Matthew 3:1-17

Sermon Exegesis for January 9th, 2011


MATTHEW 3:1-2

3 ᾽Εν δὲ ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις παραγίνεται ᾽Ιωάννης ὁ βαπτιστὴς κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῆς ᾽Ιουδαίας 2 [καὶ] λέγων, Μετανοεῖτε, ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

Μετανοεῖτε present imv; "repent."

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, John appeared. Luke's Gospel tells us more about John -- he was a relative, perhaps a second cousin, of Jesus; his parents were Elizabeth and Zechariah the priest; and his birth, too, was prophesied by an angel.

The Desert of Judea begins at the plateau that Jerusalem and Bethlehem sit upon, and stretches back east and a little north to the upper tip of the Dead Sea and the mouth of the Jordan River. Just across the Jordan is the apparent location of "Bethany on the other side of the Jordan," where John 1:28 tells us is where John the Baptist was preaching. (New students to Scripture are sometimes confused by the two John's. John the Baptist was the relative of Jesus who preached and baptized before Jesus' ministry, and then was imprisoned and finally beheaded. The other John, son of Zebedee, was Jesus' disciple and Apostle, was specially beloved by Jesus, wrote the Gospel of John and four other New Testament books, and outlived all the other Apostles).

"Repent" is the key word of this passage. To repent is to change the mind; to be turned away from one's sins and one's will and be turned to God's will. Today we might say that it is "to do a one-eighty," that is, to turn 180 degrees around and go the opposite way -- away from sin, away from temptation, away from the Tempter, away from the devil, and away from eternal death. Repentance takes place in the heart, but we don't bring it about ourselves. God's holy law convicts our hearts. We are sinners. But then God's beautiful gospel goes to work, too, and flows over our wounds with the healing message of God's forgiveness. We turn away from our sins only through the gospel, and only through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Repent. Change your mind. Change your heart. Change your life. How? Through Jesus -- who paid for those sins. They aren't on your shoulders anymore. They aren't on your account. They're gone. Leave them behind. There's eternal life ahead!

MATTHEW 3:3-4

3 οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ῥηθεὶς διὰ ᾽Ησαίου τοῦ προϕήτου λέγοντος, Φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, ῾Ετοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ. 4 Αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ ᾽Ιωάννης εἶχεν τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην περὶ τὴν ὀσϕὺν αὐτοῦ, ἡ δὲ τροϕὴ ἦν αὐτοῦ ἀκρίδες καὶ μέλι ἄγριον.

3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" 4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

Except for the final phrase εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, the quote is the same as in the Septuagint of Isaiah 40:3. The LXX ends the quote with "make straight paths for our God" (εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν) rather than "make straight paths for him."

How is your preparation going?

John's cry is directed at us, not just at the people down by the Jordan. This passage is often read during Advent, the time of year just prior to Christmas, when we focus our attention on the coming Christ -- on his first coming at Christmas, and at his second coming at the end of the world.

So how is your preparation going?

John wore strange clothes, the clothes of an Old Testament prophet. He ate a strange diet (can you believe it -- locusts are a sort of delicacy in the Middle East. He may not have had the equivalent of caviar, but he had lots of protein). And he had a strange message: Prepare! We prepare ourselves for Christ's second coming by keeping in his Word. We prepare by daily destroying our sinful human nature. We focus each and every day on Christ. Jesus paid for our sins, and we turn away from them. We're going to trip sometimes; we're going to stumble and fall. But we keep focusing on Jesus.

He's coming again.

How is your preparation going?

MATTHEW 3:5-6

5 τότε ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν ῾Ιεροσόλυμα καὶ πᾶσα ἡ ᾽Ιουδαία καὶ πᾶσα ἡ περίχωρος τοῦ ᾽Ιορδάνου, 6 καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο ἐν τῷ ᾽Ιορδάνῃ ποταμῷ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν.

5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

περίχωρος (fem nom sg) "surrounding region, neighborhood."

ἐβαπτίζοντο imperfect passive, the imperfect showing continual action of the group, not of any individual ("one Lord, one faith, one baptism," Ephesians 4:5).

ἐξομολογούμενοι pres midd ptc, circumstantial temporal. "When" they confessed their sins, they were baptized.

Notice how three important parts of a Christian's life are present here: (1) Gathering with other Christians to hear the word, (2) confession of sins, and (3) baptism.

A goldfish basically needs water to survive. But holding a fish out in the rain is not going to help her survive very long, is it? She needs a tank, plenty of fresh water, an air supply bubbling through that water, and food. A Christian needs more than just a little instruction once upon a time to survive spiritually. We need to hear the word regularly and share our faith with others. We need to be reminded often of the forgiveness God gives us. And God gives us more than one way of saying that our sins are forgiven: The spoken absolution ("your sins are forgiven"), and also the sacraments, baptism and communion, both of which also bring the same wonderful saving message. Your sins are forgiven, washed clean, and paid for by the blood of Jesus.

Our Lutheran forefathers wrote: "Our people are taught that they should highly prize the absolution (pronouncement of absolute forgiveness), as being the voice of God, and pronounced by God's command. The power of the Keys is set forth in its beauty, and they are reminded (of) what great consolation it brings to anxious consciences." (Augsburg Confession, Article 25, paragraph 4).

We don't know what form John's baptism took. Probably it was similar to Jesus'. Certainly it was a "real" or valid baptism since it was what Christ himself and his Apostles received. Mark also tells us that John's baptism was "for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4), which is the same purpose as the one Jesus would command his disciples to perform (Matthew 28:19) -- to make disciples by forgiving sins.

We will discuss John's baptizing in the Jordan River and the form baptism takes when we meditate on Matthew 3:16.

Lord God, thank you for giving us your Son. Thank you for forgiving our sins. Teach us to lay our sins before you every day without trying to hide them, so that we may bask in the forgiveness you promise and you give, through your Son Jesus. Amen.

MATTHEW 3:7-8

7 ᾽Ιδὼν δὲ πολλοὺς τῶν Φαρισαίων καὶ Σαδδουκαίων ἐρχομένους ἐπὶ τὸ βάπτισμα αὐτοῦ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν ϕυγεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς; 8 ποιήσατε οὖν καρπὸν ἄξιον τῆς μετανοίας·

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were two extreme branches of Judaism. They came out to John to hear his message, and they may even have expected to be baptized by him. However, his message to them was not what they expected to hear. But the message was serious: God himself has warned us.

Many prophets had spoken out against spiritual leaders who were hypocrites. Ezekiel said: "They say 'The LORD declares,' when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled" (Ezekiel 13:6). Zephaniah said: "I will cut off... those who turn back from following the LORD and neither seek the LORD nor inquire of him" (Zephaniah 1:4, 6). And Amos said: "For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn back [my wrath] because they have rejected the law of the LORD and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods" (Amos 2:4). Why did John bring similar, if not stronger, charges against these Jewish leaders?

MATTHEW 3:9-10

9 καὶ μὴ δόξητε λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, Πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν ᾽Αβραάμ, λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι δύναται ὁ θεὸς ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ ᾽Αβραάμ. 10 ἤδη δὲ ἡ ἀξίνη πρὸς τὴν ῥίζαν τῶν δένδρων κεῖται· πᾶν οὖν δένδρον μὴ ποιοῦν καρπὸν καλὸν ἐκκόπτεται καὶ εἰς πῦρ βάλλεται.

9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Both the Pharisees and Sadducees were relatively new groups. When John was baptizing, they had been around for about 150 years. The Pharisees included many Jewish oral traditions along with what we call the Old Testament as the Word of God. They set up a sort of legal "hedge" around God's law with other laws that were meant to make it more difficult to sin. In practice, this meant that they tended to focus on the external, visible life. How you act is more important that what is in your heart -- or, in the words of Billy Crystal, "To look good is more important than to feel good." And yet we would agree with many of the beliefs of the Pharisees -- angels, heaven, the immortality of the soul, and of course the Ten Commandments were all part of their faith.

The Sadducees would be difficult for us to stomach. They denied the authority of Scripture, they attributed all events to free will, they denied the resurrection and any concept of heaven, they rejected the existence of angels or demons or of any spiritual world, and accepted only the first five books of the Bible as Scripture. In short, they were almost but not quite as deadly and damning as the leadership among theologically liberal Christians today. From what pastors of the ELCA have shared with me about their Seminary experience, their synod in particular would match the faith of the Sadducees (not necessarily the members in the pews, but the professors and synod leaders).

John calls both groups "vipers." Snakes have reminded us of deception since the Garden of Eden. "Vipers" are dangerous snakes. They aren't just deceptive and deadly, they are aggressive as well. But we must not simply point fingers. We won't stop sinning as long as we are alive, but when we try to ignore our sins, cover up our sins, or live with our sins "just because that's who I am" -- then we become the hypocrites.

Jesus, forgive our hypocrisy, and lead us to follow you.

You paid for our sins on the cross. Teach us to leave them there and follow you.

MATTHEW 3:11-12

11 ἐγὼ μὲν ὑμᾶς βαπτίζω ἐν ὕδατι εἰς μετάνοιαν· ὁ δὲ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἰσχυρότερός μού ἐστιν, οὗ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς τὰ ὑποδήματα βαστάσαι· αὐτὸς ὑμᾶς βαπτίσει ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ πυρί· 12 οὗ τὸ πτύον ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ διακαθαριεῖ τὴν ἅλωνα αὐτοῦ, καὶ συνάξει τὸν σῖτον αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην [αὐτοῦ], τὸ δὲ ἄχυρον κατακαύσει πυρὶ ἀσβέστῳ.

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 with fire.  12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." (RSV)

In just a few words, John the Baptizer gives us a picture of the full scope of Jesus' work, and a picture of the way the word works in our hearts.

First, the baptism: This passage makes some think there was a difference between John's baptism and Jesus' baptism. But Mark 1:4 tells us that the purpose of both was the same: for the forgiveness of sins. And John's Gospel (3:22-23) tells us that John and Jesus' disciples were baptizing at the same time and in the same area.

When John talks about Jesus' baptizing "with the Holy Spirit and with fire," he appears to be talking primarily about the effect that the Word has on our hearts: It either produces faith, or it hardens unbelief. Isaiah records these words from God: "My word...will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). At the same time, we are reminded that faith within us is like a fire, and continued contact with the Word fans it into a bigger, brighter, stronger fire. So the work of the Holy Spirit produces either the fire of faith, or the flames of God's wrath.

The picture of a man with a winnowing fork was a common scene in ancient times -- and was even fairly common in the more recent past. When wheat was ground with a sledge or beaten, it was then thrown into the air with a winnowing fork (something like a pitch fork). The heavier kernels of wheat fall to the earth again, but the chaff (all the husks and hulls and stuff that isn't part of the kernel) is lighter and is carried away by the breeze. This is a picture of Jesus judging the world. The chaff (the unbeliever) is carried away to be burned in the fires and torments of hell. But the wheat (the believer) is safely kept by Jesus and brought into the barns of heaven.

Like John, you and I may not be fit to carry Jesus' sandals, but we can rejoice that through faith, we are God's wheat. The barn is ready. The Master comes with his winnowing fork. We have nothing to fear -- we are his. And he is our Savior.

MATTHEW 3:13

13 Τότε παραγίνεται ὁ ᾽Ιησοῦς ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας ἐπὶ τὸν ᾽Ιορδάνην πρὸς τὸν ᾽Ιωάννην τοῦ βαπτισθῆναι ὑπ' αὐτοῦ.

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.

παραγίνεται pres midd ind 3 sg παραγίνoμαι "come, appear."

ἐπὶ τὸν ᾽Ιορδάνην "to the Jordan," John, we are told, baptized "at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water" (John 3:23).

τοῦ βαπτισθῆναι ὑπ' αὐτοῦ genitive absolute; articularized infinitive marking purpose (as with a circumstantial participle). Jesus didn't just happen upon John baptizing in the Jordan, he sought John out in order to be baptized by him. There were between 20 and 25 natural fords over the Jordan between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Two important ones outside Galilee in the north were the ford of Abarah north of Beth Shan and the Dâmich ford at the mouth of the Jabbok (C.F. Kent, "Biblical Geography and History," 1922, p. 50-51).

MATTHEW 3:14

14 ὁ δὲ ᾽Ιωάννης διεκώλυεν αὐτὸν λέγων, ᾽Εγὼ χρείαν ἔχω ὑπὸ σοῦ βαπτισθῆναι, καὶ σὺ ἔρχῃ πρός με;

14 But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"

διεκώλυεν imf active in 3 sg διακωλύω "prevent." Here the imperfect is conative (BDF 326), indicating that John "tried" to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him. John's response is little different than the prophets of the Old Testament falling down before the presence of God in visions (Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 1:6). The use of the emphatic σὺ in the second clause of the speech is intensive; we would use italics today for both σὺ and με.

MATTHEW 3:15

15 ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ ᾽Ιησοῦς εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτόν, ῎Αϕες ἄρτι, οὕτως γὰρ πρέπον ἐστὶν ἡμῖν πληρῶσαι πᾶσαν δικαιοσύνην. τότε ἀϕίησιν αὐτόν.

15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.

῎Αϕες is the aorist imperative of ἀϕίημι: "Allow this, let it be."

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Did Jesus need to repent? No -- Jesus endured temptations but never succumbed to them. He never sinned -- not once. Not a stray thought, not a rash word. Not a single misdeed. So why did he need to be baptized?

Jesus needed to be baptized πληρῶσαι πᾶσαν δικαιοσύνην "to fulfill all righteousness." Not his righteousness -- ours. Every one of us needs to be baptized into Jesus, and his baptism connects us to him. We are washed just as he was. But the water that washes us is not just water, it is water connected with Jesus' very words -- "the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Luther explained: "It is certainly not the water that does such great things, but God's Word which is in and with the water and faith which trusts this Word used with the water. For without God's Word the water is just plain water, and not baptism. But with this Word it is baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of rebirth by the Holy Spirit."

The little words at the end of our passage should tell us something about our life of faith: "Then John consented." We do nothing to initiate our contact with God, but he invites us to receive faith as a gift. Our humble "consent" is not something we do actively, but something God gives us to do in response to his grace.

What a great God we have. He has connected himself to us by becoming human like us. And he has connected us to him through this simple faith-creating act of baptism. Thank you, Lord, for this bath of -- and into -- faith.

MATTHEW 3:16

16 βαπτισθεὶς δὲ ὁ ᾽Ιησοῦς εὐθὺς ἀνέβη ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος·

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. (NIV)

"Up out of the water" is a phrase that has given many Christians trouble. There are some who think that it must mean that Jesus was baptized by immersion -- dipping a person completely under water. However, the same phrase occurs in the first chapter of a very early Christian work called "The Shepherd of Hermas." There it clearly does not mean that the person involved is coming up from under the water, and so the Greek in context of our verse above need not mean that Jesus was immersed, either.

Sometimes Lutherans are criticized for not baptizing by immersing. Why don't we? We certainly could. In fact, it would be a beautiful testimony to Paul's words in Romans: "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life" (Romans 6:4).However, Scripture nowhere insists that we baptize by immersing. True -- there seem to be examples where immersion is apparently the technique used, but such passage are merely descriptive, not prescriptive. They tell us what happened, not what we must do. When someone presumes to insist that we baptize in a certain way, they are flying in the face of God's Word. They are sinning when they make that kind of demand, and therefore we confess our faith when we refuse to baptize by immersion, even though we might actually prefer to immerse.

The command is simply to baptize, applying water with the name of the Triune God. In fact, the word "baptize" clearly does not always mean to immerse in passages such as Mark 7:4, where the Greek text tells us that such things as cups, pitchers, large kettles, and even (according to a well-attested textual variant) dining couches were "baptized" (NIV translates with "washing"). Washing -- applying water -- is all that the Greek "baptizo" really means.

Thanks be to God. For you and me, through the Word and the work of the Holy Spirit, our baptism means that you and I are forgiven of our sins, and we are connected to Jesus Christ, washed in his name. We are his, whether we were dipped, dunked, sprinkled or splashed.

MATTHEW 3:16b-17

καὶ ἰδοὺ ἠνεῴχθησαν [αὐτῷ] οἱ οὐρανοί, καὶ εἶδεν [τὸ] πνεῦμα [τοῦ] θεοῦ καταβαῖνον ὡσεὶ περιστερὰν [καὶ] ἐρχόμενον ἐπ' αὐτόν· 17 καὶ ἰδοὺ ϕωνὴ ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν λέγουσα, Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν ᾧ εὐδόκησα.

At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (NIV)

There are several places in Scripture where all three persons of the Trinity are mentioned, but few are clearer than this moment, when all three are present and active at the same time. To quote a basic summary of the doctrine of the Trinity from our catechism, "We refer to God as triune (three-in-one) because he reveals himself as three persons yet one God (John 15:26; Matthew 3:16-17; Matthew 28:19; Deuteronomy 6:4; etc.)."

The work of God the Father is not only the creation of the universe (Genesis 1-2; Psalm 124:8) but also that he provides for us and protects us every day (Psalm 145:15-16; 1 Peter 5:7).

The work of God the Son was to redeem us from our sins (Colossians 2:13), and he will also judge the world on the Last Day (Acts 17:31).

The work of the Holy Spirit is to set us apart (sanctify us) by bringing us to faith and keeping us there through the Gospel in the Word and in the two Sacraments (2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 6:11).

One final note about the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of the Lord often came upon men who were set apart by God for a special purpose to empower them for their task ahead. This happened to Moses' seventy (or 72) elders (Numbers 11:25-26), Othniel, one of the Judges (Judges 3:10), the prophet Azariah (2 Chronicles 15:1), Balaam the foreign prophet (Numbers 24:2), and finally the Apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:17; cf. Joel 2:28-32).

We take comfort from this passage in knowing that Jesus truly is God who became human for us. Through Jesus, our sins are paid for in full. Through Jesus, we have eternal life.