Matthew 3 Study Notes

3:11 Removing the master’s sandals was a task so menial that Hebrew slave owners could not require it of Hebrew slaves. John, however, saw himself as unworthy to perform for Jesus the very task that slaves were spared from performing. John expressed this deep humility because Jesus was more powerful than he, and this greater power expressed itself through a new baptism that was vastly superior to John’s. John’s baptism was a public expression of repentance, but his baptism could not change a person’s heart. Jesus, however, baptized the repentant with the Holy Spirit, making them holy through inner transformation. Matthew’s quotation from Jr 31:15 in Mt 2:18 was probably intended to remind his readers of the promise of the new covenant (Jr 31:31-34). The reference to baptism with the Spirit recalls the related promise in Ezk 36:27 in which God declared, “I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.” This work of the Spirit was highlighted again at Jesus’s baptism (3:16). Jesus would have the power to transform human character in a way that John could not. Jesus would also baptize people with fire, a reference to divine judgment against unrepentant sinners.

3:12 A winnowing shovel was used to toss grain into the air. The wind would blow the useless husks (called chaff) aside, while the heavier grain kernels fell to the threshing floor. The chaff would then be gathered up and burned. John’s parable thus described a coming divine judgment in which all people are sifted, with the result that Christ’s followers will be preserved by God, while the unrepentant are gathered for punishment. Though chaff is highly flammable and burns away quickly, possibly giving the impression that divine judgment is only temporary, John made clear that the fire that awaits the unrepentant will never go out. God’s punishment against unrepentant sinners is eternal.

3:13 Apparently Jesus and his family still lived in Nazareth (in Galilee) at this time.

3:14 John tried to stop him because he recognized Jesus’s superiority. By his protest John further identified Jesus as the one who would come after him (v. 11). John knew that he needed Jesus’s baptism, the baptism of the Spirit, but he also understood that sinless Jesus did not seek water baptism as an expression of repentance.

3:15 Jesus explained that baptism was essential to his perfection. Jesus wished to please his Father by obeying the commands of the prophets (John was the greatest of the prophets, 11:9-13) and by identifying with God’s righteous cause among the people. If he had refused to participate in John’s baptism, Jesus would have seemed like a rebel rather than one who came to fulfill all righteousness.

3:16 The opening of the heavens demonstrates that both the voice and the descending Spirit came from heaven and were divine. First-century Jews associated the dove with the Spirit since Gn 1:2 describes the Spirit as hovering over the primeval waters. The Hebrew verb translated “hover” is the same word used to describe a bird rapidly fluttering its wings. Consequently, both the Qumran Scrolls and the Talmud associated God’s Spirit in Gn 1:2 with the dove. The descent of the Spirit thus alludes to Gn 1 and identifies Jesus not only as one empowered by the Spirit but also as one who brings new creation (2Co 5:17; Gl 6:15).

3:17 The Father speaks directly only twice in Matthew—here at Jesus’s baptism and later at the transfiguration. On both occasions he identified Jesus as his Son and expressed approval of him (see 17:5). The Father’s words at Jesus’s baptism blend together two important OT texts: Ps 2:7 and Is 42:1. Psalm 2 was a song sung at the crowning of Israel’s kings. The Father’s application of this text to Jesus identified him as a divinely appointed King who would rule with divine authority and whose kingdom would extend to the ends of the earth (Ps 2:1-12). The allusion to Is 42 identified Jesus as the Servant, the messianic figure whom Is 53:5 promised would be “pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities.” Matthew 12:18-21 explicitly applies Is 42 to Jesus, and Mt 8:17 explicitly applies Is 53 to Jesus. With this OT background in mind, we see that the Father’s words identify Jesus as King and Savior.