NOTES for Mat 3:1-11
When we read the evangelists' accounts of the preaching of John the Baptist, which preceded the Baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, we easily miss the direct meaning contained in the narrative. Thus the evangelist Matthew tells us about the preaching of the Forerunner by saying that "all Judea" was baptized by him. Of course, this is an exaggeration, and not all the residents of Judea were baptized without exception. Yet it is clear that there were very, very many of these people. That is the truly astonishing fact. To us, on the other hand, for understandable reasons, it looks natural.
John the Baptist, calling people to receive in repentance the Kingdom of Heaven that had drawn near, did not invent a new rite for repentance. He used the washing performed for "second-class" people coming to God: Gentiles and women underwent this procedure, while for Israelite men entrance into the covenant was circumcision. In essence, John's call was like someone calling modern Orthodox Christians to be baptized a second time. For those who came to John at the Jordan, this act meant confessing that they, as traitors and apostates, were unfaithful to God and were approaching Him in repentance not as full descendants of Abraham, but as Gentiles. This was exactly the kind of repentance Israel's prophets had spoken about earlier. Is it not astonishing that there were many people who repented with such humility?
The behavior of the Pharisees and Sadducees can more readily be called natural. Both groups thought that one more pious rite would do them no harm, thereby revealing their unbelief in pious rites in general. Both groups wanted to show off their piety before people; soon after His Baptism, the Lord Jesus Christ would expose them for this.
The fact that the evangelist Matthew emphasizes how many sincere penitents there were in the days of John the Baptist first of all reveals to us what the "fullness of time" is, in which, according to the apostle Paul, God sends His Son. It is the time when many hearts are ready to receive Christ in humility and repentance. Therefore the repentance of some and the hypocrisy of others are not the main point in the ministry of John the Baptist. The Forerunner preaches repentance and baptizes not in order to give people salvation, but so that Christ may be revealed to us.