'And as the people were in expectation, and all men
mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the
Christ, or not; 16. John answered, saying unto them
all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier
than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not
worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with fire: 17. Whose fan is in His hand,
and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and will gather
the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn
with fire unquenchable. 18. And many other things, in
his exhortation, preached he unto the people. 19. But
Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias
his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which
Herod had done, 20. Added yet this above all, that he
shut up John in prison. 21. Now, when all the people
were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being
baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22. And
the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a
dove, upon Him; and a voice came from heaven, which
said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well
pleased.'--LUKE iii. 15-22.
This passage falls into three parts: John's witness to the coming
Messiah (vs. 15-17); John's undaunted rebuke of sin in high places,
and its penalty (vs. 18-20); and God's witness to Jesus (vs. 21,
22).
I. Luke sharply parts off the Baptist's work as a preacher of
repentance and plain morality from his work as the herald who
preceded the king. The former is delineated in verses 7-14, and its
effect was to set light to the always smouldering expectation of the
Messiah. The people were ready to rally round him if he would say
that he was the coming deliverer. It was a real temptation, but his
unmoved humility, which lay side by side with his boldness, brushed
it aside, and poured an effectual stream of cold water on the
excitement. 'John answered' the popular questionings, of which he
was fully aware, and his answer crushed them.
In less acute fashion, the same temptation comes to all who move the
general conscience. Disciples always seek to hoist their teacher
higher than is fitting. Adherence to him takes the place of
obedience to his message, and, if he is a true man, he has to damp
down misdirected enthusiasm.
Mark John's clear apprehension of the limitations of his work. He
baptized with water, the symbol and means of outward cleansing. He
does not depreciate his position or the importance of his baptism,
but his whole soul bows in reverence before the coming Messiah,
whose great office was to transcend his, as the wide Mediterranean
surpassed the little lake of Galilee. His outline of that work is
grand, though incomplete. It is largely based upon Malachi's closing
prophecy, and the connection witnesses to John's consciousness that
he was the Elijah foretold there. He saw that the Messiah would
surpass him in his special endowment. Strong as he was, that other
was to be stronger. Probably he did not dream that that other was to
wield the divine might, nor that His perfect strength was to be
manifested in weakness, and to work its wonders by the might of
gentle, self-sacrificing love. But, though he dimly saw, he
perfectly adored. He felt himself unworthy (literally, insufficient)
to be the slave who untied (or, according to Matthew, 'bore') his
lord's sandals. How beautiful is the lowliness of that strong
nature! He stood erect in the face of priests and tetrarchs, and
furious women, and the headsman with his sword, but he lay prostrate
before his King.
Strength and royal authority were not all that he had to proclaim of
Messiah. 'He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire.' We
observe that the construction here is different from that in verse
16 ('with water'), inasmuch as the preposition 'in' is inserted,
which, though it is often used 'instrumentaly,' is here, therefore,
more probably to be taken as meaning simply 'in.' The two nouns are
coupled under one preposition, which suggests that they are fused
together in the speaker's mind as reality and symbol.
Fire is a frequently recurrent emblem of the Holy Spirit, both in
the Old and New Testament. It is not the destructive, but the
vitalising, glowing, transforming, energy of fire, which is
expressed. The fervour of holy enthusiasm, the warmth of ardent
love, the melting of hard hearts, the change of cold, damp material
into its own ruddy likeness, are all set forth in this great symbol.
John's water baptism was poor beside Messiah's immersion into that
cleansing fire. Fire turns what it touches into kindred flame. The
refiner's fire melts metal, and the scum carries away impurities.
Water washes the surface, fire pierces to the centre.
But while that cleansing by the Spirit's fire was to be Messiah's
primary office, man's freedom to accept or reject such blessing
necessarily made His work selective, even while its destination was
universal. So John saw that His coming would part men into two
classes, according as they submitted to His baptism of fire or not.
The homely image of the threshing-floor, on some exposed, windy
height, carries a solemn truth. The Lord of the harvest has an
instrument in His hand, which sets up a current of air, and the
wheat falls in one heap, while the husks are blown farther, and lie
at the edge of the floor. Mark the majestic emphasis on the Christ's
ownership in the two phrases, '_His_ floor' and '_His_ garner.'
Notice, too, the fact which determines whether a man is chaff or
wheat--namely, his yielding to or rejecting the fiery baptism which
Christ offers. Ponder that awful emblem of an empty, rootless,
fruitless, worthless life, which John caught up from Psalm I.
Thankfully think of the care and safe keeping and calm repose
shadowed in that picture of the wheat stored in the garner after the
separating act. And let us lay on awed hearts the terrible doom of
the chaff. There are two fires, to one or other of which we must be
delivered. Either we shall gladly accept the purging fire of the
Spirit which burns sin out of us, or we shall have to meet the
punitive fire which burns up us and our sins together. To be
cleansed by the one or to be consumed by the other is the choice
before each of us.
II. Verses 18-20 show John as the preacher and martyr of
righteousness. Luke tells his fate out of its proper place, in order
to finish with him, and, as it were, clear the stage for Jesus.
Similarly the Baptist's desert life is told by anticipation in
chapter i. 80. That treatment of his story marks his subordination.
His martyrdom is not narrated by Luke, though he knew of it (Luke
ix. 7-9), and this brief summary is all that is said of his heroic
vehemence of rebuke to sin in high places, and of his suffering for
righteousness' sake. John's message had two sides to it, as every
gospel of God's has. To the people he spoke good tidings and
exhortations; to lordly sinners he pealed out stern rebukes.
It needs some courage to tell a prince to his face that he is foul
with corruption, and, still more, to put a finger on his actual
sins. But he is no prophet who does not lift up his voice like a
trumpet, and speak to hardened consciences. King Demos is quite as
impatient of close dealing with his immorality as Herod was. London
and New York get as angry with the Christian men who fight against
their lust and drunkenness as ever he did, and would not be sorry if
they could silence these persistent 'fanatics' as conveniently as he
could. The need for courage like John's, and plain speech like his,
is not past yet. The 'good tidings' has rebuke as part of its
substance. The sword is two-edged.
III. The narrative now turns to Jesus, and does not even name John
as having baptized Him. The peculiarities of Luke's account of the
baptism are instructive. He omits the conversation between Jesus and
John, and the fact of John's seeing the dove and hearing the voice.
Like Mark, he makes the divine voice speak directly to Jesus,
whereas Matthew represents it as spoken _concerning_ Him. The
baptism itself is disposed of in an incidental clause (_having
been baptized_). The general result of these characteristics is
that this account lays emphasis on the bearing of the divine witness
as borne to Jesus Himself. It does not deny, but simply ignores, its
aspect as a witness borne to John.
Another striking point is Luke's mention of Christ's prayer, which
is thus represented as answered by the opened heavens, the
descending dove, and the attesting voice. We owe most of our
knowledge of Christ's prayers to this Evangelist, whose mission was
to tell of the Son of man. Mysteries beyond our plummets are
contained in this story; but however unique it is, it has this which
may be reproduced, that prayer unveiled heaven, and brought down the
dove to abide on the bowed head, and the divine attestation of
sonship to fill the waiting heart.
We need not dwell on the beautiful significance of the emblem of the
dove. It symbolised both the nature of that gracious, gentle Spirit,
and the perpetuity and completeness of its abode on Jesus. Others
receive portions of that celestial fullness, but itself, as if
embodied in visible form, settled down on Him, and, with meekly
folded wings, tarried there unscared. 'God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto Him.'
Our Evangelist does not venture into the deep waters, nor attempt to
tell what was the relation between the Incarnate Word, as it dwelt
in Jesus before that descent, and the Spirit which came upon Him. We
shall be wise if we refrain from speculating on such points, and
content ourselves with knowing that there has been one manhood
capable of receiving and retaining uninterruptedly the whole Spirit
of God; and that He will fill us with the Spirit which dwelt in Him,
in measure and manner corresponding to our need and our faith.
The heavenly voice spoke to the heart of the man Jesus. What was His
need of it, and what were its effects on Him, we do not presume to
affirm. But probably it originated an increased certitude of the
consciousness which dawned, in His answer to Mary, of His unique
divine sonship. To us it declares that He stands in an altogether
unexampled relation of kindred to the Father, and that His whole
nature and acts are the objects of God's complacency. But He has
nothing for Himself alone, and in Him we may become God's beloved
sons, well pleasing to the Father.