted order, so that Divine plans may be carried out.
GENERAL NOTE ON THE CHAPTER.
This chapter contains the history of a whole dispensation. “In those days came John .... This is my beloved Son.” Sometimes a dispensation stretched through centuries; in this case it was comparatively but an hour. God makes history with varying degrees of rapidity. Hardly have we finished the awful words of Malachi, “Smite the earth with a curse,” until we read, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.”
History has thus culminated in a new name. We have come from Man, Servant, Prophet, Messenger, up to Son I There is a profoundly significant moral element even in this nomenclature: we pass from “make” to “begotten;” from “upright” to “beloved;” from the “us” of the creating Trinity to the “my” of the benignant Father. There has been a Divine ideal in the race, towards which all revolution, all war, all discovery, all worship, has been a struggle. Visions of prophecy, songs of hope, agonies of prayer, have had this mystery before them — a mystery which has been inspiration, a mystery which has been a great “burden.”
Christ has been in all the dispensations, why should He be excluded from John’s? “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.” Should there, then, be one dispensation without Him? Truly not. He had been the inspiration of all epochs, and as they moved on to the immediate fulfilment of God’s purpose He came nearer to the vision, until at last, baptized with water, standing on the earth, under the opened heavens, He was pronounced “my Son,” and the “very good” of the first Adam was exchanged for the “well pleased” of the second.