Macarius
25th January 2008, 08:03 PM
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
“ The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘ Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.’”[a (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=47&chapter=3&version=50#fen-NKJV-23190a)]
4 Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him 6 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto 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.[b (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=47&chapter=3&version=50#fen-NKJV-23198b)] 12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He[c (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=47&chapter=3&version=50#fen-NKJV-23203c)] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Here's the next set of verses. Sorry that its 2 days late (busy week this week!).
In Christ,
Macarius
Macarius
25th January 2008, 08:59 PM
Partly, I'm just excited that, as we go, we'll accumulate a commentary and meditative reflection on significant passages of scripture from an Orthodox perspective.
so long as we keep the sticky at the top, we'll have a really handy referance (that can keep growing!) for other threads.
I certainly do plan to keep this up until instructed otherwise :) Glad to know people are still behind the idea.
If anyone does have a difficult question raised by a particular passage, I hope they feel safe asking it in these threads. The idea is to reflect on the passage - I think that means allowing ourselves to recognize when we struggle with a passage in some way.
Anyhow, just a few thoughts. Thank you for the encouragement.
In Christ,
Macarius
hungrytiger
26th January 2008, 04:51 AM
Thanks for keeping this up, Macarius :)
If I may be so bold as to post something this passage causes me to speculate about...
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
I find it interesting the different responses given to a person when God (or an angel, or a prophet, or something) asks something of that person and then they in some way or another question it. Like here John questions Jesus, but Jesus does not seem to rebuke him or anything. On the other hand might be a case like Zacharias, John's father. When the angel told him he would have a son and he asks about this, he is apparently rebuked and made mute (Luke 1). These may not be the best examples, but it's what's coming to mind at the moment. I've heard Protestant reflections on this sort of thing, but I don't know what the Orthodox viewpoint would be.
Macarius
27th January 2008, 05:26 AM
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
For some reason, I always find it interesting that John starts in the wilderness. I'm aware of the connection to the Essene way of life he displays in this passage, but something theological is here as well. God's Truth is in the wilderness - perhaps in a metaphorical way this speaks to my own sense that God's Truth is in my wilderness, away from the "cities" (ego) I build in my heart. It is at the most primal of places, at the most desolate, where human effort is pushed to its limits and fails, where we are empty, where we are reminded of our finitude and made humble - that is where we can hear God's Word and respond. When we are among the inventions of our hands it is easier to forget God and to assume that human effort can solve our problems. We become shocked and suprised by natural disasters. We assume our little worlds (both literal and the false-egos of our hearts) are stable, real, concrete... We come to depend on them.
But the wilderness? Nothing to depend on but God. And so, St. John the Forerunner comes preaching from the wilderness...
2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 3
:crosseo:
He doesn't say, "Repent, because someday you'll die and you'll want to go to Heaven." He says, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." God came to save this world, and the coming of Christ is a radical invasion of this world by the Kingdom of God. The only way to experience that without entering judgment is if we repent.
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
“ The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘ Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.’”
The path that must be made straight is the path into my heart. It is made straight by repentance, for in sin it is crooked and in poor repair. It is "His" path because my heart never really belongs to me anyway. It always belongs to God, as He made it. All I can do is assent to His will and providence or resist it foolishly. If I resist, I am doomed to my own isolation and personal hell. If I assent and cooperate... perhaps the path will be made straight - remade by its maker.
4 Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
This connection is made between wilderness, repentance, and the making straight of God's paths for the coming of the Kingdom (Christ). It is made in John's actions. He made the path to his heart straight by repentance, and that repentance was accomplished by asceticism. Camel's hair, the belt of obedience, and meager food... the life of the wilderness. Away from human pride, away from greed and lust and wine. Away from the passions of the flesh. Here, John was awarded repentance, and, as the path to his heart was made straight. There is no limit to what God can accomplish with a repentant heart. He can repair the image of God within us, and make us transparent to His presence, so that all may see that it is God who is glorified in us.
5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him 6 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
Note that, as part of their repentance, they confess their sins publically before baptism. The Orthodox Church has preserved this practice, though in her mercy, she allows the priest to stand as witness to our confession, so that we do not have to confess in front of strangers or those who do not know how to give spiritual counsel.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
He wonders how they knew they needed to repent, since their pride would inhibit such knowledge. Perhaps they came to see what all the fuss was about? :scratch:
8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
Fruits of repentance means this isn't just "feeling bad about our sin." We have to actually change. This change will show up as our actions have different results. Those results are the fruits of repentance.
9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
And do not think to say to yourselves "we are baptized into the Orthodox Church!" For I say to you that God is able to raise up baptized Orthodox from these stones.
We should never think that we have some kind of claim on God because of our actions. Any thing that systematizes God is an attempt to create "law" for ourselves - something easier or cheaper that gives us a "get out of jail free card" so we can excuse not repenting. Some protestants use "praying the sinner's prayer" or "converting" as if it provided a claim against God - that somehow they are owed salvation or can stake a claim to it. Some orthodox claim a cultural heritage, as if being born orthodox made them exempt from the spiritual life, or they treat orthodoxy as a cultural "law" and set of customs... It is not. It is the radical demand that we repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. God alone has the right to judge - I have no claim on Him.
As I understand it, some fathers (John Chrysostom) say that these stones referred to here were the hearts of the sinners trying to repent. They could even be the hearts of the gentiles, which were stones as they had no revelation from God to soften them. Even these stones could be made into children of Abraham because of faith. This is discussed at length in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans.
10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Lord, have mercy! This, again, is no subtle warning. The axe is laid to the root of the tree. If we are not repenting, the consequence is death. Sin = death, since sin is separation from God, and God is life itself.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto 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.
This foretells of two things: one that Christ is above John. John is the Forerunner, not the Christ. Going along with that, it tells us that baptism is real. John baptizes with water unto repentance. Water ---> repentance. Not the other way around. The baptism - the immersion - into water is the cleansing of sins. There is no magic here; it is the action of God on a repentance heart.
Second, this foretells of Pentecost and Chrismation. Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit. This is an additional "filling up" of the baptism, so that not only is it the cleansing of sins (as John's baptism) but the filling up of that empty, sinless soul with the grace of God. Christ came to fill up what we lack - to bring our nature into union with God's nature so that we become partakers of the divine nature. The fire is the fire of the Holy Spirit - the tongues of flame of Pentecost. It is also, however, the fire of judgment, for our God is a consuming fire, and those whose paths are not straight will not be able to experience the grace and joy of the Kingdom, but will suffer in their self-imposed isolation and death.
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
This is a warning to the Jews - who have been the "farm" of God since the Law was given. Those for whom the Law led to repentance will be wheat, but the Gentiles who repent are also wheat. The chaff cannot be used, and so it is burned. There is nothing God can do with an unrepentant heart, since God will not compel us to love Him and will not violate free will. It is, therefore, burned by the love of God which it cannot experience. The presence of God for the unrepentant is hell.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
Hungrytiger - you asked why does God act differently towards these different individuals who question His actions.
I don't know the Orthodox answer, but to me it seems to be a matter of attitude. Here, John is concerned about being humble. Mary, when she asked the angel "how shall this be" was not rebuked because she wasn't doubting, merely inquiring as to what would happen. Zacharius, however, mocked the power of God and doubted. Hence his penance.
I'm often puzzled, given that the baptism is supposedly for repentance, why Christ was baptized. A few reasons occur to me as plausible:
Christ is here fulfilling what Israel went through in Exodus. As Israel passed through the water that was death to the sinful Egyptians but the road to life for Israel, so Christ passes through the waters. This is a continuation of Matthews theme of comparing Christ's actions to key moments of Hebraic history, showing Christ as their fulfillment.
Christ is here setting up a type for us. Because we need repentance, because we need to be one with Christ, He shows us what to do. Baptism is one way we can IDENTIFY with Christ. He was baptized, so WE are baptized. And when we are baptized, we are doing what Christ did, and so we ARE where Christ IS, and we become one with Him. In this way do we, while dying to our old self in the waters of repentance, become filled with our new life in Christ. Our image is restored.
Repentance isn't necessary for the sinless, but baptism is still useful and good for them "to fulfill all righteousness." This is in direct support of infant baptism, since infants, though sinless, still benefit from baptism and their identifying with Christ. It is the sign of the new covenant, the fulfilling of all righteousness.
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He[c (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=47&chapter=3&version=50#fen-NKJV-23203c)] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
The Trinity is revealed! I like Bl. Theophylact on this, so I'll quote him in deferance to one who is wiser than me:
He was baptized at the age of thirty; for by this age one has experienced all the sins. In the first ten years, there is great foolishness; in the second, during adolescence, the great flame of desire and anger; and in the years of adulthood, great avarice. Jesus waited for this age, therefore, so that He could fulfill the law in all the ages of a man, and sanctify us. "Went up straightaway out of the water..." The Manichean heretics say that He left His body in the Jordon and thereafter displayed another, illusory, body. But their mouths are shut by this, for it says, "Jesus went up"; it was not another who went up, but He Who went down into the water. "And lo, the heavens were opened unto Him." Adam had closed the heavens, but through Christ they are opened, so that you may learn, O reader, that when you are baptized, you, too, open the heavens. "And He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying..." The Spirit came down to bear witness that He Who is baptized is greater than he who baptizes. For the Jews held John in high regard, but they did not esteem Christ so highly. They all saw the Spirit descending upon Jesus so that they would not think that the voice which said, "This is My beloved Son," was referring to John; but by seeing the Spirit they might believe that this voice spoke concerning Jesus. It was like a dove because of the dove's innocence and meekness, and because the dove is very clean, not remaining in any place where there is foul odor. So it is with the Holy Spirit. But, also, as in the time of Noah a dove announced the deliverance from the flood by bearing an olive twig, so here, too, the Holy Spirit reveals deliverance from sins. There, the twig of olive; here, the mercy of God.
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Note how this is a singular - THIS is My beloved Son. Not, "This is my most beloved son" or "This is one of my sons." By being His only SON, we may surmise that merely being the creation of God is not enough to warrant being called His "Son." Rather, the title of Sonship here implies something above creation - something beyond it. A Son has the same nature as His Father. A human son is not born of a goat or a cow. A goat is not born of a plant nor a human. Neither can the Son of God be anything but God in Nature. And to be God in Nature is to be a number of things: love itself, and life itself among them. In particular, if the Son is life itself, then the Son is eternal - "necessary" even as the Father is "necessary" (in contrast with things that aren't "necessary" but are caused by something else). The Son, therefore, can rightly say "I AM." He has life in Himself, even as the Father does. He is, also, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent - even as the Father is. This means He cannot be anything but ONE with the Father - if both are omnipresent, then both are everywhere the other is, including within themselves in a mystical union of essence. They are one essence. Christ is one nature with the Father, one essence with the Father. He IS God, the Father IS God, and God is ONE. Therefore, they are ONE, yet distinct, for one is the Father and one is the Son.
That simple sentance reveals the internal nature of the Godhead in a way that had never been seen before. Hence the troparion of the feastday of Theophany that speaks about the worship of the Trinity being made manifest on that day. The Spirit of God (singular and subject to the same logic as the Son) and the Son of God and the Father God all simultaneously acting. We saw this in the Incarnation as well. We also saw it in Creation, where the Father willed, the Word was spoken, and the Spirit dwelt among the waters. The Trinity here is acting in creating the new creation, bringing the Kingdom into the dying world.
Lord have mercy!
In Christ,
Macarius