Post by M.R. Hagerty on Feb 13, 2023 13:28:50 GMT -7
Luke 3:14
To the tax collectors and soldiers he said, "Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages."
Everyone is already aware that Roman officials commonly looked the other way as their agents exacted well-to-do livings from exorbitant practices. Soldiers often used the threat of force or trumped up charges that could land you in a Roman jail in order to extort food, clothing or money.
John is declaring God’s view of the poor and destitute, the victims of abuse, and therefore exhorts such men if they desire the good pleasure of God to conduct themselves with compassion. And neither the tax collector nor the soldier could complain that they couldn’t do their duty without these measures. It is understandable that the people began to wonder if John was the fulfillment of the One who was promised.
Matthew 3:2,3:13-17, Luke 3:23
2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." . . 13 Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" 15 But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him. 16 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." (Matthew 3:2, 3:13-17)
23 When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, (Luke 3:23a)
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Commentary
Matthew 3:2
". . the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
We can’t ignore that John also had a positive message that was actually a precursor to what Jesus would begin preaching. John preached repentance but for the express reason that “the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.” This is something we can’t gloss over too quickly.
We often perceive this as a sort of general description of the coming of the Christian life following all that has gone before, the Old Testament and the Law. We are children of the Kingdom in that we accept Christ and this new life is what was being announced. This is partly based on a misunderstanding of what Jesus meant by ”the kingdom of God is within you.”
But there is much more to this expression than this, which makes sense when you think about the fact that the audience hearing this would not have understood an announcement that the Christian life was coming to men. No one knew of any such Christian life nor did they expect it.
What they did expect was the kingdom Daniel talked about in chapter 2, “. . the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.”
When John and Jesus preached that the kingdom was at hand, there was only one way to understand this for the hearers. It was the political, physical establishment of God ‘s kingdom on earth. That this was intentional comes from the fact that John and Jesus do not qualify their announcements to make sure that some other kind of kingdom is clearly to be understood. This they do not do and leave the meaning to be understood as it would have been.