Study of MATTHEW 3:1-5

Read Matthew 3:1-12
Warnings of a Wilderness Prophet
Just as God revealed his purposes in advance to his prophets in ancient Israel (Amos 3:7; compare Is 41:22-29; 42:9; 43:9, 19; 44:7-8, 24-26; 45:21; 46:10; 48:6), God sent John the Baptist to prepare Israel for his climactic revelation in history. John was a wilderness prophet proclaiming impending judgment; for him repentance (Mt 3:2, 6, 8) was the only appropriate response to the coming kingdom (3:2), its fiery judgment (3:7, 10-12) and its final judge, who would prove to be more than a merely political Messiah (3:11-12). Given the widespread view in early Judaism that prophecy in the formal sense had ceased John's appearance naturally drew crowds (3:5). (Modern proponents of the view that miraculous gifts have ceased have not been the first people in history surprised when God's sovereign activity challenges their presuppositions; see Judges 6:13; Deere 1993.)
The warnings in this passage serve two functions for Matthew's persecuted readers: judgment against persecutors both vindicates the righteous they oppress and warns the righteous not to become wicked (Ezek 18:21-24). Matthew's tradition probably mentioned the "crowds" in general (compare Lk 3:7), but Matthew focuses in on a specific part of the crowds: Pharisees and Sadducees (Mt 3:7). Like a good pastor, Matthew thus applies the text to the needs of his own congregations: their Pharisaic opponents were spiritual Gentiles (3:6, 9). Yet later chapters in this Gospel warn Matthew's audience that they can also become like these Pharisees if they are not careful (24:48-51; compare Amos 5:18-20).
John's Lifestyle Summons Us to Heed God's Call (3:1-4)
John's location, garb and diet suggest a radical servant of God whose lifestyle challenges the values of our society even more than it did his own, and may demand the attention of modern Western society even more than his preaching does.

First, John's location suggests that the biblical prophets' promise of a new exodus was about to take place in Jesus. So significant is the wilderness (3:1) to John's mission that all four Gospels justify it from Scripture (3:3; Mk 1:3; Lk 3:4; Jn 1:23; Is 40:3): Israel's prophets had predicted a new exodus in the wilderness (Hos 2:14-15; Is 40:3). Thus Jewish people in John's day acknowledged the wilderness as the appropriate place for prophets and messiahs (Mt 24:26; Acts 21:38; Jos. Ant. 20.189; War 2.259, 261-62).
Further and no less important to John's mission, the wilderness was a natural place for fugitives from a hostile society (as in Heb 11:38; Rev 12:6; Ps. Sol. 17:17), including prophets like Elijah (1 Kings 17:2-6; 2 Kings 6:1-2). John could safely draw crowds (Mt 3:5) there as he could nowhere else (compare Jos. Ant. 18.118), and it provided him the best accommodations for public baptisms not sanctioned by establishment leaders (see Jos. Ant. 18.117). Thus John's location symbolizes both the coming of a new exodus, the final time of salvation, and the price a true prophet of God must be willing to pay for his or her call: exclusion from all that society values-its comforts, status symbols and even basic necessities (compare 1 Kings 13:8-9, 22; 20:37; Is 20:2; Jer 15:15-18; 16:1-9; 1 Cor 4:8-13).
Although true prophets could function within society under godly governments (as in 2 Sam 12:1-25; 24:11-12), in evil times it was mainly corrupt prophets who remained in royal courts (1 Kings 22:6-28; compare Mt 11:8) as God's true messengers were forced into exile (1 Kings 17:3; 18:13). Most Jewish people in the first century practiced their religion seriously; but the religious establishment could not accommodate a prophet like John whose lifestyle dramatically challenged the status quo. A prophet with a message and values like John's might not feel very welcome in many contemporary Western churches either. (Imagine, for example, a prophet overturning our Communion table, demanding how we can claim to partake of Christ's body while attending a racially segregated church or ignoring the needs of the poor. In most churches we would throw him out on his ear.)
John's garment (Mt 3:4) in general resembled the typical garb of the poor, as would befit a wilderness prophet cut off from all society's comforts. But more important, his clothing specifically evokes that of the Israelite prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:8 LXX). Malachi had promised Elijah's return in the end time (Mal 4:5-6), a promise that subsequent Jewish tradition developed. Although Matthew did not regard John as Elijah literally (17:3; compare Lk 1:17), he believed that John had fulfilled the prophecy of Elijah's mission (Mt 11:14-15; 17:11-13).
John's Elijah-like garb thus tells Matthew's readers two things: first, their Lord arrived exactly on schedule, following the promised end-time prophet; and second, John's harsh mission required him to be a wilderness prophet like Elijah. Following God's call in our lives may demand intense sacrifice.
John's diet also sends a message to complacent Christians. Disgusted though we might be today by a diet of bugs with natural sweetener, some other poor people in antiquity also ate locusts (3:4), and honey was the usual sweetener in the Palestinian diet, regularly available even to the poor. But locusts sweetened with honey constituted John's entire diet. First-century readers would have placed him in the category of a highly committed holy man: the pietists who lived in the wilderness and dressed simply normally ate only the kinds of food that grew by themselves). Matthew is telling us that John lived simply, with only the barest forms of necessary sustenance. Although God calls only some disciples to such a lifestyle (Mt 11:18-19), this lifestyle challenges all of us to adjust our own values. Others' needs must come before our luxuries (Lk 3:11; 12:33; 14:33), and proclaiming the kingdom is worth any cost (Mt 8:20; 10:9-19).
For that matter, John's lifestyle, like that of St. Anthony, St. Francis, John Wesley or Mother Teresa, may challenge affluent Western Christianity even more deeply than John's message does. John's lifestyle declares that he lived fully for the will of God, not valuing possessions, comfort or status. Blinded by our society's values, we too often preach a Christianity that merely "meets our needs" rather than one that calls us to sacrifice our highest desires for the kingdom. Too many Western Christians live a religion that costs nothing, treats the kingdom cheaply and therefore does not demand saving faith. Saving faith includes believing God's grace so sincerely that we live as if his message is true and stake our lives on it. May we have the courage to trust God as John did, to stake everything on the kingdom (13:46) and to relinquish our own popularity, when necessary, by summoning others to stake everything on the kingdom as well.