[ p. 31 ]
HIS ENTRANCE ON HIS MINISTRY
HIS CALL
Mt iii; Mk. i. 1-11 ; Lk. iii. 1-18, 21, 22 ; cf. Jo. i. 30-34.
At length the hour came. Toward the close of the year 25 A.D. the Jewish people were deeply stirred. A prophet had arisen and was proclaiming a startling message with the old prophetic inspiration unknown for generations. He was the son of Mary’s kinswoman Elisabeth, who had been granted in their old age to her and her husband Zechariah, the priest of Khirbet el-Jehud, and whom in their gratitude they had named John, “The Lord is gracious.” He was six months older than Jesus ; and while the latter was employed in His workshop at Nazareth, John was employed, like Amos of old, as a herdsman or a husbandman in the wilderness of Judaea (Lk. i. 80; cf. Am. i. 1, vii. 14). There in fulfilment of the Nazirite vow imposed upon him ere his birth he led an ascetic life. He abstained from intoxicants and went unshorn (Lk. i. 15; cf. Num. vi, Jud. xiii. 4,5). His food was the pods of the locust-tree and the honey of the wild bees so abundant in the wilds of Palestine ; and his attire a cloak of camel’s hair, whether the undressed fell or cloth woven of the coarse wool, with a leathern band in lieu of the customary girdle gaily coloured and studded with metal and beads (Cf. I Sam. xiv. 25-27). It was the sort of life that makes an enthusiast, and he not only shared the expectation so general in those distressful days that [ p. 32 ] the advent of the Messiah, the Promised Deliverer, could not long be delayed but attained a prophetic assurance of His immediate appearing. And this message he proclaimed, summoning the people to repentance in preparation for the solemn event.
The scene of his preaching was the southern ford of the Jordan, where some fifteen centuries earlier the Israelites under Joshua had crossed over to Gilgal (Josh. iv; cf. Mt. iii. 9), and where there stood twelve stones popularly regarded as the same which they had taken from the river-bed and set up for a memorial. The place was known indifferently as Bethabara, “The House of the Crossing,” and Bethany, “The House of the Ferry-boat” ; and he chose it not merely because it afforded him a ready audience, being frequented by travellers betwixt Jerusalem and Galilee by the eastern route through Peraa, but because it suited a peculiar requirement of his ministry. For he practised the rite of Baptism, whence he was styled “John the Baptist.” It was no novel rite. In token of their cleansing from heathen pollution converts to the Jewish faith were subjected to a ceremonial ablution known as “the Baptism of Proselytes” ; and John merely adopted this ordinance and gave it a larger scope, proclaiming that even as the heathen needed cleansing ere they were admitted to the Commonwealth of Israel, so did the Jews ere they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is no wonder that his preaching created a mighty cf. 2 Ki. stir. His very aspect was arresting (Cf. 2 Ki. i. 8). Even such had been the garb of Elijah, that stem prophet of old whose memory still retained its peculiar [ p. 33 ] fascination ; and it happened that in those days there prevailed an expectation, based on the latest word of ancient prophecy, that on the eve of the Messiah’s advent Elijah would reappear and prepare the nation to receive Him. What wonder, then, that the people were moved and thronged to Bethabara ? (Mal. iv. 5,6; cf. Mt. xvii. 10-13; Mk. ix. 11-13) First they gathered from Judaea and Jerusalem, and then, as his fame spread, from remoter parts. Early in the year 26 a number of Galileans appeared on the scene ; and one of these was Jesus. Presently He presented Himself as a candidate for baptism, and John demurred. It was not that he knew Jesus ; for this was the first time he had ever seen His face (Cf. Jo. i. 31). His parents, old folk when he was born thirty years ago, had been long deceased, and he and Jesus had all their days lived remote from each other. They now met as strangers, and it would surprise John when Jesus presented Himself. For he baptised none but penitents who confessed their sin; and Jesus “knew no sin” and made no confession (2Cor. v. 21). At the first blush John would on this account deem Him unfit; but as he talked with Him, his judgment changed. Like all who ever had to do with Him in the days of His flesh, he recognised the heavenly grace which shone in His face and breathed like fragrance in His speech; and he bowed before Him. “It is I,” he exclaimed, “that have need to be baptised by you; and you—you come tome!” (Is. liii. 9,12) But Jesus insisted. He was the Messiah; and, “although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth,” He would be “numbered with the transgressors,” bearing the burden of their guilt and [ p. 34 ] making Himself one with them that they might be one with Him.
His baptism was not a confession : it was a consecration—His self-consecration to His Messianic ministry. And it was owned of God. It is told of St. Malachy of Armagh that once, as he ministered at the altar, a dove flew in through an open window in a flood of light and after fluttering round the church rested upon the crucifix before him. It was hailed as a visitation of the Holy Spirit, the Heavenly Dove. And a like thing befell at Bethabara. It was evening, and the light of the setting sun broke through the golden shadows of the west; and as Jesus stood praying on the river-bank amid the sudden blaze of glory, a dove hovered over Him, “her wings covered with silver, and her pinions with yellow gold.” (Ps. lxviii. 13) To the multitude it was a mere natural occurrence, but the Baptist perceived its spiritual significance (Cf. Jo. i. 31-34). The dove was a sacred emblem of the Divine Spirit who, it was written, on the morning of Creation had “brooded upon the face of the waters—as a dove,” (Gen. i. 2 R.V. marg.) adds the Jewish interpreter, “over her nest” ; and John recalled how it was written of the Messiah that “the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon Him.” (Is. xi. 2) The truth flashed home to his mind : That holy Stranger was none other than the Saviour whose advent he had been proclaiming.
And immediately his surmise was confirmed. A heavenly voice spoke. It is ever the law of a divine manifestation that it is hidden from carnal sense; and the voice was unperceived by the multitude. [ p. 35 ] It spoke to John, and to him it said : “This is My Son, My beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mt. iii. 17) And it spoke to Jesus, and to Him it said : “Thou art My Son, My beloved: in Thee I am well pleased.” (Mk. i. 11; Lk. iii. 22) What did it mean? “The Son of God” was a Messianic title. Primarily a designation of the nation of Israel, it by and by denoted her king, the nation’s head and representative, and then the Messiah, the King of Israel par excellence (Cf. Ex. iv. 22; Ho. xi. 1. Cf. Pss. ii. 6,7, lxxxix. 27). And thus the voice was a declaration of the Messiahship of Jesus ; and its purpose was twofold. For John it was a certification of the truth of his surmise ; and for Jesus it was the summons which He had been so long awaiting—the call to enter upon His Messianic ministry. The expected hour had come.