NOTES for Mat 3:1-11

It is interesting whether one can repent and be cleansed from sin just in case, as it were. Like the Pharisees mentioned in today's Gospel reading. What is this, hypocrisy? Hardly: the Pharisees were deeply religious people who would hardly have allowed themselves open deceit. But what then provokes John's anger? Pride? The confidence of those who came that they, descendants of Abraham, cannot by definition be unworthy of the Kingdom? Yes. Pride has never brought anyone spiritual benefit. And yet the issue is evidently not only this. Why would a purifying washing, and John's "baptisms" were precisely purifying washings, be needed by someone sure of his own sinlessness? Judaism of that era did not know such a concept as "original sin." For a Jew of the Gospel era sin was something very concrete, and only the one who committed such a sin was considered a sinner, not every person by definition, as we think today. Why then should those who have not sinned be cleansed? Evidently, just in case. What if this strange preacher, so like the ancient prophets, is right? What if one more cleansing is needed in order to be worthy of the coming Messiah? What if... In short, one extra washing will not hurt in any case. Only spiritual life is not a religious rite. Here nothing is done "just like that" and "just in case." Just as there is no "faith just in case." It either exists or it does not. There is no third option.