I was often told growing up that John the Baptist was the last OT prophet, which I always thought was kinda weird since he’s talked about in the NT. Designating John as a prophet is a bit simplistic. Matthew goes to great lengths to depict John as the Elijah from Malachi 4:5. While John’s confrontation with the Pharisees and Sadducees is often taking apart from Jesus’ baptism (when preached or studied in a small group), understanding the relationship between Matthew 3 and Malachi 4:5 almost demands that the story of John and Jesus’ baptism be considered together.
Malachi 4:5…
See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
Matthew introduces John with a quote from Isaiah 40:3. Isaiah is speaking of the coming of the messiah and one sign that the messiah has either arrived is well on his way. As proof that John is this voice, Matthew states in verse 1 that “John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness…”
But it’s in 3:4 that Matthew really solidifies his belief that John the Baptist was the Elijah spoken of in Malachi. I preached this text once in a preaching class, but completely missed the point of Matthew describing John’s clothing. Matthew describes John this way:
John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
But then take a look at 2 Kings 1:7-8…
The king asked them, “What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?”
They replied, “He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.”
The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.”
Elijah is described in virtually the exact same way! Given the prominence of Elijah in Jewish history, Matthew’s Jewish audience would have picked this out immediately – maybe not in the person of John himself, but they would have seen exactly what Matthew was doing in the printed text: John the Baptist was being portrayed in the same light as Elijah.
In the mind of the Jewish reader, their thoughts are then directed at another significant passage that speaks about Elijah centuries after Elijah was taken up into heaven on a chariot of fire: Malachi 4:5. And much to the resistant Jew’s chagrin, Malachi 4 is speaking of the coming of the messiah. Jews are faced with a seemingly impossible decision; accept the overwhelming evidence that John was Malachi’s Elijah and Jesus is therefore the messiah, or continue to reject Jesus as messiah but run the risk of falling under God’s judgement for ignoring the Tanakhan (scriptural…the entire collection of Jewish scripture – the OT – is called the Tanakh) teaching.
Matthew goes on to give what is likely a summary of the basic message John brought with him where ever he went: “Repent and be saved; don’t repent and you’re up shit creek” (or for more sensitive ears/eyes: “you’re in big trouble”…but I think John was a little more brash than that). John’s message is right in line with what’s talked about in Malachi: “that great and dreadful day of the Lord…” What John is proclaiming is great for some but dreadful for others, in Matthew 3, it’s dreadful for the Pharisees and Sadducees – the religious elite of the day. It’s inevitable that any witnesses to such an exchange would have either been moved to repentance or walked away wondering, “If they’re not safe, then who is?”
Given the gloominess of John’s message, we can’t stop there; we naturally want some sort of resolution. Likewise, still keeping in mind that Malachi 4:5 is the background text for Matthew 3, Matthew is presenting John as the one preparing and preceding the messiah. Naturally, Matthew has to formally introduce/declare the messiah. If you’ve been following my discussion on Matthew, it’s painfully obvious that Matthew has already made a strong case for Jesus’ messiahship. But in terms of a literary structure, it’s here that Matthew offers his readers a formal, unadulterated, public declaration that Jesus is the messiah. In a sense, everything prior to this is simply building up to this point and offering several pieces of evidence that Matthew will use to officially come down and identify the messiah. If we were to look at the bigger picture of what has happened so far, Matthew begins by asking the question, Is Jesus really the messiah? He then works his way through the events of Jesus’ life, relating them back to OT prophecies about Jesus, finally settling on the conclusion that Jesus is the messiah.
The question has often been asked and debated about the purpose or reason for Jesus’ baptism. That’s not a question that I’m going to address in this post because to do so requires looking at every account of Jesus’ baptism, and I’m only dealing with Matthew’s gospel. But to answer that question purely on the basis of what Matthew has to say about it leads us to say that Jesus’ baptism was his formal introduction to the world as messiah.
In comparison to the other gospels (I know I said I wasn’t going to do that…bear with me), the wording Matthew uses to tell the story of Jesus’ baptism is incredibly important. In verse 17 the voice says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Warning, I’m gunna get a little grammatical on everyone – but it’s worth it 
. The word “this” is a demonstrative pronoun. In other words, it’s a word that is used to demonstrate something to someone else. It’s a classic sign of an introduction, such as “This is John.” or “This is Anne.” We don’t use “this” when we are identifying John to John; John already knows who he is, he doesn’t need us to tell him that. But other people do need that information. All this to say that Matthew, in contrast to the other gospels, depicts Jesus’ baptism and this declaration as being for the benefit of the people standing along the bank of the Jordan River. Jesus is being introduced by the Father as the messiah. This is the formal introduction I’ve been building up to and the completion of the narrative that begins with Matthew 3:1.
Relying on Malachi 4:5 and Isaiah 40:3, Matthew shows John the Baptist to be the Elijah figure who will come ahead of the messiah, bringing a message of both greatness and dread. Matthew then goes on to show Jesus “conveniently” arriving at the Jordan River where John has been preaching and baptizing, establishing the relationship between the two as John the Elijah and Jesus the messiah. Jesus is then given a formal introduction with the words of verse 17, completing the circle.
As one more side-note, Jesus baptism certainly seems to be the pivot of Matthew’s entire narrative. While he certainly portrays Jesus as the messiah prior to verse 17, Matthew goes into very little detail regarding the person and his teachings. But in chapter 4, Matthew begins to go into much greater detail about what Jesus does and experiences…
Filed under: Bible Study
