Now is the time
Procrastination is the thief of time. How often have we come across it? Putting off until tomorrow what you can do today. A difficult task; an unpalatable task; a boring duty; perhaps something you feel not up to the mark to do; or maybe the dreaded apathy has taken hold of you. But suppose tomorrow never comes. Then what? Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today. And that is basically the message of John the Baptist to the crowds on the banks of the Jordan River.
John’s message has an urgency about it. He uses picture language to speak about a coming time of decision and judgement. and he does not pull any punches about that. John uses strong language with good reason. He is both a prophet and a pastor. Prophet, because his message is to call people into a time of repentance and baptism. God is about to act in human history to do something about sin and make it possible for people to return to God in a right and proper relationship. Pastor, because he does not want to see anyone lost in continued sin and forfeit their eternal lives.
John begins by saying to the crowds coming out to be baptised by him, you brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? In other words, they were a bunch of hypocrites who thought they could justify themselves by treating baptism as a work of their own merit, and therefore God should owe them some entitlement. They were relying on their own religiosity; we have Abraham as our father, as if that alone will save them. It won’t. For out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. In other words, God chooses anyone he will, even dead Gentile stones. So start producing fruitful lives in keeping with repentance, because the sacrifice of penitent and contrite heart is an acceptable sacrifice in God’s eyes.
Verse 9 reads, now the axe is laid at the root of the trees, therefore every tree not producing good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire. It’s a figure of speech depicting a soon to come time of judgement, decision making, and the disposal and destruction of fruitless, useless trees. So soon that the process has already begun. The coming of Jesus at the first Advent 2000 years ago, his death and resurrection, is just the beginning.
We live between the first Advent and second Advent, when Christ will return, not as saviour because that work is completed, it is finished, were his dying words, but as judge. There is a lot of imagery about sifting, threshing, burning the chaff, separating sheep from goats. Then there is Jesus’ own teaching about his return, in passages like Mark chapter 13 where he talks about what we can expect, what we need to be on guard against, and that there will be a last day, even though no-one knows when that will be. So Jesus teaches us to be ready and watchful because that day will come when we least expect it. And of course, the book of Revelation is all about how history is unfolding and will continue to unfold until the destruction of the old order, in which we live, to make way for the new order of creation, the new heavens and the new earth, to which the faithful in Christ look forward to with certainty.
John’s message struck a chord with the crowds coming out to see him and they responded, what should we do then? Their question is the same as the crowd on the day of Pentecost who heard Peter’s preaching. What shall we do? In other words, when the message is heard and understood, the question of kingdom ethics must apply. What are we going to do about what we have just heard? John gives practical examples: give to those in need; do not extort money and do not accuse people falsely; be content with your pay.
These and many other points of kingdom ethics can be summed up by paying attention to what the prophet Micah wrote: God has shown you what is good. What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. And this would also take into account Peter’s answer to the Pentecost crowd’s question. Repent and be baptised every one of you, because by giving up self and surrendering to repentance and baptism, you learn the meaning of God’s mercy so that you can in turn show mercy to others.
So the people have come to recognise John as a prophet, and since he speaks directly of end-times to come, they wonder if he is the Messiah. John replies he is not, but the Messiah is about to appear, which is why he is offering a baptism of repentance as preparation for the one to come. The time for preparation is now. It is a time of advent, a time of preparation for the coming of the Messiah, who will bring a superior baptism because he is the Holy One of God. And that baptism will be by the Holy Spirit and with fire. A superior baptism, a Pentecost baptism, a confirming baptism, a refiner’s fire baptism requiring intentional discernment, judgement, and decision. Why?
John gives a word picture to illustrate the reason why. His threshing fork is in his right hand to clean thoroughly his threshing floor and to gather the grain into his storehouse. But the chaff will be burned by inextinguishable fire. John’s hearers would have easily understood this illustration. When a crop of cereal was harvested, it was tipped on to a threshing floor and was made up of good wheat mixed with useless chaff. The farmer then tossed it up and down with a threshing fork as a means of sifting them. Chaff is much lighter than wheat and is thus easily separated from the heavier wheat, especially on a windy day.
In other words, John’s message is that the
coming of the Messiah is the beginning of a sifting process because there
awaits a time of judgement at the end of history, a sifting of the faithful,
patient and penitent, from the unfaithful, the self-living, and those who want
God on their terms. Such people do not want a crucified Messiah. They do not
want to take up their cross daily in discipleship. Why? Because it is going to
cost them and they are going to have to die to self. They want religion on
their terms, not relationship on God’s terms. And that is why the Baptist calls
them a brood of vipers.
You see, the cross, the crucified Son of God, forces a decision. You cannot fence-sit. Fence-sitting is tantamount to a refusal of God’s offer of salvation. Jesus came into human history 2000 years ago to provide salvation from end-time judgement. If you want to be among the fruitful wheat gathered into God’s storehouse, and not useless chaff burned or a fruitless tree cut down, you need to go to the foot the cross with a penitent and contrite heart, with all your pain and sorrow, and leave them there. But do not do it trusting in your own religious righteousness.
There is a prayer in
the Eucharist liturgy called the Prayer of Approach, or the Prayer of Humble
Access. It goes like this: “We do not presume to come to your table, merciful
Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great
mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
But you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy.” It is a beautiful
prayer that hits the spot of how our relationship with God works.
There are two aspects to God’s nature we need to understand. On the one hand, God is holy. So holy that we cannot see God’s face and live. God’s holy nature is provoked to wrath where there is sin, and that is why sin must be judged and destroyed. And there’s no shortage of passages in Scripture which bear that out. On the other hand, God’s nature is love, and there’s no shortage of passages in Scripture which bear that out, in particular the classic John 3.16.
God’s love is such that he does not want anyone to be chaff
or fruitless trees, lost, cut down and destroyed. The extraordinary lengths to
which God went in entering our world in the person of Jesus Christ and what he
suffered and gave up for us, is mind blowing. For those who accept that by
faith and obedience, eternal life is theirs. But for those who refuse, who want
God on their own terms, are throwing God’s love back in his face. And that is
the height of rebellion and sinfulness. No wonder God’s holy and righteous
nature is provoked to wrath against it.
So, in the words of the crowds back then, what should we do, today? There is a verse in the psalms, quoted in the letter to the Hebrews, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And from the letter to the Romans, be transformed by the renewing of your minds. We must pay careful attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away, lose our faith, and become complacent. We must be alert because the great enemy, the devil, is always looking for a way of dragging us away from our faith and taking our eyes off Jesus.
Let me ask you this question: Who do you think was the first person to follow Jesus into his kingdom? Was it Elijah, the great prophet? Was it St Paul, the great evangelist? Perhaps it was Moses, the great law giver? It was the thief on the cross. Today, you will be with me in paradise. A crucified thief. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom, were the last words of a dying thief for whom there were no more tomorrows.
Advent is a serious time of preparation for each and every one of us. Suppose Jesus appears to you today with a message, a call, a request. Will you be ready? Who knows what might be asked of you. A new ministry; a new place to do God’s work; a time of retreat so that you may be refreshed and transformed by the renewing of your heart and mind; the strengthening of a relationship with a family member. Whatever it may be, be prepared. The time is now. Today!
Philip Starks
Published under Creative Commons Copyright Licence
