Luke 3:7-9 NIV: John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves,'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."
John calls these people a "brood of vipers." That certainly is an interesting choice of words. But what does it mean? You know vipers are snakes. You probably know vipers are poisonous. But did you know that after a viper bites something, it continues to latch onto it and keeps pumping poison into its victim?
Vipers are people who inject poison into their world. These are the people who find something wrong with every new idea. You know exactly what they sound like:
- We've never done it that way before
- That won't work
- You're doing it all wrong
The good news is that John invites these people--even these hard to love people--to change their lives and to do things that provide proof of this change. Make no mistake about it, John is saying, "Your life counts and what you do matters."
Tom Wright tells us, "If people were coming for baptism, they were committing themselves to be God's Israel, the light of the world, the people in whom God's justice would be seen by all."
However, these positive aspects are not what most people remember about John the Baptist. Instead what they remember is a fire and brimstone preacher who said, "The ax is already at the root of the trees . . ." Honestly, I wish people were more careful with this verse. This verse is NOT saying it's too late.
John is taking his place among the prophets. In the Old Testament, when a prophet delivered a harsh word of judgment it was often a warning. The real message was, IF you don't change, judgment is coming. John is telling us that we have a choice. We can change. We can choose life. We can choose a new path. And this new path is what John speaks of.
The crowd, tax collectors, and soldiers are there. Each group asks, "What should we do?" It's an amazing thing that these people are here. They don't have to be. They went out of their way to go to John in the wilderness.
In the story of Scripture, the wilderness is a dangerous place. It's a place for self-reflection. And it's a time of transition. That's what the people are looking for--a transition. "What should we do?" John gives them a new path, a path to salvation. But this path is not easy.
The crowds are told to share. To not hoard. There's a warning about consuming when others don't have enough.
The tax collectors are literally told, "Do not collect more than your scale allows." The warning is to not make a living by ripping people off.
Soldiers are told, "Bully no one, blackmail no one, and be content with your pay." The warning is about how we treat others.
If John were standing in front of us, what do you think he would tell us? I think he would tell us to care, to share, and to be fair. To care for all people. To share what we have. To honor God by how we earn our living.
And because John came with such a radical message, people asked, "John, are you the Messiah?" John responds with, "No, he is on his way, one greater than I, who I'm not fit to undo his sandal straps."
Have you ever wondered how Jesus is greater than John? All four Gospel authors deal with this in subtle ways. To focus on the big picture: John calls us to change and Jesus calls us a new humanity--to become new.
As the disciples walked with Jesus, he revealed the meaning of life. Life as God would have it be. And Jesus made it plain that God's most direct relationship to us is not in relation to our sin, but with regard to our better selves.
Jesus was always seeing people with a double-vision. He looked at Levi and saw Matthew. Jesus saw people how they were and what they could be.
What this really means is that the good that is inside of you, God has put there. But that's not the end of the story. The love of God pursues you and reaches out to make that goodness come alive. And if you let the love of God get to you and work inside you, it can overcome all that is mean and evil and wrong inside of you. And that is newness of life.
John tells us that new life is about change. Change that leads to working for God's justice in this world. That means, because we're forgiven, we have work to do. As we wait for Jesus to come back, we're to work to bring God into our world through our words and our actions.
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