마태복음 3:7에서 세례 요한은 바리새인과 사두개인을 "독사의 자식"이라고 말한다. 이 말은 그들이 기만적이고 위험하기가 독사와 같음을 암시하는 아주 강한 책망이다. 이렇게 그는 그들의 위선과 진정한 회심이 없음을 비판하고 있다. 하지만 세례 요한은 단순히 그들을 비난하지만은 않는다. 그들 역시 하나님의 백성이므로 돌이켜 하나님께로 올 방법을 제사한다. 그것이 바로 마 3:8에 있는 "회개의 합당한 열매"이다.
이 부분을 CSB 성경은 "Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance."라고 적고 있다. 직역하면 "회개에 상응하는 열매"이다. 헬라어로는 ποιήσατε οὖν καρπὸν ἄξιον τῆς μετανοίας 이다.(The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear New Testament (Bellingham, WA, 2008), 마 3:8.)이다.
여기서 우리는 회개가 의지와 결단을 표현하는 말이라면 열매는 그 말대로 실천하는 행함임을 쉽게 알 수 있다. 이 부분에서 우리는 야고보 사도의 다음 말이 생각날 것이다.
"내 형제들아 만일 사람이 믿음이 있노라 하고 행함이 없으면 무슨 유익이 있으리요 그 믿음이 능히 자기를 구원하겠느냐 "Τί τὸ ὄφελος, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν ἔργα δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ; μὴ δύναται ἡ πίστις σῶσαι αὐτόν; (The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear New Testament (Bellingham, WA, 2008), 약 2:14.)
이처럼 야고보 사도는 회개를 믿음의 고백으로, 그리고 합당한 열매는 행함으로 빗대어 설명한다. 이 말을 들은 초대교회의 성도들은 우리와는반대로 세례 요한의 말이 연상되었을 것이다.
이처럼 "회개에 상응하는 열매"란 그 회개의 진정성을 보여주는 행동을 말한다. 세례 요한은 진정한 회개는 반드시 행동의 변화와 선한 행실이 있어야 함을 강조한다. 요컨대 그는 바리새인과 사두개인 등의 종교지도자들에게 그들의 진실하지 못함과 행동의변화를 지적하며 촉구하고 있는 것이다.
그러므로 "독사의 자식과 회개에 합당한 열매"는 영적 진단과 처방이라 할 수 있다.
이러한 진단과 처방 앞에 당시 유대인들은 세례 요한에게 공감과 지지를 보냈고 그 공감과 지지를 나타내기 위해 그에게 나아가 물로 세례를 받았다. 오늘날 우리가 교회에 나와 예배하듯이 말이다. 당시 유대인들은 세례 요한으로부터 요단강에서 세례를 받고 돌아가서는 합당한 열매를 맺기 위해 노력했을 것이다. 그리고 이것이 당시 유대인 공동체에서 하나의 트랜드가 되었다고 여겨진다. 그렇기에 바리새인과 사두개인이 세례 요한에게 나왔을 것이다. 그래야만 그들 역시 대중의 마음과 생각과 함께 하며 공감한다는 것을 과시하고 그렇게 함으로써 자신들의 기존의 종교 지도자로서의 위치를 유지할 수 있을 거라 여겼을 것이다.
이러한 사회적 트랜드는 분봉왕 헤롯에게도 영향을 미쳤다. 대중의 지지와 공감을 자신의 왕권에 대한 위협으로 여기고 세례 요한을 감옥에 가두었다. 하지만 대중들의 마음 속에 자리잡고 있는 공감과 지지로 인해 그를 죽이는 는 일은 주저했다. 하지만 우리가 알다시피 이 주저와 망설임은 아내의 계략 앞에서는 소용이 없었다. 헤로디아와 그녀의 딸 살로메의 요구대로 세례 요한을 처형했다.
셰례 요한의 사역은 예수님의 사역보다 더 상세하게 요세푸스의 문헌(Ant. xviii 116–119)에 기록되어 있다. (주1) 1) R. T. 프랜스, 마태복음, ed. 박상민/진규선, trans. 권해생/이강택, 초판., vol 1, 틴데일 신약주석 시리즈 (서울시 서초구 방배로 68: 기독교문서선교회, 2013), 144.
CHAPTER 5
HEROD THE TETRARCH MAKES WAR WITH ARETAS, THE KING OF ARABIA, AND IS BEATEN BY HIM; AS ALSO CONCERNING THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. HOW VITELLIUS WENT UP TO JERUSALEM; TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF AGRIPPA, AND OF THE POSTERITY OF HEROD THE GREAT
1.(109) About this time Aretas (the king of Arabia Petrea) and Herod had a quarrel, on the account following: Herod the tetrarch had married the daughter of Aretas, and had lived with her a great while; but when he was once at Rome, he lodged with Herod,a who was his brother indeed, but not by the same mother; for his Herod was the son of the high priest Simon’s daughter. (110) However, he fell in love with Herodias, this last Herod’s wife, who was the daughter of Aristobulus their brother, and the sister of Agrippa the Great. This man ventured to talk to her about a marriage between them; which address when she admitted, an agreement was made for her to change her habitation, and come to him as soon as he should return from Rome; one article of this marriage also was this, that he should divorce Aretas’s daughter. (111) So Antipas, when he had made this agreement, sailed to Rome; but when he had done there the business he went about, and was returned again, his wife having discovered the agreement he had made with Herodias, and having learned it before he had notice of her knowledge of the whole design, she desired him to send her to Macherus, which is a place on the borders of the dominions of Aretas and Herod, without informing him of any of her intentions. (112) Accordingly Herod sent her thither, as thinking his wife had not perceived anything; now she had sent a good while before to Macherus, which was subject to her father, and so all things necessary for her journey were made ready for her by the general of Aretas’s army and by that means she soon came into Arabia, under the conduct of the several generals, who carried her from one to another successively; and she soon came to her father, and told him of Herod’s intentions. (113) So Aretas made this the first occasion of his enmity between him and Herod, who had also some quarrel with him about their limits at the country of Gamalitis. So they raised armies on both sides, and prepared for war, and sent their generals to fight instead of themselves; (114) and, when they had joined battle, all Herod’s army was destroyed by the treachery of some fugitives, who, though they were of the tetrarchy of Philip, joined with Aretas’s army. (115) So Herod wrote about these affairs to Tiberius; who, being very angry at the attempt made by Aretas, wrote to Vitellius, to make war upon him, and either to take him alive, and bring him to him in bonds, or to kill him, and send him his head. This was the charge that Tiberius gave to the president of Syria.
2.(116) Now, some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist; (117) for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. (118) Now, when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise), thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. (119) Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God’s displeasure against him.
a This Herod seems to have had the additional name of Philip, as Antipas was named Herod Antipas: and as Antipas and Antipater seem to be in a manner the very same name, yet were the names of two sons of Herod the Great, so might Philip the tetrarch and this Herod Philip be two different sons of the same father; Matt. 14:3. Nor was it with Philip the tetrarch, but this Herod Philip, whose wife Herod the tetrarch had married, and that in her first husband’s lifetime, and when her first husband had issue by her; for which adulterous and incestuous marriage, John the Baptist justly reproved Herod the tetrarch; and for which reproof Salome, the daughter of Herodias by her first husband Herod Philip, who was still alive, occasioned him to be unjustly beheaded.
Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1996, c1987). The works of Josephus : Complete and unabridged. Includes index. (Ant 18.108-119). Peabody: Hendrickson.
인간 사회는 동서고금이 동일하다. 각자의 입장에서 자신의 곤란함과 유익에 따라 이러저러한 결정을 내리고 있다. 그것이 인간의 속성이다. 세례 요한이 회개하라고 하는 것은 이런 인간의 속성을 바꾸라는 것이다. 하나님의 공의와 뜻에 맞게 바꾸라는 것이다. 그리고 이어서 세례 요한은 대중에게 예수님을 소개한다. 자신의 외침과 촉구는 불완전한 것이라고 말한다. 자신이 주는 세례 역시 주님의 세례에 비하면 아무 것도 아님을 말한다. 자신의 세례가 물로 씻는 것이라면 주님의 셰레는 불과 성령으로 우리의 심령을 완전히 새롭게 재창조하는 것임을 말한다. 오직 불과 성령으로 심령이 새롭게 되어 새로운 피조물이 되어야만 임박한 심판을 면할 수 있는 것임을 강조한다. 세례 요한이 소개하는 예수님은 이렇게 심판주가 되시는 주님이시다.
