NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Part II

Verse 8: If that isn’t what you saw, then what did you really expect to see? Someone dressed in expensive clothing? Of course not. People who wear fine clothes are all in kings’ palaces.

Here our Lord gives us insight into one of the tricks of the trade for orators, and that was to dress in expensive clothing in order to look impressive and thereby influence the listener into thinking that what they are hearing is priceless. We read that one renown Roman lawyer named Malacinus had such a reputation. This was one of the reasons he was so well respected, especially when he went against Saint Nikon of the Greek Orthodox Church and defended the Jews in Sparta.¹ Today it appears some have kept this practice alive and added expensive cars, houses and airplanes.

So, did they go out to see a finely dressed orator? What they saw was a man who resembled the prophet like the one described to Ahaziah: “What did the man look like who met you and told you this? They answered Ahaziah, ‘This man was wearing a hairy coat with a leather belt around his waist.’ Then Ahaziah said, ‘That was Elijah the Tishbite.’”² This seems to have been the dress for prophets: “They will not wear the rough cloth that shows a person is a prophet.”³

One well respected German Jewish historian wrote in his book, that in the early days of Herod the Great a faction of scribes had attached themselves to his policies and party, and in so doing had laid aside the drab garments of their order, and had appeared in the gorgeous raiment worn by Herod’s other courtiers.⁴ Perhaps that’s why Jesus stated that such people were only found in kings’ palaces. Of course we know that Jesus was being satirical. But at the same time He certainly revealed what would have impressed these critics. It may have also shed some light on how Jesus dressed.

Verses 9-10:  So what did you actually go out to see? A prophet? For sure, and he was much more than an ordinary prophet. This Scripture was written about him: “Listen! I will send my angel ahead of You. He will prepare the way for You.”⁵

So if these people went out to see if John the Baptizer was a prophet, Jesus let’s them know they got what they were looking for and more. Our Lord told the crowd that John the Baptizer was not some self-appointed seer, that he was actually spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, “Listen, there is someone shouting: ‘Prepare a way in the desert for the Lord. Make a straight road there for our God.’”⁶ One Early Church writer had this to say about why John the Baptizer was more than just your everyday prophet: “Jesus now begins to tell the reasons why the blessed John was more than a prophet—from such a One John did deserve praise. Now John had borne witness to Christ, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’⁷ But he received more from Christ than he gave. For when John glorified Christ, he conferred human praise on him; but Christ conferred divine glory on John. For John spoke of Christ as a Lamb, but when Christ foretold John he spoke of him as an angel. And John did not praise Christ in full measure, for Christ not only took away the sin of the world but also granted eternal life to the world. But Christ exalted John higher than he appeared; John was a man, but Christ called him an angel.”⁸

And even the prophet Malachi spoke of this, “The Lord All-Powerful says, ‘I am sending my messenger to prepare the way for me. Then suddenly, the Lord you are looking for will come to His temple. Yes, the Angel you are waiting for, the one who will tell about my agreement, is really coming!”⁹ Jewish scholars differ on who they think this Lord or Angel would be. One of them sees this Angel as one who will carry out God’s justice and deal with the wicked.¹⁰ But another revered Rabbi says of this Angel, He could…possibly be the Messiah ben Joseph.¹¹ In other words, Jesus of Nazareth.

Early Church father Jerome offers his commentary on John the Baptizer. He writes: “John is greater than the other prophets for this reason: the other prophets predicted that someone was to come, but John pointed out with his finger that He had indeed come, saying, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.’¹² And he reached not only the rank of a prophet but even to that of Baptizer, by baptizing his Lord. This heightened his significance. He thereby fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi in which an angel is foretold.¹³ John belonged to the order of the angels not by nature but by the importance of his task. It means he was the messenger who would announce the coming of the Lord.”¹⁴

But it is what Jesus now goes on to say that would shock everyone who heard Him. For if John the Baptizer was greater than all the prophets before him, how then could the followers of Jesus be even greater than John the Baptizer? Jesus had no doubts that John the Baptizer was the spiritual incarnation of Elijah, just as he was promised.

A respected British commentator sees Malachi’s prophecy this way,¹⁵ and agrees with Dr. John Gill who expounds: “Elijah the Tishbite himself, is intended; though others think, that some great prophet of equal degree with him, and who is called by his name, is what the prophecy has regard to, which is the true sense of the passage: nor should it be once called in question, when our Lord Himself has applied it to John the Baptist; to whom the things said in it perfectly agree. He was an ‘angel’, not by nature, but by office; a ‘messenger’ sent by God, ‘before the face’ of the Messiah; six months before him: such a space of time he was born before him; and such a space of time he entered on his public ministry before him; and ‘prepared’ his ‘way before’ him, by preaching the doctrine of repentance, administering the ordinance of baptism, pointing at the Messiah, and exhorting persons to believe on him. All which proves him to be, what Christ says he was, ‘more than a prophet.’”¹⁶

Jesus did this for more reasons than to validate the man and ministry of John the Baptizer, He was also pointing this out to show the spiritual blindness of those who did not accept John the Baptizer or his message. So if their spiritual vision was that impaired, no wonder they did not accept Him as well. But then our Master shows the difference between those under the law and those under grace.

Verse 11: The truth is that John the Baptizer is greater than anyone who has ever been born of a woman. But even the least important person in God’s kingdom is greater than John the Baptizer.

One Early Church interpreter of the Bible had this to say about John the Baptizer’s special status: “If John is being judged against other people according to being born from a woman, he will be found to be the greatest of them all. He alone was filled with the Holy Spirit inside his mother’s womb, so that he ‘leaped,’¹⁷ and his mother prophesied because she partook in this as well. But if John is judged in relation to those who are to partake of the Spirit in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, he will be found to be the least. Thus Jesus says that John by no means partakes of such great grace as those who will be reborn into immortality after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and that John will experience physical death. At that time, however, the Spirit’s abundance toward people will be so great that no one who has partaken of even the least part of it can afterward fall into death.”¹⁸

So we must understand that Jesus was not putting down or dismissing John the Baptizer as an important cog in the wheel of God’s plan for sending the Messiah. What He was pointing out was that John preached to the Jews and his baptism was based on the old covenant and had little to do with the kingdom of God. But those that followed Him would be sent out with the message of the new covenant, not only to the Jews but to the whole world. So in that sense, even the least important disciple preaching the Gospel would be doing what John the Baptizer was unable to do. Nevertheless, John will have his place in that kingdom when the Messiah returns again.