Camel’s Hair and Wild Honey

In chap­ters 1 and 2, Matthew has dealt with Jesus’ ori­gins. As we skip for­ward from the time Jesus’ fam­ily moves to Nazareth and his child­hood and early adult­hood, Jesus is about to intro­duced as a man.

As Jesus’ earthly min­istry is yet to be revealed, God sent John the Bap­tist to pre­pare the way for Jesus.¹ John was a walk­ing tes­ti­mony. Here was a crazy, out­landish, prophet of a man. He clothes were of camel’s hair, he ate grasshop­pers, and drank wild honey.² John was a pecu­liar per­son with a pecu­liar mes­sage. He was a sign and a won­der that pointed to a new king and a king­dom in Jesus Christ.

Prepar­ing The Way

He began his min­istry preach­ing in the Desert region of Judea say­ing, “Repent, for the king­dom of heaven is near.” To Rome and Cae­sar, the king­dom of heaven is near; to Herod and the cor­rupt rul­ing offi­cials, the king­dom of heaven is near; to Sad­ducees and Phar­isees and cor­rupt Priestly order, the king­dom of heaven is near; to the poor and des­ti­tute strug­gling to make ends meet, the king­dom of heaven is near; to the faith­ful and devoted to Yah­weh, the king­dom of heaven is near.

Inher­ent in John’s mes­sage is a crit­i­cism of the way things are, and a glo­ri­ous unveil­ing of hope and sal­va­tion. The king­dom of heaven is near. It is not far and abstract and mere imag­i­na­tion, but rather it is about to be tan­gi­ble and present and near. It will be felt and heard and touched and spo­ken of. John is the mes­sen­ger of this new thing God is doing, and appar­ently this mes­sage did not go unheard. Many came and con­fessed their sins and were bap­tized. They were prepar­ing their hearts for Jesus. John hap­pened to be God’s instru­ment in till­ing the ground of their hearts in prepa­ra­tion for Christ and his kingdom.

The Sad­ducees and Phar­isees came to see John for other rea­sons. The king­dom they were a part of could not see this new king­dom. They were the bas­tions of the way things were. John is vehe­mently oppos­ing the power bro­kers of the cur­rent reli­gious regime because he knew they could not accept Christ and his king­dom. John’s words are a warn­ing to their estab­lish­ment and the reli­gion they prop­a­gate.³

Christ Appears

As John preaches this mes­sage of the king­dom near, he speaks of the one who is to come after him, Jesus the Christ. John wants peo­ple to know Jesus is the real story, and that he is merely a side story. Jesus is come to reveal the king­dom of heaven. He is not come to be a part of things as usual. There is a crit­i­cal point in his reveal­ing to the peo­ple that will bring judg­ment to the way things are. Jesus is about to change everything.

Jesus makes his way onto the scene, but instead of a grand entrance he comes to be bap­tized by John. Jesus knows that if he is to incar­nate God to this world, then all the nec­es­sary steps needed to be taken. He must accept John’s place as the one prepar­ing the way for the Mes­siah. Jesus would fol­low through in being bap­tized by John. Jesus illus­trates that he is not above his own rules. He ani­mates the mes­sage of John and in doing so, ful­fills all right­eous­ness. John wres­tles with Jesus’ act of bap­tism, think­ing it improper to bap­tize him. Jesus how­ever puts John’s fears to rest.

As soon as Jesus is bap­tized some­thing beau­ti­ful hap­pens. The Spirit of God descends upon Jesus as a dove, and the voice of God the Father pro­claims from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”⁴

This is a beau­ti­ful scene because Jesus starts to walk out his earthly min­istry. Jesus begins in a right­eous sub­mis­sion to his very incar­na­tion. His min­istry would be all about the will of the One who sent him, and not about him­self. Jesus’ bap­tism is the pub­lic announce­ment of Jesus as God’s Son.

Notes

• John the Baptist’s min­istry was merely to intro­duce Jesus as Mes­siah, the Son of God. How many of us would be sat­is­fied and ful­filled with what­ever the Lord asks of us?
• The Phar­isees and Sad­ducees are for us a con­stant reminder to make our actions speak louder than our words, and our hearts to not be deceived by any­thing of this world. We must remain those who would respond to God in authen­tic fashion.
• Jesus is intro­duced to peo­ple with an act of obe­di­ence and sub­mis­sion. He illus­trates to us the joy and ful­fill­ment in walk­ing through what­ever path our Father pre­pares for us, for He will be glo­ri­fied by actions.