The Divine Lamp

Note: Mousing onto the blue links will cause a pop-up box to appear with the cited text. The default translation is the Douay-Rheims, but the pop-up allows several choices in translation. Orange/red links must be clicked on.

Please Vote For This Post On Pickafig

Text: Matt 3:13-17

Notes:

The exchange between John and Our Lord is often said to be an attempt at explaining why the sinless Jesus accepted John’s baptism. Simply put, the explanation is that it was God’s will. But what takes place here should also be seen as telling us something about Jesus and his teaching on discipleship.

“Throughout the Gospel Matthew emphasizes the necessity of “doing” or “observing” God’s law as opposed to simply knowing and talking about it and not doing it. His positive example is Jesus Himself who does the will of the Father perfectly. His primary negative example is the caricatured “typical” Pharisee. His secondary negative example, and some would say his “target”, is the Christian of whom Jesus says: “You can tell a tree by its fruit. None of those who cry out,’Lord,Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of God but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven” (Matt 7:20-21). It is the same type of Christian who will say to Jesus after Jesus has condemned him: “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or away from home or naked, or ill or in prison and not attend you in your needs?” (Matt 25:44). False disciples are non-doers.

The first words of Jesus recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, characterize him as a “doer” of God’s will. “Give in for now,” Jesus says when John tries to dissuade him from being baptized, “we must do this if we would fulfill all of God’s demands” (Matt 3:15). It is the same throughout the Gospel. It is especially so in the way Jesus voluntarily undergoes the ordeal of the passion as an act of obedience. His most characteristic words in relation to the passion are the words of the agony: “My Father, if this cannot pass me by without my drinking it, your will be done” (matt 26:42). And when he teaches his disciples to pray, he teaches them to say: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). Peter F. Ellis, MATTHEW, HIS MIND AND HIS MESSAGE.

The opening of the heavens in verse 16 may allude to Ezekiel’s inaugural vision, which took place in the vicinity of a river (Ezekiel 1:1). The opening of the heavens is a fairly common motif in Scripture, designating divine communication. Isaiah 63:7-19; 64:1 may also be in the evangelists mind here. This passage is a prayer that God would come to help His people. The text, like Matthew’s baptism account, contains a reference to the Exodus, the descent of the spirit, and the Fatherhood of God. It ends with the cry: “O that you wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down.”

The descent of the Spirit “as a dove” probably should not be taken as meaning that the Spirit took the form of a dove but, rather, that His descent was dove-like.

Verse 16 implies that Jesus Himself was the only one to see the descent, though such an interpretation is not absolutely necessary. Verse 17 has the words from heaven being spoken to others: “This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased” (Literal translation). The twofold designation of Jesus, followed by the heavenly assessment, recall important designations in the OT. “My Son” (the Davidic King Psalm 2:7). “Beloved” (Isaac, when God asked for him to be sacrificed Genesis 22:2, 16). “well pleased” (God’s servant in Isaiah 42:1-4). All three personages are seen as foreshadowing Christ; and all three are significant for the world at large. The Davidic Kings, who foreshadowed Christ by being God’s adopted sons, were promised that one day their inheritance would be the nations (Psalm 2:8). The near sacrifice of Isaac, the beloved one of Abraham, which foreshadowed the sacrifice of Christ, motivated God to promise that through Isaac, all the nations of the earth would find blessing (Genesis 22:15-18. See Gal 3:15-29). God’s servant would bring forth justice to the nations, and justice upon the earth.