Who Warned You? An Advent Meditation on Luke 3

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,

Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea,

and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee,

and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea

and of the region of Trachonitis,

and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, 

Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests,

 the word of God came unto John

the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

 

And he came into all the country about Jordan,

 preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;

As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be brought low;

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

 

Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him,

O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance,

and begin not to say within yourselves,

We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you,

That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees:

every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit

 is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

 

And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?

He answereth and saith unto them,

He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none;

and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.

Then came also publicans to be baptized,

 and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?

And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.

And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do?

And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely;

and be content with your wages.

And as the people were in expectation,

and all men mused in their hearts of John,

 whether he were the Christ, or not;

John answered, saying unto them all,

I indeed baptize you with water;

but one mightier than I cometh,

the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose:

he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

Whose fan is in his hand,

and he will thoroughly purge his floor,

and will gather the wheat into his garner;

but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

 

John the Baptist is an enigmatic figure tied to both the story of Jesus’ birth, and to the beginning of Jesus’ preaching ministry.  He is born within a few months of Jesus in a series of miraculous circumstances, but for whatever reason, John is found in the wilderness when the Word of the Lord comes to him at the appointed time, leading him to fulfill the Word of God given to the Prophet Isaiah and to live in the spirit and power of Elijah as the one who proclaimed the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, making straight the way which leads to Him.  While there is much mystery to John’s story up to this point, several things are remarkably clear:  he preached the coming of the Messiah with His Kingdom, pointing all people away from himself and toward Jesus; that faith and repentance, with works worthy of repentance, were the proper preparation to meet the coming King of Glory; that various people had different reactions to his call for repentance, including the petty King Herod who imprisoned and beheaded him.  And since Jesus Himself remarked that no one born of women up to that time (which would have included Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, etc.,) was greater than John the Baptist, it is worth spending some time considering what he preached as the proper preparation for meeting Jesus.

 

John’s preaching was neither gentle nor politically sensitive.  He called his entire generation a brood of vipers—a writhing mass of treacherous, poisonous, deadly creatures, and he was right.  That brood of vipers would later by intrigue, deceit, and murderous intent kill both him and Jesus.  John did not coddle his generation by accommodating their sins or using soft language to avoid offending the brutal leadership of Judea.  Rather, he directly confronted them over their sins, knowing that without faith and repentance, the only meeting they could have with God would be the disaster of eternal condemnation in hell.  John knew Jesus was the Savior of all who would trust in Him, because only Jesus could take the sins of the world upon Himself to satisfy the wrath of God’s righteous judgment.  But John also knew that a person who preferred to abide in their own sins rather than the grace and mercy of Jesus by faith and repentance, would also abide in the judgement of Almighty God.  John knew there was no true kindness or love in a preacher who avoided the call to repentance, as such pastoral cowardice or ignorance would leave sinners in condemnation rather than lead them to salvation in Jesus.

 

While some preachers in our day avoid calls to faith and repentance out of ignorance, I suspect the greater number avoid it out of cowardice and worldly ambition.  Preachers who call their generations of vipers to repentance have a tendency to end up like John the Baptist, living outside the limelight of worldly prestige, and eventually targeted for persecution by evil people in positions of power who want the Word of God silenced.  Imagine the audacity it would take to stand before the murderous, treacherous, poisonous mobs of our day as they loot and brutalize their communities, and call them to repentance for the sake of their own souls.  Consider what consequence there must be to stand before the rulers of our age who foment division for political advantage, traffic in the exploitation of human suffering, and manipulate the systems of government for their own enrichment while degrading public virtue.  In many parts of the world, such preachers are abused, imprisoned, or executed, while declining tolerance of such preaching in our western communities is reflected in broad pastoral acquiescence to worldly charges that the Word of God is now somehow a form of political hate speech.  As in John the Baptist’s day, such fiery preachers of faith and repentance are rare among us, too, either because pastors have become ignorant of the Word of God, or too cowardly to preach it directly.

 

But what does John mean by fruits worthy of repentance?  He gave examples to his hearers in their various vocations, so that we might not lose sense of what repentance actually is.  Authentic repentance must start by faith, and as St. Paul would say, faith comes by hearing the Word of God.  The Law of God points toward the holiness which God demands, summarized in the Ten Commandments, while the Gospel of God declares the forgiveness of sins and eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  Faith as a living trust in God’s Word of Law and Promise, will naturally seek to leave behind those evils which do not accord with His Word, be they sins of idolatry, sacrilege, infidelity, deception, murder, theft, sexuality, covetousness, or otherwise.  It is the inspiration for John to tell tax collectors not to extort money beyond their commission, for soldiers to avoid unjust violence in the execution of their profession, and for all to freely give of their abundance to those in need.  John’s list of works worthy of repentance by his generation’s brood of vipers is not comprehensive, but indicative:  according to each person’s calling in life, they are to abide in the Law and Promises of God’s Word, embracing His path of righteousness and leaving behind the paths of vice and wickedness.

 

This message is as needed now in our day, as it was in John’s day.  Like all the faithful pastors of ages past, our preachers of today must trust that their lives are secure only in Christ Jesus by the power of His saving Word, so that in that same power they may courageously declare the only path of salvation for a fallen world by grace through faith in Jesus alone.  As Christians who walk among our generation’s brood of vipers, we, too, know that our lives are eternally secure in the love and mercy of Jesus by that same Eternal Word, that we may encourage our preachers to faithful and sacrificial service, even as we reflect the light of Jesus’ Word to everyone around us, each according to our vocations.  And for a dark and dying world, always deceived and deceiving in endless cycles of violence and treachery, we know that the Light of Christ has come, which no darkness can overthrow, bringing light and life to all who will repent and believe in Jesus.  Hear the Word of God calling to you and your generation today, that faith and repentance in Jesus Christ may bring forth times of refreshing and renewal in His grace, which alone is our sure hope, and the hope of the entire world.  Amen.