8. Statement of the Work of John

These passages are important because they help convey the tenor of the times and the strong belief among many Jews in the coming of an apocalyptic messiah.

First off, John is best understood as a member of the apocalyptic camp. He is preaching repentance of sins so that when judgment day comes, those that have repented are ready to rise up to heaven, while those that are unworthy “will burn up in unquenchable fire.”  This is the apocalyptic vision par excellence. (For more on the Apocalyptic vision, see Jesus’ Context.)

It also appears from this passage that John’s message is finding many receptive ears. Jews from all walks of life – soldiers, tax collectors, and “the multitudes” -- are coming to be baptized by John and asking him what they must do to be worthy of God’s grace when the judgment day comes. Even the Pharisees and Sadducees are coming to check John out, although John clearly does not see them as having much of a shot at redemption – calling them “offspring of vipers” and saying that it is not enough just to be a Jew (“We have Abraham to our father”), but that you must be a good Jew. Clearly John felt that this was criteria the Pharisees and Sadducees did not meet. 

Importantly, this passage also reveals how powerful the messianic expectation was at this time: “and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ.” John denies that role for himself, but predicts the coming of another “whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.” In Christian theology this has been taken to be a foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus, but as we will see, Jesus fully rejects both the political and the apocalyptic visions as dangerously delusional and a threat to his peoples’ survival. 

In the last paragraph, we learn of John’s criticism of Herod for marrying his dead brother’s wife (and other trespasses, apparently), which gets him thrown into jail and eventually beheaded. 

But before that happens, Jesus has his own experience at the hands of John, in a baptism probably unlike any John had given before, or after.

9. Baptism of Jesus by John

This passage begs the question: If Jesus did not believe in the apocalyptic vision, what was he doing being baptized by John, who clearly did believe in it? One possibility is that at this point in his life, Jesus had not necessarily rejected the idea of an apocalyptic messiah – that insight came after his baptismal experience and his time in the wilderness, which we explore in the next section.

Again, trying to put ourselves in Jesus’ sandals, we can project that John was making quite an impact among the Jewish populace, arousing Jesus’ curiosity about what John had to say. We can also imagine that Jesus -- himself preoccupied with his peoples’ plight under the Romans -- was inspired by John’s courage, since his actions were creating dangerous enemies (not just Herod but Jewish religious leaders as well). With all of that playing in his mind, it’s not hard to see how Jesus might have been motivated to experience the baptism that John was offering.

All of this is, of course, conjecture -- we cannot know for sure. But whatever Jesus’ motivation for undergoing John’s baptism, we do know that he had quite an experience: “the heaven was opened, and the Spirit of God descended, as a dove, upon him.” The language is poetic, not literal. If you’ve ever had what might be called a religious experience – what mystics have referred to as a direct perception of the oneness of reality that penetrates the soul but defies verbal expression -- you would be compelled to rely on poetic language to convey it.

We can also see how such an experience could lead to a total shift in Jesus’ identity – “And a voice came out of heaven: Thou art my beloved Son; this day have I begotten thee.” One interpretation: Jesus had an “ah ha!” experience of the first order, in which he became deeply conscious of his personal relationship with God.

However we might try and describe the experience, it was clearly powerful, and required Jesus to remove himself from his normal environment to assimilate what had happened. This brings us to his time spent in the wilderness.

10. Withdrawal of Jesus to the Wilderness

Jesus had a profound experience of some kind in the baptism – he saw something he had not seen before, and it led to a total shift in his identity. The questions before him then became: What does this experience mean, and what shall I do with it? Shall I use my insight to serve my own ambition and power drive ? Does my insight somehow confer upon me supernatural abilities? Or shall I simply use it to amass great personal wealth? These are the three temptations Jesus confronts during his time in the wilderness, symbolically presented as a conversation with the devil.

The first temptation is that of the political messiah: “And he led Jesus up, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: if thou wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine.”

Jesus was keenly aware that his people were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the one who would re-establish the Jewish Kingdom as it was in its heyday under David. He also knew he could play into that expectation and amass considerable personal power. He rejected that as a possibility, saying: “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Jesus concluded that the expectation of a political messiah was not the will of God, but rather a dangerous illusion with potentially disastrous consequences. He understood that there was simply no way the Jews could rise up against the Romans and win. The Romans had already shown how they deal with insurgency: They massacre all the insurgents. It was clear to Jesus that such a fate awaited the Jews if they continued to resist Roman rule.

The second of Jesus’ temptations was to play to the peoples’ desire for an apocalyptic messiah: “And he led Jesus to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou are the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to guard thee: And on their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone.” The apocalyptic vision can be thought of as a magical belief – where the physical laws of reality are turned on their heads. Earth comes to an end; evil doers are cast into fire, and the good and righteous rise up to Heaven. Jesus’ answer to this temptation was: “It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” In other words, don’t expect God to suddenly change all the rules. We have been given the structure of reality, it has been dependable, and to expect that structure to be suddenly violated is completely unrealistic.

So, if Jesus is not going to try and fulfill either the political or apocalyptic visions, a third alternative is presented to him: Use the insight to gain material wealth. This is the symbolism of turning stone into bread. Jesus’ answer – that man does not live by bread alone – is a statement that material well-being is not the primary focus of life. First and foremost is a complete commitment to the will of God.

We will see in the next section that, having thus sorted out the options available to him, Jesus makes a decision: He takes on the mission of teacher to pass on the knowledge he has gained – not just so that his people can avoid the catastrophe to which rebellion against the Romans ultimately leads, but so that they can fulfill their higher destiny of bringing this new knowledge to the rest of humankind.

The rest of Jesus’ short life is dedicated to that purpose.