Matthew 3:1-12

The Second Sunday in Advent | 12/4/2022 | Matthew 3:1-12 | Paul Bieber |

Matthew 3:1-12 Revised Standard Version

¹ In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ³ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.”

⁴ Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather girdle around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, ⁶ and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bear fruit that befits repentance, ⁹ and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. ¹⁰ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

also

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Romans 15:4-13

The God of Promise

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

Today’s Gospel presents us with a familiar Advent scene: In the wilderness the Baptist calls for repentance, for the kingdom is at hand; the Forerunner baptizes sinners into the Advent of the mightier One to follow. Advent is the season of preparation; preparation for Jesus begins with John the Baptist’s call to repent.

That’s actually an unfortunate word. The English word “Repent” comes from the Latin repoenitet, “be sad again.” But both the Greek metanoiete and the Hebrew shuv mean “turn around,” “change your mind,” “change the direction of your life.” To repent is not to feel sad, rather to think and act differently.

The kingdom does not come through our trying to be better people; no, the kingdom draws near because this is God’s will; because it draws near, we must repent, change our lives. We prepare the way of the Lord not by trying to justify ourselves by simply being better people or by being sad enough that we tried and failed, but by turning to him.

It is in the wilderness that the voice cries, calls us to prepare, to repent, to turn. Repentance brings hope to the dry and seemingly barren desert areas of our lives. St. Paul’s prayer for the Romans is a prayer for us, too: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope.”

Advent, the season of preparation, is the season of hope. Turning to God in repentance is a turning in joyful anticipation, a turning in hope. The hope of those who went out to John was for the Messiah, the Christ, the great King from David’s line, the “shoot from the stump of [David’s father] Jesse”: a new David, a new shepherd King, whose reign was already written of in former days.

This is the One whom John proclaims, the One on whom the Spirit will descend and rest when he goes out to John for baptism, the One who will in turn baptize with the Spirit and fire, so that we who are baptized into him “may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,” the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the Spirit of joy in God’s presence.

That sounds great. That’s the prayer for the Holy Spirit that we offer at the baptismal font. But hold on. Wasn’t there something in the middle there about baptizing with fire? That doesn’t sound so pleasant. Advent isn’t all joyful anticipation.

Out there in the wilderness, John the Baptist is dressed as Elijah the Tishbite, the troubler of Israel: “a hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist,” as we know from II Kings 1.8. Elijah, who was expected to return before the coming of the Messiah. Elijah, who called down fire from heaven.

John sees the Pharisees, the good moral laymen, and the Sadducees, the elite priests of the temple, coming out to him, and warns them not to presume, not to try to think of themselves as automatically better people because of their connection to Abraham. God can from the very stones raise up children to Abraham, the father of all who believe.

But all must bear the fruit that befits repentance. The axe is laid to the root of fruitless trees. They are to be cut down and thrown into the fire. The winnowing fork is in the hands of the mightier One; he will gather his wheat, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

A baptism of fire, a bonfire of fruitless trees, unquenchable fire for everything—everyone—who blows away when the good wheat is winnowed. John the Baptist’s fire sermon doesn’t seem to have much to do with our preparation to celebrate Christmas, with our being filled with joy and peace, abounding in hope. Advent isn’t all joyful anticipation. The Forerunner’s warning is serious.

But his warning is for the sake of the fruit that befits repentance, the good wheat that gets gathered, the tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in due season: this is the new life that follows from the turning of metanoia, the new mind of repentance, the life of faith like Abraham’s, trusting the God whose way the Baptist is calling us to prepare.

God is a God of promise, a God of history and of the future. Like Abraham, we do not justify ourselves or try to secure our lives ourselves; instead, we trust God’s promise, and he gives us his free gift of righteousness, freeing us to live that new life of hope and joy and peace in believing.

One of the most powerful images of God’s promise is Isaiah’s vision of the peaceable kingdom: the  wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the lion; they will not hurt or destroy on all God’s holy mountain; for all the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. This is truly a kingdom not of this ignorant and violent world. This is the kingdom of the Prince of Peace.

The Advent figure John the Baptist proclaims that this kingdom is at hand, even in the wilderness of this world. Making our way through Advent toward the celebration of the coming of the Prince of Peace, we are strangers and pilgrims in this world, not trusting in the chaff of its striving for some perfect holiday or our own self-made perfectibility, but rooted where the water of Baptism and the gifts of the Spirit bear fruit in our Advent lives.

The God of promise, who sent Jesus among us as one of us, has promised us a future of hope. That’s what the joy and peace of Christmas look forward to: the peaceable kingdom, the gathering of God’s children from every nation, the fruitfulness that is the gift of the God of promise; Jesus, the Prince of Peace; and the Spirit who brings joy and peace and hope even to the barren wilderness places of our lives. That desert will rejoice and blossom, for the kingdom is at hand.

The God who sent the Forerunner to prepare, the God who sent Christ to baptize us with the Holy Spirit, the fire of love—this God beckons us to turn our lives toward his fruitful promise this Advent, and so to prepare for the One who is coming.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

—

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber

San Diego, California, USA

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net