Well, listen to the similarity now in what Jesus preached as well. Matthew will write concerning Jesus from that time. “Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,’” [Matthew 4:17] And then in recording the Great Commission that Jesus gave just before He ascended back to the Father, Matthew quotes Jesus as Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28 and verse 19.

So, yes, the message that John the Baptist and Jesus preached would have sounded quite the same. They were consistent in what they were saying.

Well, something else that perhaps people would have found similar about them is that neither of them could tolerate hypocrisy, and they spoke out in the strongest terms against such. You remember that on one occasion, John, when seeing a group of Sadducees and Pharisees coming to him to be baptized, referred to them as a “brood of vipers,” Matthew 3 and verse 7. And Jesus, too, would speak in an unambiguous fashion about these same ones, as well. He would say, “Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”Matthew 23:28 and 29.

Another similarity that would have been obvious between John the Baptist and Jesus was that both of them were men of self denial. You remember that John’s clothing and his diet was quite peculiar. He wore camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. And his subsistence included locust and wild honey. Matthew 3 and verse 4 [“Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey”].

But also, Jesus was a man of poverty. He was not a man of substance or of wealth. He said of Himself on one occasion, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head,” Matthew 8 and verse 20.

And here is yet one more similarity, one more comparison that could be made between Jesus and John the Baptist. That comparison is that both were killed as though they were the worst of criminals. John was beheaded and Jesus was crucified. These executions were reserved for the worst of criminals, yet neither one of them committed a crime. Rather, they were killed for what they did—for what they said—for what they stood for.

Well, perhaps with these things in mind, we might be able to see how that some in that day—some who had seen John the Baptist and some who had seen Jesus—could make a comparison and maybe even mistake one for the other.

In this text we see that Jesus was also compared, maybe even confused with, Elijah. Yes, some people said He was Elijah, one of the great prophets and heroes of the Old Testament. What kind of man was Elijah? Well, we could say much about him. Once again, he was a great man and a great hero. He stood for right when all of Israel went into digression and apostasy. He was a fearless man. You remember that it was Elijah who confronted those 450 prophets of Baal [I Kings 18].

Well, people saw Jesus. They saw His nature, they saw His character, and they said, “There goes Elijah!” Jesus, as had Elijah before Him, loved the Truth, stood for right, loved the sinner, but hated the sin. And they were both bold, courageous and aggressive. They were faithful men of God.

There is one more comparison contained in our text. Some people mistook Jesus, or at least compared Him with, another great hero and prophet of old, and that was Jeremiah. Jesus, like Jeremiah before him, stood in the face of an avalanche of evil. In the long ago, Jeremiah looked over Jerusalem, a destroyed city, and he was compelled to write Lamentations. He became known as the “weeping prophet.” He wept, not on his own account, not for anything that he was missing, but rather he wept because of the suffering of others. Jeremiah had compassion. He had love. He had understanding. These are all marks of strength, not weakness.

Jeremiah compared to Jesus… Jesus was a friend of sinners, “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” as the Prophet Isaiah said of Him [Isaiah 53:3]. He was loving. He was tender. He was kind. He was compassionate. There is an occasion recorded in Matthew, chapter 9, verse 36, when He looked upon the multitude of people and He saw them as sheep without a shepherd, wandering without direction, and the Scripture says He had compassion on them. [“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”]

In Matthew 23, verse 37, there is a similarity between Jeremiah of old (who had looked over a destroyed city of Jerusalem) and Jesus, as He looked over the city of Jerusalem and envisioned the destruction that was to come. Jesus was compelled to say, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, …How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” You can sense the concern, the compassion, and the tenderness that would have been in His voice as He said that. Yes, Jesus had the disposition of One Who was ready, willing and able to weep with them who weep, just as He did at the graveside of His dear friend, Lazarus. John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”