Matthew 11:7

THE BAPTIST’S CHARACTER

‘What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?’

Matthew 11:7

‘What went ye out for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? A man clothed in soft raiment? A prophet?’ Three classes of objects are here presented as contained in the ‘ what went ye out for to see?’ (1) Nature as represented by the reed shaken with the wind. (2) The sensuous as represented by the soft clothing. (3) The intellectual and spiritual as set forth in the prophet.

I. A reed?—While John, like the reed, was agitated by the thoughts of his age and people, he yet gave that thought a direction and an object. The wickedness and hypocrisy of the people he rebuked; he was not carried away by them. Though he might have been a rabbi he did not covet to sit in Moses’ seat, but wrapping himself in the mantle of Elias, he went forth into the wilderness to warn and rebuke and teach—to turn the currents that were sweeping the reeds in different earthly directions to heaven and its requirements. The preacher to be of any use must be an inspired man. He must have bowed his head before the breath of the spirit. He must not bend his head at the beck of man’s hand, but utter God’s message of love with burning tongue.

II. Soft raiment?—Did you go out to see a man clothed in soft raiment? This question hints at the desire men have to see the voluptuous and the gay. Yet all these lovely things of earth are types of the more lovely in the heavens; and form beautiful surroundings of the soul that is the daughter of the skies travelling on earth to her home. If we could but use this world’s sceneries as the vestibules and approaches to the temple of the great God, the house of the great Father, we should do well.

III. A prophet?—The prophet who has had the vision of God, the teacher who reveals to us the economy of God, the master who can turn us from error and evil to truth and righteousness—he is the climax on which the eye of the traveller, or the admirer of nature, should rest with the utmost satisfaction. What matters it though his garb be mean, and his face homely, and his manners rustic. Go, and if you will have a master, take him, the rough-garbed, strong-souled man, to be your leader through the dismal gate of sorrow into the land of light. From the deep and dark ways of sin he will lead you to the holiness of heaven. There is just one other more worthy of your sight, and that is He who spoke the discriminative and commendative words.

Illustration

‘Our Lord’s questions after the departure of the messengers, though incidentally vindicating John from a possible misapprehension, were evidently designed to remind the people of the means they had of themselves answering John’s question. The common explanation of the passage, as only a defence of John, ignores the form of the questions. It is not, “When ye went out, what did ye see?”—but, “What went ye out to see?” Probably the three questions may refer to three classes of people—the merely inquisitive, the worldly and self-seeking, the sincere inquirers; and the argument is—“Whatever your object in going, you found something very different: not a passing spectacle, not a source of earthly profit and pleasure, not even a mere stirring preacher; no, but the long promised ‘messenger,’ the expected ‘Elias’—and before whose face has he gone? whose way did he prepare? He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” ’