Day #277

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Matt 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 - Reading
Matt 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 - Audio

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Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3

Matthew 3: Matthew’s Gospel now shifts to Jesus’ public ministry. It is more than 25 years since Joseph and his family moved back to Nazareth. John the Baptist now appears, preaching in the Judean desert.

3:2 To tell Jewish people that they had to be baptized or repent the same way non-Jews did would have been offensive, because it challenged the Jewish belief about salvation. Most Jewish people thought that if they were born into a Jewish family and did not reject God’s law, they would be saved; John told them instead that they had to come to God the same way that non-Jews did.

The “Kingdom of heaven is at hand” is interchangeable with the “kingdom of God” found in other gospels. Here John calls for the people to remove the obstacles from their lives that might hinder their reception of the Messiah and his kingdom.

3:4 John’s appearance would have reminded people of the prophecies about Elijah, who was to prepare the way of God’s wrathful appearance. John’s garments were common to nomadic desert dwellers. Locusts and wild honey were not an unusual source of food for people living in the desert.

3:6 Gentiles who converted to Judaism were not only circumcised but also baptized as a symbol of their death to their old Gentile lives and their cleansing from spiritual uncleanness. The fact that John demanded that Jews be baptized meant that Jews were spiritually as unclean as pagans.

3:11 Baptism functions symbolically in a number of ways. It represents repentance, the crucifixion, a sharing in Christ’s crucifixion as death to the old life, cleansing from past sins, covenant identification with the person in whose name one is baptized and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit. It is the new covenant’s equivalent to circumcision (Col 2:11-12).

3:13-15 John was reluctant to baptize Jesus because he recognized that Jesus was the one man who had no need for repentance. Jesus’ baptism inaugurates his ministry and fulfills God’s saving activity which was prophesied throughout the OT, culminating with Jesus’ death on the cross. Through Jesus’ baptism, he also endorsed John’s ministry and message and links Jesus’ mission to John’s, although he needed no repentance.

3:17 This “beloved son” is the triumphant messianic King, yet he is also the humble servant into whose hands the Father is well pleased to place the mission to bring salvation to the nations.

Mark 1: Jesus began his public ministry.

1:1-15 See notes from Matthew 3 concerning John the Baptist and Jesus’ Baptism.

1:16-20 Many Jewish teachers in Jesus’ day felt that the greatest commandment was to honor one’s parents. To abruptly leave behind one’s family and the family business was great sacrifice that went against everything the culture taught. Disciples usually sought out their own teachers. Because discipleship often involved temporarily laying aside one’s livelihood and being apart from one’s wife and children, the decision to choose a teacher would have normally been made only after much deliberation, especially when the teacher traveled from place to place instead of staying in one town to teach.

1:21-28 An unclean spirit tries to resist Jesus’ power, but he correctly fears that Jesus has come to destroy him. The act of naming Jesus as “the Holy One of God” may display the demon’s attempt at exercising power over Jesus. But Jesus resists and tells the unclean spirit “Be silent.” Casting out this demon shows Jesus’ authority over evil spirits.

1:29-45 Jesus traveled about Galilee, preaching and performing many miracles. Enthusiastic crowds followed him everywhere he went, but Jesus resisted them so that he could complete the task God had given him.

Luke 3: Luke describes John the Baptist’s ministry of preparation for Jesus (3:1-20) and then shifts the focus to Jesus himself (3:21-38).

3:1 Luke’s precision in naming five Roman officials with their specific titles shows concern for detailed historical accuracy, and his accuracy is confirmed by historical records outside of the Bible.

3:4 The quotation from Isaiah 40:3-5 proclaims that God himself is coming to bring salvation to his people.

3:5 The words here are a poetic way of saying that the way for the Messiah will be expedited. Obstacles will be removed. But these images are also metaphors that have ethical overtones: the proud and arrogant will be exalted, and the crooked will be changed.

3:6 “All flesh shall see” predicts the salvation also of the Gentiles.

3:12-14 All four gospels include an account of the ministry of John the Baptist as he called people to repentance in preparation for the coming of Jesus. Only Luke’s Gospel tells us of John’s answers to questioners who were uncertain about what all this meant to them. Tax collectors collected tolls, tariffs and customs and were notoriously dishonest. John the Baptist tells them not to quit their profession but to be honest in carrying out their duties. Similarly, soldiers are not told to resign but to avoid the moral temptations of their profession. John does not say that working for the Roman government or serving as a soldier is in itself morally wrong, but he insists that God expects upright conduct from his people.

3:23-38 Luke’s genealogy differs from Matthew’s genealogy. Matthew goes back to Abraham and Luke to Adam. There are also differences in that some of the names are different. Although there are several theories as to the differences, what is clear is that both Gospels defend the fact the Jesus descended from David.