What Kind of Coming This Year, Again...Matt. 3:1-12

"In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” 4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many 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 worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume 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. 10 Even now the ax is lying at 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 one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

I. Introduction

My major point from last week's text (Matt. 24:36-44) was that the coming of Jesus envisioned there was sudden, secret but sure. In this week's text the coming, rather than being secret, will be open. Rather than being sudden, it is announced. The only continuity between last and this week is that the coming will be sure. To add to our potential confusion, in John the Baptist we have a person who is anything but the "Ed McMahon" for "Johnny Carson." In Ed's case (I was on the show once..), he came out before the show started, and so skillfully warmed up the audience with light humor and an array of stories that by the time he said "Heeeere's Johnny!" we were ready to explode with applause.

But John the Baptist doesn't seem to be that kind of guy. Or, to put it differently, his way of "warming up" the audience for Jesus is anything but flattering or relaxing. What impressed me as I worked through the text this year was the nature of the imagery that John uses. It is drawn from the natural world, from the world in which he resides. We have roots and trees, fire and harvest, fruit and stones, snakes and locusts. No one would ever give him the nickname "Urban John." The hardness of his living seemed to be the key to the harshness of his message, and that message could be summarized in the one word, "Repent" or "Change your Ways."

He got more takers than he probably thought he would. Especially when the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Saducees, came out to be baptized, he must have rolled his eyes inwardly and realized that he would have to give some tough talk to them. But there sometimes is a curious phenomenon that works on our psyche. A person who announces a tough way, a way that only allows a few people, might have tons more applicants than s/he can accommodate. There is a curious thing about us on some occasions--that the tougher the road, the more people sign up.

Did Jesus know or, even more, did he plan to have John the Baptist play this role? Had they agreed on a sort of "bad cop/good cop" routine before John appeared? That is, John would berate the people, stir them up, make them long for some kind of "good news" from a religious figure and then, presto! Jesus would appear and bring this good news. For, it must be admitted, when John emphasized Jesus winnowing, gathering and destroying work, he didn't really stress the "good news" of Jesus' coming. But Jesus could then step into the gap, give the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5) and set a different tone for his ministry. People would flock to him, then, because he surely gave a more accommodating "twist" to the Gospel and to life than had John.

Thus, the appearance of John the Baptist gives us lots of things to ruminate about. As we look closely at the text for today, though, three things emerge. If we look at it in terms of three successive movie scenes, we might have something like this: (1) First Scene: John Appears and People Go Out (vv. 1-6); (2) Second Scene: John's Blistering Attack on the Religious Leaders (vv. 7-9); and (3) Third Scene: John's Words about the One Coming After Him (vv. 10-12). I will only give a few hints here about how you might develop each point; enough has been said already to give you some of the "flavor" of the text.

II. John Appears/People Go Out (vv. 1-6)

John simply appeared. Though the Gospel author, writing many years after the event, puts John's appearance in the context of a fulfilled prophecy (Is. 40:3), John's original appearance must have caused an interpretive conundrum for people. If the Israelite forebears in the wilderness, upon seeing the manna, said "What is it?," so this generation would have said, "Who is this?" Why would people go out to see him? Probably for two reasons: the novelty and the message. Our heads are turned by something new in fashion or appearance. When Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian critic of the Soviet regime, appeared on the American scene in the early-1970s with his work The Gulag Archipelago, he was treated like sort of a John the Baptist figure. Big bushy beard; forbidding manner; not a "rock star" celeb at all. Yet, he had a message that was riveting, irresistible, profound. Perhaps we understand John better through the lense of Solzhenitsyn.

III. The Warning to the Religious Leaders (vv. 7-10)

The one image from these verse that is burned into my mind is the one about the axe at the root of the tree. John's message goes to the "roots." As you no doubt know, our word "radical" stems (no pun intended) from the Latin word radix (the Greek word, in this passage, is rhiza). A radical act goes to the roots of something. It goes to the roots to expose the basis on which something operates. The way a "radical" person thinks is that if the root is unhealthy or tangled, the growth will likewise take on that unhealthy hue. John doesn't even want to explore these "roots." He simply wants to chop off the tree at its roots. We have some fundamental reorientation that needs to go on...

How can you tell if you are in a situation requiring fundamental reordering rather than simply "tinkering?" And, if you can tell the difference, how do you know if you are the right person for that fundamental reordering? Does education, for example, need a fundamental reorientation or simply a tweaking here or there? Does the American health care system (if that isn't a euphemism) need one or the other? Is American discontent now (at an all-time high, according to some polls) indicative of the need for some radical transformation or simply some "tinkering" with our values and practices? A "radical" person seeks to expose the vulnerability of the superstructure of an entity by getting right to the "roots" of things. How to you frame life? Do you tend to be a quiet system builder and gentle reformer? Or do you tend to want to wield the axe on the exposed root? John was the latter, but we know what happened to him--the axe ultimately was wielded against his neck and he was offered up on a platter--but that is later.

There is something very powerful when a radical person like John tells the "establishment" that they can't really repent. No one tells the "establishment" things like that, because they "own" the concept of repentance. But here is someone outside their world entering into their world in a rivetingly powerful way. He has touched a nerve in them--how about in us?

IV. The Coming One

Whenever I read these verses I think of Jim Morrison and the Doors singing "Fire." Jesus will come and will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. The word translated "unquenchable" is asbestos. That is where we get our word "asbestos." Something that just keeps burning without going out. Unable to put it out. Water and liquid fuels it. Air keeps it going. Its fire does not die. John paints the picture in all of its horrible dimensions. The one coming after him will separate, gather and burn. Burn, baby, burn.

But it is interesting that when Jesus appears on the scene, he emphasizes a different verb than John. Instead of the burning, which seems to preoccupy John, Jesus will focus on the "gather" verb--the middle verb John uses. Jesus' ministry will be a "gathering" one. So, in a sense John is right--Jesus will separate, gather and burn, but he has the emphasis all wrong. Perhaps the hardness of his life and penury of his circumstances made him underscore the harshness of what is to come. But Jesus won't actually give us the harshness when he appears on the scene. The rough edges of John will be gone, and the tone will change. Our question will be, as we get to know Jesus again in next year's Gospel readings, whether Jesus and John have the same "radical" approach to life.

Conclusion

As for now, however, we have another passage which stresses the coming--in words significantly different from last week. So, what kind of coming is it for us this year?

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