7John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits worthy of repentance. 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. 9Even 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.” 10And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14Soldiers 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.”
15As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John 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 thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His 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.” 18So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Advent means ‘coming’ and the coming we usually talk about at Christmas time is Jesus being born. But Jesus’ coming, his advent, was not just into the world as a baby. Equally (if not more) important was the advent of his ministry, his public work in the world, as marked by his baptism by John in the Jordan river, and his time of testing in the desert. Its worth remembering that Mark and John both fail to mention Jesus’ birth in their rendition of the Good News (each of the Gospels was written to be an independent and sufficient account of Jesus’ life and teaching-while they were written in a larger context of stories and letters about Jesus’ life, they all purport to tell the complete story of Jesus, so we can talk about what each of them considered most crucial) but all four tell about John the Baptist, and his role in shaping Jesus’ ministry.
So that is why we turn to the story of John the Baptist at this time of year, when we think about the world into which Jesus came, and the ways in which his way was prepared.
Of course, whenever you talk about John the Baptist, you get a wee bit of negativity, since John prophesied doom. He told the people that having Abraham as their ancestor was not sufficient to guarantee salvation, that those who do not bear good fruit will be thrown in the fire, and that the winnowing time had come. I assume that the image of a winnowing fork may require some unpacking. In ancient near east agriculture, harvesting grain works like this: you cut down the grain in the field, bundle it up in sheaves, leaving it in the fields to dry for a while. Then, the sheaves are brought into the threshing floor, which is a hard dry piece of ground where the grain is threshed (beaten) so the grain will fall away from the stalks. Then, the farmers toss the stalk (chaff) up in the air with the winnowing fork, to be blown away with the wind (or by someone else using a winnowing fan), while the good grain falls back to the ground to be collected and used. It’s a nice system. So the image means that God is ready to separate that which bears fruit from that which does not bear fruit. None of this negativity really seems to fit with the modern Christmas spirit of joyful giving. There’s a reason that we focus more on the warm feelings of Mary and Elizabeth sharing together, of shepherds and angels, of the expectancy of pregnancy, rather than the preparation John encouraged.
But Luke calls this text ‘the good news’ and the people respond to John-they hear the criticism, and they ask, ‘what do we do?’ so its not like he was experienced as being hopeless (this, I think might be something that modern prophets might consider-if you can’t answer ‘what do we do’ easily, then you probably need to hone your message). Here, John’s answer is simple, and it strongly foreshadows Jesus’ message later. Share with the poor, both your clothes and your food. But what is most interesting is his recommendation to the government officials. He says to the tax collectors and the soldiers who ask him, do your job well, do not abuse your position of power for personal gain.
The whole image of the world dramatically changing, of God coming in majesty and things being turned upside-down, the image of God with the winnowing fork, these are the hardest part of Advent for me, because while I have hope that God is making things new, I feel like these apocalyptic images have been misused so often, and I struggle with how they fit into my daily life. But it is good to remember that the place that John the Baptist goes in preparation for Jesus is simply to care for those in need, and to be fair when you are in a position of power. That sounds like Peace on Earth, good will towards all, and that is something I can get behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment