Jesus · c. AD 26
Chapter 10
A Voice in the Wilderness
He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
For parents
John warns that every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, and that the chaff will be burned up in a fire that can never be put out (Matthew 3:10–12; Luke 3:9, 17). At the end, Herod the tetrarch shuts John away in prison. John had spoken out against Herod over Herodias, his brother’s wife (Luke 3:19–20). Both are told plainly, in the text’s own terms.
In the fifteenth year that ruled as emperor, the word of God came to , the son of , out in the wilderness.
In those days was governor of . ruled as its , a governor over part of a province. Herod’s brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene. The were and .
As a child, John had grown and become strong in spirit. He had lived in the desert until the day came for him to show himself openly to Israel.
Mark begins: “The beginning of the Good News of , the Son of God.”
John the Baptizer came and preached in the wilderness of Judea. He went all through the country around the , people. He preached that they should and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. “Repent,” he said, “because the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”
Matthew says John was the one the had spoken about. Luke quotes Isaiah’s book too, and he gives more of its words:
“The voice of someone calling out in the wilderness:‘Get the way of the Lord ready!Make his paths straight!Every valley will be filled in,and every mountain and hill brought low.What is crooked will become straight,and the rough roads smooth.All people will see God’s salvation.’”
Matthew gives the words only as far as “Make his paths straight!” and so does Mark. Mark says, “As it is written in the prophets,” and he puts these words first, before the lines about the voice calling out in the wilderness: “Look, I send my messenger ahead of you, who will get your way ready for you.”
John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he wore a leather belt at his waist. He ate , a kind of grasshopper, and wild honey.
People went out to him from , from all over Judea, and from the whole region around the Jordan. John baptized them in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.
Matthew says John saw many of the and coming for his baptism, and these were the words he spoke to them. In Luke, he speaks them to the crowds who went out to be baptized by him.
“You offspring of !” he said. “Who warned you to run from the anger that is coming? So produce fruit that shows you have repented! And don’t start telling yourselves, ‘ is our father.’ I tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham out of these stones! The ax is already lying at the root of the trees. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
“Then what should we do?” the crowds asked him.
“If you have two coats,” John answered, “give to someone who has none. If you have food, do the same.”
came to be baptized too. “Teacher,” they asked him, “what should we do?”
“Take no more than the amount you’ve been told to collect,” he told them.
Some soldiers asked him as well, “And what about us? What should we do?”
“Don’t use force to get money out of anyone,” he told them, “and don’t accuse anyone of things they didn’t do. Be content with what you are paid.”
The people were full of expectation, and all of them were wondering in their hearts about John. Could he be the Christ?
John answered them all. “I baptize you in water, for repentance,” he said, “but someone is coming after me who is mightier than I am. I am not worthy to bend down and undo the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.
“His fork is in his hand. He will clean his from end to end. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff in a fire that can never be put out.”
A winnowing fork was used to toss threshed grain into the air. The wind blew away the chaff, which was the light husks and bits of straw, and the grain fell back to the floor.
In Matthew, John says these things to the Pharisees and Sadducees, right after his warning about the ax, and he says he isn’t worthy to carry the sandals of the one who is coming. In Matthew and in Mark, he says only, “He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”
This is what John said as a witness when the Jews sent and from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
John spoke openly and didn’t deny the truth. He said plainly, “I am not the Christ.”
“Then what?” they asked him. “Are you ?”
“I am not,” he said.
“Are you the prophet?”
“No,” he answered.
So they said to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to the people who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
He said, “I am the voice of someone calling out in the wilderness, ‘Make the way of the Lord straight,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
The men who had been sent were from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Then why do you baptize people, if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, or the prophet?”
“I baptize people in water,” John answered them, “but someone you don’t know is standing among you. He is the one who comes after me. He ranks above me, and I am not worthy to loosen his sandal strap.”
All this happened at , on the far side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
John said many other things to urge the people on as he preached good news to them.
Here Luke also tells about Herod the tetrarch. John had spoken out against Herod because of , the wife of Herod’s brother, and because of all the other wicked things Herod had done. Then Herod added one more wrong to all the rest: he shut John away in prison.