Mathew chapter 3

Let us consider the chapter 3 of Mathew. At a glance we can see the difference between chapter 2 and 3. In chapter 2 Herod used the scriptures by the help of priests and experts to protect his kingdom – The polity. Here John the Baptist also uses the scriptures to build up a kingdom, kingdom of heaven. The kingdom John preached about was not a political kingdom and thereby the king of that kingdom would also inevitably not a king of polity. Herod maintained a kingdom of political matters but John preached a kingdom of spiritual matters. Political kingdoms bounded by geographical boundaries. But the kingdom of spirit cannot be bounded by such boundaries, it has no such boundaries. Herod’s kingdom was objectively existed but the one preached by John was existed subjectively. Whenever one repented, he became the citizen of that subjectively existed kingdom, the one existed internally. Herod couldn’t understand this fact. He knew one and only Kingdom and King.
John could understand what was going on that social environment; he was not in that darkness prevailed on those days. He said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Means he knew someone had already came to earth to lead the kingdom he preached about. He was aware about the social phenomena and the relation of scriptures with them and thereby he could carry out a great mission.
John preached in the wilderness of Judea. Means most of the part of Judea was in wilderness subjectively. They were not much cultured people because they didn’t have much education so they were considered in wilderness. The education in those days means the education in scriptures. Normally educated and cultured people were well versed in scriptures, Pharisees and Sadducees. But when those Pharisees and Sadducees heard about the baptism they also came to John. He asked them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” The reason to ask so, they themselves didn’t have the ability to know what was going on around them but someone needed to warn them about that. They were not as innocent as those uneducated, full of venom and misleading like the snake in Eden. They were proud of their heritage as descendents of Abraham. Not heritage but quality, heritage is maintained by maintaining some cultural quality. So John warned them to produce such qualities, bear fruits in keeping with repentance. They were well versed in scriptures but couldn’t maintain such cultural qualities, means spiritual qualities. Spiritual Heritage is not biological but cultural. If anyone cannot maintain such cultural qualities, he will be cut off from the people who maintain such culture. John mentions it by saying,” Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”