Knowing The Word in Luke 3:15-20
Jesus will Baptize with Fire
3:15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
Comments
The people who came to John were in expectation of the Messiah and wondered if he were the Christ. He says no, claiming his inherent unworthiness, especially in regard to untying the Messiah’s sandals. A rabbinic saying from AD 250 explains that every service which a slave performs for his master shall a disciple do for his teacher except the loosing of his sandal-thong. That was too lowly for a disciple. John places himself lower than a slave in a place of true humility.
In repudiating the idea of himself being the Messiah, John makes an additional point of his inferiority by comparing his baptism to what the Messiah will do. While John’s is a literal baptism with water, the Messiah’s will be a metaphorical baptism with the Spirit and fire. The figure of speech emphasizes that the Messiah will give the Spirit in generous measure. Those who accept Jesus will be purified as by fire and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.
John was a fearless preacher of righteousness. He rebuked Herod for divorcing his own wife and for marrying his brother’s wife after she asked for a divorce. His strong public statements led to arrest. As Jesus begins to minister publicly for the first time, John is in prison.
Application
How would you describe the work of the Holy Spirit in your life? Have you experienced a “cleaning by fire”?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for sealing me with your Spirit in baptism, marking me as your own forever. May your Spirit continue to refine me day by day as he burns up what is sinful in me and molds me into someone more and more like you.
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