Reflection on Luke 3:7-18

 

Luke 3:7-18

7 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? 8 Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

 10 And the crowds asked him, “What, then, should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

 15 As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

 18 So with many other exhortations he proclaimed the good news to the people. 

Reflection

“What, then, should we do?” (Luke 3:10).   

When the crowds of normal, everyday people seeking to hear a word from God suddenly hear from John about how people like them are like trees that are going to get cut down and thrown into the fire if they do not produce some nice pears or figs, they ask, “What, then, should we do?”  They wonder, “Do I even have a chance?” 

When the tax collectors hear themselves described as a “brood of vipers,” (Luke 3:7) cursed snakes slithering out of the fields seeking redemption, they instinctively ask, “What, then, should we do?”  They feel the judging eyes of all upon them, the eyes of those who feel like they collude with the enemy by taking people’s hard earned money, sending it to Caesar, and then skimming some more off of the top for themselves.  The tax collectors ask out loud, “What, then, should we do?”  But, they secretly wonder, “Do I even have a chance?”

When the soldiers too wander out into the wilderness to listen to John and hear about how, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees;” (Luke 3:9) how the heavenly axe is laying right there, waiting to be swung at them because they have exerted power by swinging their own swords, they ask, “What, then, should we do?”  They wonder, “Do I even have a chance?”

Are some people so rotten that they do not have a chance?  Are some people so lost and gone that they cannot find a way back home?  Are some people so forgotten by everyone else in the world, that they will not even be given the call to come back home?  Is the only possible end to all of their stories, being chopped down and thrown into an eternal fire?

“What then should we do?”  “Do I even have a chance?”

I know that the words of doom and gloom coming from John the Baptist’s mouth make him seem like the least likely of preachers to give a word of good news to these people, but John does actually care.  He does not send the crowds away as they step into the waters of his cleansing baptism.  He does not make the tax collectors slither back into the fields from which they came.  He does not show violence to the soldiers who also come to dip into the cleansing waters.  Instead, he takes all of them seriously.  He gives the people exactly what they ask for.

“The crowds asked him, ‘What, then, should we do?’  In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise’” (Luke 3:10-11).

In others words, John says that they can repent; they can “turn around” from their old ways.  That is what “repent” means after-all: “turning around.”  Of course, they have a chance.  Of course, they are not dead trees waiting to be burned.  Instead of caring only about themselves, those who have clothes and food can share.  “Do you have two coats?” John asks.  “Then give one to someone who needs it.”  If you want to be in God’s kingdom, then do kingdom things.  Allow yourself to be turned around by God.

“Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’  He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you’” (Luke 3:12-13).

John says that they too can repent; they too can “turn around” from their old ways.  There is nothing evil about being a tax collector, just do not take advantage of your people.  Collect the money in a just way.  If you want to be in God’s kingdom, then do kingdom things.  Allow yourself to be turned around by God.

“Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages’” (Luke 3:14).

Even these soldiers have a chance to be more than their swords and the power those swords yield.  Even they can “turn around” from their old ways.  They are asked to start using that sword to make peace rather than to threaten and wage false accusations.  They are asked to start using that sword to protect rather than using it to seek other people’s food and wages.  If you want to be in God’s kingdom, then do kingdom things.  Allow yourself to be turned around by God.

Everyone can repent.  Everyone can “turn around.”  Everyone can be turned around by God.  Everyone can be a gift of God’s kingdom to those around them by simply doing their daily vocations in a holy way.  Even you, and me, can turn around and perform our holy vocations, our daily tasks, in ways that help others with basic needs, in ways that care about how others are treated, and in ways that allow us to be content with what God has provided.

The drunk one who seeks the waters can be turned around by God to be clean.

The depressed one who seeks the waters can be turned around by God to give hope to others.

The cheating one who seeks the waters can be turned around by God to become a pillar of honesty.

The hopeless one who seeks the waters can be turned around by God to pray with those who live in the dark.

“Do I even have a chance?” you ask.  Of course you do.  Come to the waters.  Come and wash the old away.  Come, wash, and turn around, and step back out into the world acting in kingdom of God ways.  You can start right now!  God is ready to turn you and me around today.  God desires us to go out from here washed clean, living lives that have changed in a very concrete and meaningful way.

I got you John.  I am a changed man.  I am going from here a changed man.  You just wait.  You will see how God has changed me.  You will see how God has turned me around; and not just “me,” but “us.”  You will see, John, in very concrete ways how we are better husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, girlfriends and boyfriends, coworkers and neighbors this week.  You will see how we are better workers in God’s kingdom.  You will see!

And, John will see. 

But, like any good diet goes, it will work, for about a week.  Then the old ways will creep back in, and we will have to be washed again, and do it all over again.

A man pulled me aside at a family reunion and said, “I don’t think I understand this Christianity thing.  I was saved pastor.  I was saved.  I was a mean guy, but after I became a Christian I started to be loving to my wife again, like when we were first married.”  Then whispering he said, “But, then I started being mean again.  I don’t think I understand this Christianity thing.”

Like the people who came out to John, he was “filled with expectation” (John 3:15).  He expected that because he was now a saved person who goes to church, that he would be so much better than he had been before.  And, I am not pointing any fingers at anyone here, but anyone who has spent any time in a church knows that his high expectations of himself and those around him were probably set a little too high.

Those of us who have been in the church for any amount of time know that John’s call to repent, John’s call to “turn around” is great, and good, and full of hope, but we also know that it is temporary. 

“Tuning around” does not save us.  Repenting, as great as it is…and it is great, we remember our baptisms and we confess our sins every Sunday, and we seek to turn around every single week, to go from here as God’s renewed people…as great and important as that is, it does not save us.  It alone does not make us whole.  John is not the Messiah, and his baptism of repentance does not save us.  John himself says, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). 

Now, I know that John thinks that Jesus’ bath of fire is a lot better than his own bath of water, but if you set in front of a four year old a tub of bubbly water and a tub with a blazing inferno, I guarantee that I know which one the four year old is going to get into.  

I admit that I myself like a very, very warm bath.  My baths were so warm when I was a teenager that I was once asked if I could please cook the noodles for supper while I was in there.  But, even I would not bathe in an inferno.  I will keep washing in John’s nice bath of “turning around” thank you very much.  I might keep getting dirty again every single day, and I might need to take that cleansing bath of “turning around” each and every day, but at least it will not leave me looking like the steaks I forgot on the grill.

“But, we used to used to burn our field to get the soil nice and fertile for the next year,” a farmer once responded as we talked about this very Bible text.  “We would set the field on fire and it would burn up all the stubble and add nutrients to the soil.”  Then others chimed in about how fire was used to purify metal and get all the impurities out that caused it to be weak.  They went on and on about the goodness of fire and I do not know if they realized it but they were speaking some biblical truth. 

You remember, to get back into the garden of Eden, to walk and talk with God again, you would need to pass by that flaming sword.  You would need to go through the fire. 

When Moses went up the mountain of God to get the Ten Commandments, remember that he too needed to pass through a wall of fire. 

And, here John is telling us that Jesus is going to bath us in fire.

And it makes me think that though repenting is good, “turning around” is good, maybe Jesus is able to do something that no one else can.  Maybe, Jesus has a way to make us truly pure, like those burned fields, ready to make things grow for another year.  Jesus does not simple wash us off.  Jesus baths us with his own fire.  Jesus makes us pure, because he is pure.

Maybe, John is asking us to turn around and look for the one who will burn away the impurities so that we can walk with God and talk with God and truly be the people of God once again? 

Maybe, Jesus has a Spirit of fire that will refine us to truly be his people of love? 

Maybe, even now, Jesus is throwing us into the air like wheat, allowing the useless chaff to blow aside, and burning away the chaff so that it does not infest the wheat of our hearts ever again. 

Maybe, Jesus cares enough for you to do that work of refining.  Maybe you, yes even you, has a chance. 

“What, then, shall we do?” 

Follow the one who takes the time to care for you, who does the hard work to refine you, and who gives up his own life to make you a part of God kingdom.  Yes, you have more than a chance.