Matthew 3:4-12, John's Preaching Amid Vipers

4 Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

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 fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Comments

John’s dress and diet reminded people of the mighty prophet Elijah. Ordinary people truly repented because they were frightened by the idea of God’s wrath. They sought comfort in John’s symbolic baptism that looked forward to God’s real purification through the Holy Spirit.

John contrasted the people with the religious elites, the Sadducees and Pharisees, whom he called “a brood of vipers,” the offspring of Satan. They relied on their birthright as “children of Abraham,” for their salvation. John warned that God would raise up his own children.

Application/Reflection

A rabbinic saying from AD 250 reads: “Every service which a slave performs for his master shall a disciple do for his teacher except the loosing of his sandal-thong.” That is too lowly a task for a disciple. The humble John understood his place and his ministry as inferior to Jesus. The paradox is that when we see ourselves as inferior, Jesus raises us up in faith to be children of God.

Prayer

O Lord God, destroy and root out whatever the adversary plants in me, that with my sins destroyed you may sow understanding and good work in my mouth and heart; so that in act and in truth I may serve only you and know how to fulfil the commandments of Christ and to seek yourself. Give me love, give me chastity, give me faith, give me all things which you know belong to the profit of my soul. O Lord, work good in me, and provide me with what you know that I need. Columbanus, c. 550-615