And tax-gatherers came also to be baptised, and they said to him, Teacher, what should we do?
Tax collectors worked for Rome, and they got rich by squeezing their own countrymen. Yet here they come to John's baptism with everyone else, asking what they should do.
Two things made these men hateful to Jews: politics and money.
These minor officials were known everywhere for their dishonest demands. The Jews hated them most of all. The Jews looked on themselves as a freeborn people, and believed they had this privilege straight from God Himself. They boasted that they were Abraham's offspring, and that no one had ever enslaved them. So the Roman tax gatherers were the visible proof of their slavery, and of how low their nation had sunk... Besides, they taxed people in an arbitrary and unjust way, and the law was on their side, so they could force payment.
The system itself invited the abuse.
Tax collectors took on the Roman taxes, with a fixed sum due for each district. They then passed smaller portions on to other men, or hired them to collect the money. The whole system was bad, and it was open to abuse by the collectors demanding more than they should.
John's preaching drew a crowd nobody would have gathered on purpose. Two groups stand out, and each shows a different way of wronging a neighbour.
And who do we see coming to the prophet's baptism? Tax collectors, men whose bad character was plain to all. Soldiers, who were used to oppressing the people. Corruption and violence find a meeting place at the baptism of repentance, where men own them and judge them.
They call John "Teacher." It is the ordinary word for a teacher, and the Gospels use it of the Lord Himself.
Didaskalos means "teacher." In the Gospels this is often translated "master" when it is applied to the Lord.
But asking the question is the cheap part. What proves a person means it is where the answer lands.
The question "What shall we do then?" is common and easy enough. What tests whether it is sincere is a direction that strikes at the habitual self-indulgence of each group. The will of the flesh works in each one in its own particular form — in the people at large, in the tax collectors, and in the soldiers.
John does not send them away with a general sermon. He names the exact thing their trade was famous for.
When the tax gatherers came to be baptized, an ordinary Jew would have dismissed them with contempt. John does not. He answers their question, "Teacher, what shall we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than you are authorized to do." They were notorious for extortion, and their greed was proverbial. They robbed the very people whose taxes they were appointed to collect.
Different classes got different instructions, yet one appetite lies under all of them.
Though the answers varied, we can see that covetousness caused all the wrongs he dealt with. Of all the evil weeds that grow in the human heart, covetousness is about the most deep-rooted and the hardest to pull up. Like the dandelion, its roots go down a long way.
So why did men like this respond at all? One writer points to what happens when a person stops defending himself.
When we know what we are as sinners, we justify God, never ourselves; and then in His ways with us He justifies us... The first good fruit that is ever produced is the admission that we produce bad fruit.
Others heard the same preacher and turned away.
But the careful and the wise rejected God's counsel for themselves and set it aside. These were the religious, the learned and the great — "the Pharisees and lawyers." They rejected it because they refused even the preparatory work of John the Baptist. Having refused the lesser testimony, they never passed on into the greater things.
For these men, repentance meant honest dealing. One writer sees in that a crooked path being made straight.
Second, the tax collectors also came to be baptized and asked him what they should do. His answer was, "Collect no more than you are authorized to do." Here we see how the crooked was to be made straight... He would wake up every class to a sense of their responsibility before God. This prepared them as a people for the coming of their Messiah.
- Hated. Jews hated tax collectors as living proof that Rome ruled them, and the system let collectors demand more than they should.
- Welcomed. John does not turn them away. At his baptism, men own their corruption and violence and judge it.
- Tested. Anyone can ask "What shall we do?" The answer proves you mean it when it strikes the sin you profit from.
- Named. John points at the very habit that made them rich. Covetousness lies under every answer he gives, the deepest-rooted weed in the human heart.
- Straightened. Admitting we bear bad fruit is the first good fruit. Those who refused this lesser work of preparation never went on to the greater.
And he said to them, Take no more [money] than what is appointed to you.
John's preaching drew crowds. Tax collectors came for baptism too — men who made their living by squeezing money out of their own people. Their question was practical, and so was his answer. He did not tell them to leave the job. He told them to stop stealing inside it.
The tax system of the day invited abuse, and the men who worked it were the visible face of foreign rule over Israel. That is why people hated them so deeply. Yet these were the men who came to John.
These minor officials were known everywhere for cheating people out of money, and the Jews hated them most of all. The Jews looked on themselves as a free-born people, holding that privilege straight from God Himself... So the Roman tax gatherers were the visible proof of their slavery and of the degraded state of their nation... Besides, they were extremely arbitrary and unjust in the taxes they set. The law was on their side, so they could force people to pay. We may gather, from what John said to them, that they overcharged whenever they had the chance... And yet some of the earliest disciples of both John and our Lord came from their ranks. They had less hypocrisy than men who were thought better; they had no conventional morality, and no false religion to unlearn.
The sum John speaks of was not theirs to set. It came from the top of the system.
Tax collectors took on the taxes the Romans levied, with a set sum payable for each district... The whole system was bad, and collectors could abuse it by demanding more than they should.
A strict Jew would have waved such men away with contempt. John answers them instead, and names the sin of their trade.
The tax collectors also came to be baptized. An ordinary Jew would have dismissed them with contempt, but he answers their question, "Teacher, what should we do? And he said to them, Take no more money than what is appointed to you." Everyone knew they were extortioners; their greed was famous. They robbed the very people whose official tax collectors they were... It is clear that here we are warned against violence and corruption, the two great features of men left to themselves.
(Kelly gives his own rendering; the ESV reads, "Collect no more than you are authorized to do.")
Three groups ask John the same question. Each gets an answer aimed at the exact place where their own will was at work.
The question "What shall we do then?" is common and easy enough. The direction John gives proves whether it is sincere: it strikes at the habitual self-indulgence of each group — the people in general, the tax collectors, and the soldiers. That self-indulgence is the particular form the will of the flesh takes in each.
The instructions differ. One appetite drives every sin John names.
John demanded deeds, not words, as the practical fruits of repentance... By his answers in each case John put his finger on the particular sins that marked the different classes. Yet, though the answers varied, we can see that covetousness caused all the wrongs he dealt with. Of all the evil weeds that grow in the human heart, covetousness is about the deepest-rooted and the hardest to deal with. Like the dandelion, its roots go down a long way.
John speaks to a tax collector about tax collecting. That is how God deals with people.
God thinks of souls. Wherever there is real moral discipline according to His mind, it deals with people as they are. It takes them up in the circumstances of their everyday life. Tax collectors, soldiers, ordinary people — each one hears the word meant for them.
John's work was preparation. A dishonest collector who starts charging the fixed amount is one crooked thing made straight.
Here we see how the crooked were to be made straight... He wanted to wake every class up to their responsibility before God. That way he was preparing them as a people for the coming of their Messiah. This was an appeal to the hearts of the people... He was also getting them ready to receive Christ, who would bring them into the blessing of God.
- Question. "What shall we do?" is easy to ask. John tests the asker by aiming at the one habit his own will protects.
- Trade. Tax collectors worked a system open to abuse, and they overcharged whenever they could. The fixed sum they were allowed became the measure of their honesty.
- Root. People, tax collectors and soldiers each get a different answer. One appetite feeds them all: covetousness, the deepest weed in the human heart.
- Fruit. Repentance shows itself in ordinary work. God takes people up in the circumstances of their everyday life, not out of them.
- Preparation. A straightened conscience is a straightened road. John woke each class to its responsibility, so the nation would be ready to receive its Messiah.