Matthew 3: Repentance Over Broken Relationship

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”

John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” - Matthew 3

Before Jesus, there was John. When Acts says that Apollos knew only the teaching of John about the Messiah, this message was all that he knew: repent because the Messiah is coming. I think that the idea of repentance had been twisted in the popular belief of the day and that twisting had been mastered by the Pharisees. There was a basic desire to be holy, to be righteous and to find favor with God. But the way you became holy, more righteous and find favor with God was to try to obey the laws and rules with even greater fanaticism. So repentance became an exercise in returning to the stricter and stricter observation of the law. By extension, the reason that the Jews were currently oppressed was because, as a people, they didn't obey the laws with enough precision. If only enough of them would obey the law correctly, God would restore his favor on them as a country. 

But repentance doesn't have to do with laws, it had to do with relationship. We must turn our back on the self-centered worldview that, if it includes God in it, includes him solely for our own purposes. The Pharisees saw obedience as a way of coercing God's favor or placating God's anger. But God was already predisposed to love them, if they would forsake using him for their own goals. They had lost the desire to know God, perhaps even thinking that the law showed how difficult it was to have a relationship with God. So they substituted rule-following for relationship. 

"This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." Jesus' entire ministry was a reflection of the love of the Father for him. We, who are in Christ, can hear the same emotional response from God, our Father: "This is my child, whom I love, with him or her I am well please." Our life should be a reflection of the Father's love for us.