Matthew 3.1-3 - In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”
John the Baptist is a key figure in the story of Israel’s restoration through her messiah. His office is that of a prophet and he was the son of a priest. John was versed in hebrew scriptures, torah, and rabbinic tradition. He was acquainted with the ruling and influential sects of his day, namely the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes.
When he shows up proclaiming ‘Repent’ it is not anything new for a prophet to say. The prophets for millennia had been the voices calling people to repentance, however the other claim was interesting: ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’. Even in the writings of the hebrew prophets, they did not have the immanence in mind that John presents. Those prophets (e.g. Isaiah quoted in verse 3) were anticipating a future redemption and restoration when the LORD would destroy Israel’s oppressor through an anointed military king, restore the temple, dwell with his people, and glory would come to Israel – in the future.
John is now saying it is at hand. The kingdom has irrupted in the present, this kingdom of heaven where God would restore the nation, destroy her enemies, and establish his presence with them was happening. John’s message was that YHWH, God of Israel, had come.
So in his two-fold proclamation they become co-dependent and cooperatively executed. The first, to repent, is only possible when sin is finally forgiven and the restoring one is there to welcome back the prodigal. The second, the kingdom at hand, is the reason the first is now possible. Jesus comes and the king is there with his kingdom. He is able to forgive sins as the preeminent son of man. He wages war against Israel’s greatest enemy, her own sin and death, and his triumphant victory is waged as his battling stage is climaxed at Golgotha. He wields his weapon as the cross rather than a sword, and he pours out his blood for their forgiveness. He rose from the dead to confirm that he was God’s chosen messiah, and is the assurance of the future resurrection of all. He ascended into heaven as a coronation of high king of all of everything.
How sweet an announcement John spoke: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’.
