Preparation for change (Matt 3:1-3)

A good friend from university who began to take an interest in Christianity during our undergraduate days said at the time that she noticed how the number of Christians among her circle of acquaintances suddenly increased. God, it seemed, had actively put people in her path and she started to have all these spiritual conversations, decided to read the Bible with me and go to church with another Christian friend. Sometime later she had an encounter with Jesus and became a Christian. Such momentous change rarely, if ever, comes about without preparation. Even when conversion happens seemingly out of the blue, there is usually groundwork done beforehand that paves the way.

John the Baptist comes on such a preparatory mission and speaks his message with authority (the Greek for ‘proclaim’ or ‘preach’ in Matt 3:1 means proclaiming news as a herald, i.e. a messenger who speaks on the authority of the one who sent him). In the OT, this would be expressed as ‘Thus says the Lord…’. It is good for us to remember, when we share the gospel, that we speak a message that is not our own, but the Lord’s whom we serve. John’s message also echoes that of the OT prophets: ‘repent’. The Greek metanoia, which simply means a change of mind (not always necessarily for good) takes on a richer meaning in the NT, where it becomes the word for the Hebrew shuv (to turn physically or spiritually, i.e. to repent). In this spiritual sense, shuv is not simply about guilt feelings for specific sins or even a change of mind, but a complete turning about of one’s whole life towards God. Such an all-embracing reorientation involves thinking, feeling and being.

Why is such a reorientation called for? It is because the kingdom of heaven, an expression equivalent to ‘the kingdom of God’ in other gospels (e.g. Mk 1:15), is at hand or has come near (Matt 3:1). We might get the impression that the kingdom of God is about a place (even one that is in heaven), but again, OT understanding corrects this perception. The psalms frequently speak of God being king, of God reigning (e.g. Ps 93:1; 95:3; 97:1; 99:1) and the idea in John’s proclamation here is that God is about to appear as King and establish His rule. The focus is not on a place but on God. This is expressed in the OT quote from Isa 40:3, on the need to make way for the King to come (Matt 3:3). However, as it turns out, this rule will be established not externally through a government independent of the Romans, but in the hearts of those who submit to Jesus as King. Thus, for the present, how we experience the King will depend on our orientation. When Jesus went public and started ministering, many debated His identity weighing up His actions and His teaching. Some liked Him and thought Him a good teacher and a good man but stopped there. Others discarded Him as unimportant, yet others vehemently opposed Him. Only a small percentage dropped everything to follow and acknowledge Him as Lord and king.

Preparation then is important, and it is no accident that John’s ministry calls people out of their regular routine to hear him ‘in the wilderness’ (Matt 3:1, 3), an uninhabited area probably just north of the Dead Sea by the Jordan. The wilderness conjures up Israel’s past experiences post-exodus. Although their wanderings there were mainly associated with their grumbling and disobedience, the prophets also remember it as a place of intimacy and first love for the Lord (e.g. Hos 2:14-17). It is often when our human resources are stripped away (emotionally, physically, financially) and we are dependent on God that we develop a deeper relationship with Him. The season of Lent in the church calendar is traditionally a period of reflection and fasting in preparation for Easter and by ‘doing without’ certain things, it re-creates the conditions of the wilderness and a greater awareness of our need of God. May this be a time of re-orientation towards the Lord as we look forward to celebrating His coming as King.