Matthew 3

Matthew continues to mentor his readers and that on two levels. First, he mentors us on how to read the Old Testament. And second, he expounds the deepest significance of Jesus through this way of reading the Old Testament. If Mt. 2 closes with the Messianic “Nazorean,” Mt.3 opens with Messiah’s prophesied forerunner John the Baptist appearing in the desert to announce the near advent of the “Kingdom of Heaven” (v.1). As we might well suspect at this point, Old Testament images and types abound. We’ll take a look at a number of them here.

“The Kingdom of Heaven”

This is Matthew’s characteristic way of designating what the messianic ministry of Jesus is all about. No other gospel uses this phrase. Where they have “kingdom of God” Matthew seems to have substituted “heaven” for “God.” The common explanation that this is out of respect for Jewish scruples for speaking the name of God appears not to be correct. Matthew does not otherwise avoid the word “God” (51 times) and even uses “kingdom of God” 4 times. We must look elsewhere for an explanation of his use of “kingdom of heaven.”

That this kingdom, whether of God or heaven is the central focus of Jesus’ ministry is one of the few things nearly all Gospel scholars agree on. It is on John the Baptist’s lips here, Jesus’ lips as he introduces his ministry in 4:17, and he gives the mandate to his disciples to proclaim it in their ministry (10:7). So getting a fix on it is crucial to getting a fix on the gospels, Jesus, and the church.

Careful study of Matthew’s use of “heaven” and particularly the word pair “heaven and earth” give us the perspective we need. Heaven for Matthew stands in opposition to earth. Not in a dualistic way that says heaven is better than earth, the spiritual better than the physical (as we in the West have been wont to do since Plato). Rather, heaven and earth in Matthew pose the opposition of God’s way to humanity’s way, especially humanity as it has given itself to or fallen under the sway of the evil one (6:13 NRSV). The kingdom of heaven “is fundamentally different from the kingdoms of this world and all human expectations.” It is

“not built on human wisdom or human principles, but on God’s character and nature. Matthew has intentionally taken the cosmological language of heaven and earth from the OT and has used it to communicate the urgently eschatological message of Jesus. A new day has dawned with the coming of the Kingdom. All is overturned because of the epochal reality of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”[1]

This basic opposition of God’s way and rule to human/demonic ways and rule is the heart of the message John’s announces, Jesus embodies, and his people enact in the world. This gospel offers a critique of all other arrangements of power and authority then (the Roman Empire, Jewish leadership and its opponents) and now.

John the Baptist: Identity (3:1-6)

Some 30 years after Jesus’ birth the last and greatest of Israel’s prophets appeared in the desert portentous words on his lips: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Repentance is another of those words regularly misshapen by North American Christianity. We take as a call to recognize and feel bad about the ways we have failed God, pray a prayer of confession, and pledge to do better henceforth. But the Greek word means something more like a military recruiting call: “Israel’s God wants you! Give him the allegiance you owe him and live your whole life from now on under his rule and sway.” A bit clunky, I admit. But worth spelling out a bit in light of its usual misunderstanding. It’s not about feeling remorse or sorrow, though that may in some cases attended this change of allegiance and loyalty. To repent then, to give God the allegiance due him, is to make a 180° turn in the direction of one’s life away from the kingdoms one has heretofore served to the one which stands as its polar opposite, the kingdom of heaven (as we have seen).

John is the signal-bearer of the onset of God’s New Exodus as the citation from Isa.40 shows. The story begun in the Old Testament has now reached a turning point. Mired in the continuation of exile even after it return to the land from Babylon, the rule of God long-promised and awaited has “come near.” “The times they are a changin’” as Bob Dylan famously heralded the turbulent sixties in our country. Time to get ready to welcome this epochal change!

But Israel wasn’t ready for it. Not by a long shot. So John appears in the desert, a look-a-like for the great prophet Elijah, who in both garb (2 Ki.1:8) and diet calls him to mind and reminds his hearers that Elijah’s return is prophesied as the prelude to “the great and terrible day of the Lord” which will “turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse” (Mal.4:5-6).

“So long as Israel dwells in the land,” writes Leithart, “she cannot be renewed. They have to be taken from the land, turned into Gentiles, and then reincorporated into the land by returning to the land through the Jordan.”[2] Locusts often symbolize judgment in the Old Testament and in Joel 1-2 represent invading hordes of Gentiles threatening Israel. But John eats locusts. That is, he eats up, takes into himself the pagan invaders, the threat to Israel thus becomes part of him. Thus his eating these “Gentiles” suggests that he is the one who will prepare Israel to be Abrahamic again and enact its mission of blessing the world by incorporating the Gentiles into God’s people.

Honey is often linked with the land in the Old Testament – a land “flowing with milk and honey” (for instance, Ex.3:17; 13:5; Lev.20:24; Num.13:27; Dt.6:3; Isa.7:22; Jer.13:5). Honey is also associated with the manna with which God fed the people in the wilderness (Ex.16:31). “It’s a taste of the honey of the land of milk and honey, but only a taste. The full enjoyment will come later. John is telling Israel that they can be renewed only by reverting to the wilderness, only by ceasing to be Israel and then being restored to being Israel.”[3]

So Elijah/John appears outside the land, baptizing all who come in preparation for God’s New Exodus. The people thus prepared will reenter the land as if it where still pagan as at their first entrance to it under Joshua. And Matthew tells us multitudes came to him to be baptized in the river, confessing their sins, and readying themselves for the coming crucible.

John the Baptist: Work (3:7-12)

But not all who came to John were sympathetic top his cause. They recognize the symbolism of his garb and diet and his receiving people in the desert and baptizing them in the Jordan. And they took offense at him and what he was doing.

John recognized them – Pharisees and Sadducees. Before they can speak a word of criticism though, he launches a broadside at what he knew they would claim.

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bear fruit worthy of repentance. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ Even now the ax 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.”

John knew these religious leaders would resent his call to come be baptized and become part of God’s New Exodus/New Israel movement. They are already Abraham’s children. What need did they have to submit to this wannabe Elijah and his crowd of common folk? John says they must be dumb as rocks to think that way. God can raise up his people even from the stones around their feet. The issue is not pedigree or even religious performance but fruit born of that u-turn of life (repentance, v.8) to serve God and his purposes rather than our own or someone else’s agenda.

And serving their own agendas was just what these religious leaders had been up to. That’s why Israel had become Egypt, in effect. Proud and arrogant they used their religion to secure their status and privilege among the people. In Ps.74:4-8 (see also Isa.10:15-19) God’s enemies lay the axe and fire to the temple. Jesus now claims that God’s axe lays at the root of that same establishment and the fire awaits them if they do not respond. God has become the enemy of his people become Egypt. Their only hope is humble repentance and joining God’s New Exodus movement.

The river’s water, John claims, is but a sign of the work God will do in those who repent. He will reclaim and restore them as his Abrahamic people equip them with the Spirit and cleanse them for their new life (“fire,” 3:11) beyond exile.

“John’s placement in the wilderness, his baptism in the Jordan, his diet and clothing, indicate that Israel will pass through a radical renewal before they can be brought out of the exile they are currently in. They have to be wrenched from the land, dwell in the wilderness all over again, and return to the land. Israel has become Egypt, and for Israel to become new, she must go through a massive exodus, which is what John is enacting.”[4]

Jesus’ Baptism (3:13-17)

Among the crowds coming to John at the Jordan was Jesus from Nazareth. He too desired to be baptized along with the others. John, however, demurred. Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness” (v.15). What does he mean by this?

He obviously has no sins to confess. So, most of the time the answer given is that Jesus desires baptism in order to stand in solidarity with his people as they enact God’s New Exodus and walk through the crucible that lies ahead. That’s true enough. It is the way Jesus will do what he will do. But it doesn’t really answer why Jesus speaks of “righteousness” here. How does his baptism “fulfill all righteousness”?  

“Righteousness” is usually thought of as a moral standard but that doesn’t really fit here. Righteousness is more often a description of the character of Israel’s God and of his intentions and work in the world. He is a God who sets things right, the way they ought to be. Isa.51:4-8 gives a vivid picture of all this:

“Listen to me, my people,
    and give heed to me, my nation;
for a teaching will go out from me,
    and my justice for a light to the peoples.
I will bring near my deliverance swiftly,
    my salvation has gone out
    and my arms will rule the peoples;
the coastlands wait for me,
    and for my arm they hope.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
    and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens will vanish like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like a garment,
    and those who live on it will die like gnats;
but my salvation will be forever,
    and my deliverance will never be ended.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
    you people who have my teaching in your hearts;
do not fear the reproach of others,
    and do not be dismayed when they revile you.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
    and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my deliverance will be forever,
    and my salvation to all generations.”

I suggest that this vision of God pursuing righteousness is what Jesus was embracing in being baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness: to participate, and indeed, to lead God’s New Exodus!

As Jesus broke the water and rose from baptism a remarkable thing happened. The Spirit of God descended dove-like and rested on Jesus. Now that’s remarkable but it’s not the remarkable thing I just mentioned. That is Matthew’s mention that “the heavens were opened.” This answered to the prophet’s cry in Isa.64:1-2:

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
    so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    so that the nations might tremble at your presence!”

Jesus’ baptism fulfills that cry. Heaven and earth are reunited in him. The Spirit is the agent of this reunification. And when he baptizes us with that same Spirit we become agents of this reunification of heaven and earth under him.

And the voice from heaven Jesus hears indicates God regards him who fulfills all righteousness as his royal “Son” (Ps.2:7), the Sacrifice of his love for us (“beloved,” Gen.22:1) and the Suffering Servant (“with whom I am well pleased,” Isa.42:1-4). Or, in terms of the three great offices of the Old Testament: King, Priest, and Prophet. And in him, so too are we!

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[1] Jonathan T. Pennington, “The Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 12 (2008), 48.

[2] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew: 1140.

[3] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew, 1152.

[4] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew: 1164.