Matthew 3:1-12 is a story about John the Baptist.
Historical information about John the Baptist is sparse, both within and outside of the Bible. The only non-New Testament reference is in Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, Chapter 5, Section 2.
2. Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him.
Applied to today, we might consider that the evangelical address of the church is in the situation and function of John the Baptist, which is also a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, and baptizing with water. The church is not worthy to unloose the shoes of its Lord. The church has the duty of summoning people to knowledge of Christ and readiness for baptism with the Spirit.[1]
Matthew 3:1-6 is a story about John the Baptist. It depends upon Mark 1:1-8. John preached that the end of the age was at hand and called on people generally to repent.[2] In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, the desolate and hilly region, stretching from the ridge of Palestine to the Jordan valley and the Red Sea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven (unique to Matthew, his preference to the rule of God, although see exceptions in Matthew 6:33; 12:28; 19:24; 21:31, 43) has come near (ἤγγικεν).” His proclamation underscores the significance of his coming. However, the call to repent was not new. Long before John many prophets and even Solomon had called for the people of Israel to repent (e.g., I Kings 8:46-53; Isaiah 1:27; Ezekiel 14:6; 18:30). It refers to a renunciation of sin. Conversion to a new way of life usually follows regret over past life. They are the pre-conditions for receiving the salvation offered through the rule of God. The kingdom of “heaven” is simply a Jewish avoidance of the term "God," which may suggest that Jesus preferred the term. Rather than the call to repent, the distinctiveness of John's proclamation resides in the reason for repenting. Here we more likely find the significance is more likely in the timing of the arrival of the rule of God. The rule of God is no longer a future event that remains somewhere off in the distance. Instead, the perfect tense of the verb suggests that John's announcement reveals for the first time that the "kingdom of heaven" is a present reality; consequently, he calls all to repent. Matthew invites us to remember the words of one of the greatest prophets of Israel. In verses 11-12 he will invite us to look to the future. 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah (40:3) spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” John is preparing the people for the coming of the Lord, which for Matthew and his readers would mean the coming of Christ. John reminds us that the Lord's advent is a revelation of who we are and the consequences of character and conduct that await us. Matthew intentionally uses common phrases for the essence of the message they preached.
4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Zechariah 13:4 suggests prophets had “a hairy mantle,” while II Kings 1:8 describes Elijah the Tishbite as a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist. Malachi 4:5-6 looks forward to the expectation that Elijah would return at the end of the age. Thus, first-century Jewish readers would easily recognize that John looks like the prophet Elijah. John's concern for his own basic needs was so insignificant that he was content to subsist on whatever he could lay his hands on in that open country. Bedouins also eat such food. John represents a wilderness ascetic movement of this time prior to 30 AD. The apocalyptic fervor of the day fueled his preaching. He may have had some connection with the Jewish set that authored and housed the Dead Sea Scrolls, texts that combined apocalyptic thought and an ascetic way of way of life. He may have some affinity with Essenes.
5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. The message is a moral summons to turn away from sin.
Submitting to baptism was a concrete expression of the act of repentance. Such confession took place before or during baptism. The good news as found in the preaching of John is that forgiveness of sin is already available. Thus, the first step is simple honesty. We sin, we wander, we lie, and we do not know how to save ourselves through our efforts. Yes, sin is missing the mark. However, sin, at its heart, is a refusal to become fully human. It is anything that interferes with the opening up of our whole hearts to God, to others, to creation, and to ourselves. Sin is estrangement, disconnection, sterility, disharmony. It is the sludge that slows us down, that says, “Quit. Stop trying. Give up. Change is impossible.” Sin is apathy. Care-less-ness. A frightened resistance to an engaged life. Sin is the opposite of creativity, the opposite of abundance, the opposite of flourishing. Sin is a walking death.[3]
Repentance is the admission that in our sin we need to receive forgiveness. Yet, the first step has a close relation to the second step, in which we acknowledge that God forgives. The good news begins in Mark as John invites people to receive forgiveness. We can receive the gift of washing, cleansing, and new birth. We can start over, fresh, like a newborn infant. God forgives. Such is the beginning and end of the good news. For all sin, God forgives. Outside the ascetic life of John is despair, the proud attitude that denies the need for or the possibility of forgiveness.[4] By the way, sinners have all the advantages in this good news. God is willing to stay with us in our meanness, weakness, and stubborn self-righteousness. We are better off spiritually if we confess our sins rather than keep a list of the sins of others against us.[5]
Repentance involves a turning around, a radical change of direction, involving the heart and will, the whole being of the repentant one. Repentance is John’s hopeful word, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around, to experiencing the washing in the cleansing waters of baptism as we anticipate the coming of the one mightier than John is. One does not experience enlightenment by simply imagining the light. One must also become conscious of the darkness.[6] Every day is judgment day. Through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, we are writing in the Book of Life.[7] In this case, people turn away from their settled lives in the comfortable inhabited Judean countryside and from Jerusalem turn towards the wilderness and the message of John. Such persons joyfully participated in preparations for the coming of the Lord. Such preparation can only mean the rule of God is near. John the baptizer prepares people through the symbolic use of water as he baptized them in the river Jordan. Baptism did find wide practice among the Jewish sects. It was a form of ritual purification. The Essene community practiced it daily. Some groups practiced it to mark significant transitions in life. Jewish proselytes self-immersed in water. Josephus connected the baptism of John with ritual purification.[8] However, John invited the Jewish people to submit to his baptism.[9] Water symbolizes purifying of life, and this the people came to John confessing their sins. Submitting to baptism was a concrete expression of the act of repentance. Such confession took place before or during baptism.
The ministry of John focused on the preaching of a message of radical social change accompanied by the symbolic act of baptism. Why is John baptizing at all? Such baptism was a ritual lustration with roots already established within Jewish practice. Ritual purification with water was an important feature of Israelite religion, particularly with regard to the impurity associated with various aspects of sexuality (e.g., intercourse and childbirth; see, e.g., Leviticus 15:18; Numbers 19:13). Ritual practices were widespread in Greco-Roman religion also, especially in cults associated with healing deities. Immersion in water, of either the whole body or parts, was a widely practiced means of ritual purification. Such rituals were apparently part of the daily practice of the Essene community, and other groups used them more restrictively to mark significant transitions in life. There is also evidence that other groups in the region of the Jordan Valley were practicing forms of ritual immersion during this period, as well as evidence that a Jewish practice of proselyte baptism as part of an initiation ritual began sometime in the first century of the Common Era. Josephus suggests that people understood John’s baptism as precisely this kind of ritual purification, specifically of the body, because the soul had already been purified by righteous conduct.[10] Therefore, while it is clear that the practice of ritual purification with water did not originate with John the Baptist (and common sense would suggest that there was no one “inventor” of the practice), the New Testament first identifies baptism with John’s ministry and preaching, and only later and more significantly associated with Jesus (e.g., Matthew 29:19). In any case, for all its associations with the Greek and Jewish world, the baptism of John was unique.
Further, when John preached and issued a call for baptism, it would neither have shocked first-century Jews nor disturbed the ruling class. Ritual washings in mikva'ot (immersion baths or pools) were commonplace, and people believed that this practice cleansed the body of its chronic profanity and sanctified it for worship of God. This proclamation is undoubtedly what leads Luke to specifically identify John the Baptist's message as the beginning of the "good news" (see Luke 3:18) God intends for the people of Israel. Such baptism was a ritual lustration with roots already established within Jewish practice. Ritual purification with water was an important feature of Israelite religion, particularly with regard to the impurity associated with various aspects of sexuality (e.g., intercourse and childbirth; see, e.g., Leviticus 15:18; Numbers 19:13). Ritual practices were widespread in Greco-Roman religion also, especially in cults associated with healing deities. While it is clear, therefore, that the practice of ritual purification with water did not originate with John the Baptist (and common sense would suggest that there was no one “inventor” of the practice), the New Testament first identifies baptism with John’s ministry and preaching, and only later and more significantly associated with Jesus (e.g., Matthew 29:19). In any case, for all its associations with the Greek and Jewish world, the baptism of John was unique.
Repentance is John’s hopeful word, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around, to experiencing the washing in the cleansing waters of baptism as we anticipate the coming of the one mightier than John is. One does not experience enlightenment by simply imagining the light. One must also become conscious of the darkness.[11]Every day is judgment day. Through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, we are writing in the Book of Life.[12]
C.S. Lewis describes the unrepentant condition as being in a "hole" where we need the help of a friend (i.e., a savior) to get us out. Into what sort of hole is it that we have gotten ourselves? It is behaving as if we belonged to ourselves. We are not simply imperfect creatures who need improvement; we are rebels who must lay down our arms. "Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor -- that is the only way out of a 'hole,'" says Lewis. This process of surrender is what we call repentance (the underlying Greek word means "changing the mind" or "turning around"), and it is what John was calling for in his prophetic preaching. Lewis adds this important note: "... this repentance ... is not something God demands of you before he will take you back and which he could let you off if he chose: it is simply a description of what going back to him is like." We cannot be right with God without repentance; it is like asking God to take us back without actually going back.[13]
The writer Kathleen Norris gives us another way to understand repentance. She tells of working as an artist-in-residence at a parochial school and telling children something about the psalms. The kids are often astonished to discover that the psalmists expressed the more unacceptable emotions like sadness and anger, even anger at God. She says that because the children know what it is like to be small in a world designed for big people. They identify quite readily with the psalmists, and often do quite well when she invites them to write their own psalms.
She tells of one boy who wrote a poem/psalm called "The Monster Who Was Sorry." He began by admitting that he hated it when his father yelled at him, and in the poem, he pictures himself responding by throwing his sister down the stairs, wrecking his room and then wrecking the whole town. The poem ends with, "Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, 'I shouldn't have done that.'" Norris concludes her account of this boy's poem by referring to the fourth-century monks who guided beginners in the faith and suggesting that those monks would have told this boy "that he was well on the way toward repentance, not such a monster after all, but only human. If the house is messy, they might have said, why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish to dwell?"[14]
Stephen Vincent Benét once wrote a Christmas play in which the wife of the innkeeper -- truly a bit part, if ever there was one -- has a memorable line. Looking on in wonder at the strange events of that holy night, the innkeeper's wife realizes that something of tremendous import has happened there in her husband's barn. And so she declares:
Rise up! The loves we had were not enough.
Something is loosed to change the shaken world,
And with it we must change!
That is the message of John the Baptist. Something has happened, and we must change.
Matthew 3:7-10 is a statement from Q suggesting John the Baptist was already part of the gospel story at an early date. John's baptism by immersion focused on the moral change, the initiation into a new community since it was done only once, and it was the result of being prepared for the wrath to come. 7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees (Luke having the saying against all Israel, with Matthew making a distinction between obedient and disobedient Israel, as Luke impugns the whole nation) coming for baptism. A procession of Pharisees and Sadducees approached John. John opposed the same religious groups that would set themselves against Jesus. Pharisees were rigid observers of the law and attached themselves to oral tradition. Paul is proud of his heritage as a Pharisee and Jesus did have several friends among them. Jesus' looseness with the law and association with sinners made them natural enemies. The Sadducees were less devout than the Pharisees and more politically minded. These two theologically diverse groups felt they represented a kind of elite corps within the Jewish community. When they came near, John swiftly painted both groups with the same insulting brush-off. He said to them, “You brood of vipers! Jesus will use this particularly nasty invective as well. Of the more than 30 species of snakes found in Israel, more than half a dozen of them are venomous, and six of these are in the class of vipers. All are capable of delivering fatal bites, which is one of the principal reasons for their appearance in the biblical text as metaphors for surprising treachery and danger (e.g., Genesis 49:17; Job 20:16; Psalm 140:3; Isaiah 30:6; 59:5; Matthew 12:34; 23:33). In only one instance (Acts 28:3), the word viper appears in its literal zoological sense. The image may make several rhetorical points simultaneously. He emphasizes the collective nature of the opposition to John’s ministry and, with that collectivity, he points to the strength that comes in numbers; he points to the colluding nature of the opposition parties; and he points forward to the idea of offspring, which follows immediately. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? The warning deals with the retribution of the day of the Lord inaugurating the messianic era. Instead of sinners seeking repentance, the Baptist portrays the rigorously righteous as a slither of snakes trying to slip out of a blazing field or a fiery future. 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. It is evident from John's reaction to the approach of the Pharisees and Sadducees that he expected some type of visible change to adhere to those who underwent his baptism. It suggests that our lifestyle, action, and choice pattern be consistent with having repented of sin. Our actions make a declaration against the destructive things of this world in favor of aligning ourselves with beautiful things of the rule of God.[15] All security in ritual is overthrown. What matters is the fruit of baptism. See 1QSiii 4-12. Qumran was against ritualism, even though it had ritual baths. He is not after a cheap success. He discourages baptism, rather than cheapen it. What matters is not the list of do's and don'ts, but a life that takes God seriously. 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. Once more invoking their common past, the Baptist denies that an Abrahamic genealogy gives an individual any special access to the kingdom now drawing near. John removes false securities. An attempt to constrain God by magic, ritual, amulets, sacraments, or Law, is what religion tries to do. God guaranteed the covenantal blessings through Abraham in the minds of many of John's contemporaries. 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.
No matter what one's pedigree, or how conscientious, "by‑the‑book," one's behavior, without "fruits," God's wrath is sure and God's judgment is imminent. The judgment process has already actually begun. Thus, instead of boasting about your family tree, John preaches, look to the tips of your own branches. Do you see good fruit there? Is your life producing something useful? Does your life nourish others with its fruits? If not, John insists, no matter how deep and impressive the root system, no matter how lofty the lineage, a non-producing tree can look forward to only one fate: cut down and burned in a fire. God's judgment has overtaken those who feel secure. Nevertheless, how are they to know salvation? He has shattered illusions. Yet, what are the proper fruit of salvation? Clearly, this is no time to sit back and observe.
The idea of divine judgment — the “wrath to come” — has firm roots in the religion of Israel and is pervasive throughout the Hebrew Bible. The idea rests on the premise that the God of Israel was impartial yet actively concerned. “The Judge of all the earth” (Genesis 18:25) has a will for that earth and its inhabitants which is not morally neutral: “Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you” (Amos 5:14). From its earliest days, Israel understood itself to be a religious and social community constituted and maintained by the gracious favor of its God, whose will for righteous behavior placed Israel, no less than are any of its neighbors, under divine judgment. The poles of divine favor and divine judgment played alternating prominent roles in Israel’s history, and John’s attack on the people’s smug self-confidence in their birthright has the intent of challenging the excessive importance some members of the religious community had attached to their election as heirs of the promise made to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 17:4-8; 22:18). III Isaiah, writing during the Persian Exile, had already challenged the idea of exclusive privilege being the prerogative of those capable of participating through biological reproduction in the religious community. In a famous oracle addressed to eunuchs and foreigners (Isaiah 56:1-8), the prophet declared that those incapable of passing on the promise through physical progeny were nonetheless welcome members of the religious community based on their obedience to the commandments. Such a radical change in perception in Israelite religion played a major role in laying the foundation for such groups as the Essenes and early Christians, whose views on marriage and reproduction were in stark contrast to the dominant Pharisaic view (see, e.g., Matthew 19:12; 22:30; Acts 8:27-39). The qualified importance attached to children by the time of John is evident in this passage.
John reminds us of the value of "crucial confrontation." Most of us will naturally struggle with this, because we do not like others to confront us. But to confront is to "hold someone accountable, face to face," according to the business book Crucial Confrontations. When one handles confrontations correctly, "both parties talk openly and honestly." Problems find resolution and relationships benefit.[16] Unlike the theological arguments voiced by pedantic Pharisees or the hairsplitting squabbles of the synagogue scribes, John the Baptist rivals all but Jesus in his ability to create an experience and invest an image with life and breath. John the Baptist could not contain his mission or his message to the standard piety of Jerusalem. Nothing less than the wide-open spaces and the roar of the river could satisfy John as a setting for his exuberant ministry. John himself embodied the out-of-doors, out-of-the-ordinary, out-of-this-world prophecy he proclaimed. The text gleefully celebrates John's oddness. John the Baptist engages his audience head-on with immediately accessible images. His metaphors translate his theological observations into clear judgments accessible to even the simplest bystander.
Here is an example of a crucial confrontation. Pat McMahon, a talk-show host in Phoenix, once interviewed Mother Teresa for his program. He was so impressed with her that afterwards he told her that he wanted to do something for her. "I'd just like to help you in some way," he said. She said to him, "Tomorrow morning get up at 4:00 a.m. and go out onto the streets of Phoenix. Find someone who lives there and believes that he's alone and convince him he's not."
Many churches in cities have a unique opportunity to have fruit worthy of repentance by re-imagining their parking lot. Imagine turning a few parking spaces into a tiny park “for neighbors to congregate and have coffee.”
Or imagine an outdoor parking-space-sized chapel — “an intimate holy place to rest, pray and meditate, like a way-station along an ancient pilgrimage route.”
Or imagine a straw bale garden. “In one parking space, you can fit 20 straw bales directly on top of the asphalt. These 20 straw bales can yield enough produce to feed a family of four throughout the summer and fall. Imagine the symbolism of a church giving up two parking spaces to grow vegetables and then giving the food away. Or inviting people from the neighborhood to establish a community garden in some of its parking spaces.”
“City neighborhood churches around North America are giving away their parking spaces on Saturday mornings to local farmers markets. For a few hours, a lifeless expanse of asphalt becomes a joyous, boisterous community.”
Painting a labyrinth on the parking lot for community contemplation.
Blocking off spaces so that neighborhood kids have a safe place to play.
Donating space for the construction of affordable housing.
The members of Fairfax Presbyterian Church, in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., know that the region has an affordable housing problem. Home prices have become out of reach for low-to-moderate-income residents. Church members want their children to be able to afford to live in the city of Fairfax, if they so choose, and they want their neighborhoods to be affordable to the teachers, firefighters, police officers and nurses that serve their community so well. To meet this need, they have repented in the parking lot. Beginning in 2017, they launched a plan to increase the stock of affordable housing. The plan is to build 10 townhouses in the parking lot of the church, in partnership with three non-profits: Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia, HomeAid and HomeStretch. What makes the townhouses affordable is the church’s donation of the land, through a renewable 75-year lease. Since future owners of these homes will be purchasing only the structures, the cost will be much lower than if they had to buy the land. This model for affordable housing can be replicated throughout the country, on property owned by a variety of denominations. Congregations today may not have much money, but many do have valuable land. Another key is the partnerships that these church members have developed to advance this project. Habitat for Humanity will be building the townhouses, with participation by future owners, and will be handling the mortgages as well. HomeAid will be contributing the expertise, time and resources of builders and trade partners. HomeStretch will be the owner of two of the 10 townhouses and will use these homes to move qualified families from homelessness to sustainable housing.[17]
Such efforts are attempts to build a life-saving bridge between the church and the community.
Matthew 3:11-12 is from Q, referring to the One to come. Finally, John begins to talk about the future - which is the whole reason for his ministry. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. Once again, John animates his message with a poignant moving picture. Instead of waxing eloquent about the greatness of the One to come, John invokes the image of a relationship familiar to his listeners. In the first-century world of master-teachers, revered rabbis and their schools of loyal students and disciples, a seriously devoted student would dog his teacher's steps, following him wherever he went. Every aspect of a great rabbi's life was worthy of observation and emulation by a truly dedicated student. However, a well-known rabbinical saying drew a distinct line in the sand between the actions expected of a zealous disciple and the labors accorded to a common body slave. This saying proscribed that "every work which a slave performs for his lord, a disciple must do for his teacher, except loosening his shoe." John, of course, promptly capitalizes on that very distinction. In fact, in Matthew's text he not only declares himself unworthy to perform that slave-like function of loosening his successor's sandal, but also finds himself too unworthy even to "carry his sandals." The recurring fire image that has been flickering throughout John's discourse now bursts into full flame. John the Baptist's message is one of repentance in the face of harsh judgment. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Certainly, the final images in these verses offer a vision of God's future activity. Even the differences between John's baptism and the baptism offered by this "one to come" move from a water image to an image that combines the "Holy Spirit" with "fire." Nevertheless, this is what John does. The idea of baptism “with the Holy Spirit” plays a minor role in the gospels (appearing only in this passage and its parallels and John 1:33). However, spiritual baptism played a significant role in the early Christian church, with baptism with water was the outward sign of this prior spiritual change (i.e., repentance), e.g., Peter’s question concerning the Gentile converts in Acts 10:47: “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” The book of Acts is also the only place outside the gospels that refers explicitly to baptism with the Holy Spirit (1:5; 8:16 [by negative inference]; 11:16; compare I Corinthians 12:13). The preaching of John the Baptist proclaimed that the coming Son of Man would baptize with the Spirit and with fire, showing that the work of the Spirit stands related to the executing of judgment. As noted, baptism with the Spirit contrasts with the baptism of John himself, which is with water.[18] 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary. John takes an unremarkable image - the familiar rural Palestinian scene of a farmer scrupulously winnowing out the chaff from his wheat harvest and burning up that worthless residue - and couples it with a harrowing image of divine judgment that practices the same winnowing technique on the lives of both obedient and willful men and women. In threshing, workers toss the grain into the air. The heavier kernels fall to the ground while the wind blows the chaff away. This is judgment.But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” "The fire that never goes out" (Isaiah 34:10, 66:29) fits the last judgment. In Matthew, the reader is to fear the possibility of being chaff. Matthew understands baptism as a summons to do right. The Messiah would bring coming judgment. We must tremble at the possibility of being chaff. God's judgment is inescapable. Although the combination of a fierce (and possibly burning) anger and chaff is not unknown in the Hebrew Bible (being found in Zephaniah 2:2), the usual imagery of chaff does not involve burning, as here; it usually involves being blown away by the wind (e.g., Job 13:25; 21:18; Psalm 1:4; 35:5; 83:13; Isaiah 17:13; 29:5; Jeremiah 13:24; etc.). This is the only passage in the New Testament in which chaff appears. The contrasting image of the wheat destined for safe storage with the chaff burned up in the fire is so graphic that we are apt to miss some of the subtlety of this text. First, we should note that the threshing floor is the object of the cleansing John describes -- not the wheat or the chaff. If the floor of the granary is the focus of the Messiah's attention, he has already separated the wheat and chaff. The tool referred to, ptuon, is a winnowing shovel--the instrument used to gather quickly the piles of wheat and chaff that workers have separated and left on the threshing room floor. A thrinaz, or true winnowing fork, would have been used previously -- lifting the wheat and chaff high into the air to let the worthless chaff fall free while holding on to the precious stalks of wheat.[19] The image suggests that claiming or rejecting the Baptist’s prior message of repentance has already designated his listeners as "wheat" or "chaff." The Messiah's task, as he clears the threshing floor, is to offer judgment (the all-consuming fire) or salvation (the safe haven of the granary) to those who stand before him. There was another One yet to come. To the listeners of John the Baptist, this reference meant eschatology, promising a time of both cleansing salvation and fiery judgment. The spirit of burning and judgment will cleanse Zion. The Lord will visit Israel like the flame of a devouring fire, their enemies becoming like small dust and flying chaff. The tongue of the Lord is like a devouring fire to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction.[20] In the context of Luke's work, this reference to fire also clearly points to the drama of the Spirit and tongues as of fire at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). John's use of apocalyptic images has led some scholars to suspect John may have expected at this point a fiery "Day of the Lord" as had the prophet Malachi.
We often associate such fire with hell and damnation designed to scare us and thereby keep us from sinning. The image is even more vivid than the clean golden streets of heaven. Christ will come in final judgment. However, what would happen if the fire becomes flames of hope and transformation? Such flames could melt and mold a sinner with a touch from the hand of the divine potter. You see, fire is often a reliable sign of the presence of God. God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush; a pillar of fire guides the people of Israel through the wilderness after their escape from Egypt; when Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments from God, it looks to those down below as if the mountain itself is being devoured by fire. I do not mean to minimize the danger. This is not safe fire; it can still burn and kill. However, it is God’s own fire, the fire of God’s presence, fire that wants to speak to us, guide us, instruct us, save us. It is the fire of a potter who wants to make useful vessels out of damp clay. It is the fire of a jeweler who wants to refine pure gold from rough ore. It does not have to be the fire of destruction, in other words. It may also be the fire of transformation, a fire that both lights us up and changes us, melting us down and reforming us more nearly to the image of God. It is the fire with which Jesus himself baptizes us, inviting us into bright, hot relationship with him. Even when the fire seems bent on consuming us, like Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace we find that we have company, and that even in the hottest regions of our own personal hells we do not sweat alone.[21]
The concern of these verses is with identity. We can see this as the focus shifts from the content of the message of John the Baptist to who John the Baptist is. He needed to clarify for the people his mission and identity. John only baptizes with water, but the one to come will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire." The work of the Spirit has a relationship with judgment. We see this stressed by the reference to the winnowing fork and the threshing floor. People are already either wheat or chaff. The task of the Messiah is to offer judgment or salvation. A point we must not forget, however, is that John said he was not worthy to untie his sandals, the task of a slave. He knew that his identity was not in himself, but in the one to come.
[1] Barth Church Dogmatics IV.3 [72.4] 854.
[2] Matthew changes Mark to emphasize geography and historical data, while Mark is more interested in John's message.
[3] Debie Thomas, “The Voice of One Crying,” Journey With Jesus for December 8, 2019.
[4] Kathleen Morris, The Cloister Walk, New York: Riverhead Books, 1996, p. 128, quoting Bededicta Ward.
[5] Barbara Brown Taylor, Gospel Medicine, Boston: Crowley Publications,1995
[6] Carl Jung
[7] Martin Luther King Jr.
[8] (Antiquities 18.117 [cf.18.5.2])
[9] (see further, Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1:584).
[10] (Antiquities 18.117 [cf.18.5.2])
[11] Carl Jung
[12] Martin Luther King Jr.
[13] Lewis, C.S. "The perfect penitent." Mere Christianity. New York: Macmillian Paperbacks, 1960, 56-61.
[14] Norris, Kathleen. "Repentance." Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998, 69-70.
[15] Joseph, Arlette D. Benoit. “Bear Fruit Worthy of the Gift of Repentance.” The Episcopal Church, December 4, 2016, www.episcopalchurch.org.
[16] Patterson, Kerry et al. Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005, 1-12.
[17] Norvell, G. Travis. “Reimagining the church parking lot.” Christian Century, March 23, 2022, 22-25.
[18] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume III, 623.
[19] (For more on this distinction, see Robert L. Webb, "The Activity of John the Baptist's Expected Figure at the Threshing Floor," Matthew 3:12, Luke 3:17," Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 43, 1991, 103-111.)
[20] Isaiah 4:4
4 once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion
and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment
and by a spirit of burning.
Isaiah 29:5-6
5 But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust,
and the multitude of tyrants like flying chaff.
And in an instant, suddenly,
6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
Isaiah 30:27-28
27 See, the name of the Lord comes from far away,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck—
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads them astray.
[21] Barbara Brown Taylor, Gospel Medicine, Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 1995, pp. 129–130.
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