At 30 or so, he was young in our culture, but already in middle age by the standards of his world. Bronzed by the sun, with a mane of brown to black hair and a long, somewhat unkempt beard. Man of the desert, his clothing was woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist, much like Elijah. He was very unlike the “great” religious leaders of that day who wore beautiful robes to make clear their elevated status. He could not have been stout or physically robust. His diet consisted of Locusts and honey.
“’Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I am not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!’...People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan valley went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.”
He was outspoken. When the “religious” leaders of the day came to watch what he was doing he spotted them and greeted them with, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee God’s coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God…Even now the axe of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”
John’s message is simple and direct…a message lost to much of the contemporary church…confess your sins (can you imagine THAT kind of church service! Most of what passes for a church gathering today is simply a performance, with little opportunity for honest sharing, much less confession. Sometimes the performance is so loud and non-participatory I just wonder why they even need a congregation.). And John meant confess the sins, not just an internal “I’ve been bad!”but a sharing of the reality and form of sin in your life. Without that honesty little progress could or can be made. And if you were a public figure and didn’t confess your sins, John would do it for you. It lost him his head.
And over and over John said, “REPENT!” This is a word that we have used so poorly in America that it has become a caricature of the real thing. Repent…Greek ‘Metanoia’…a compound verb made up of two words: Meta…utterly change, and Nous…your life. Repent is not a religious word, it is a life word. When John defined some of the fruits of repentance they were not issues of purity or ritual or religion. Rather, John emphasized issues of social justice. “The crowds asked, ‘What should we do?’ John replied, ‘If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.’ Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He replied, ‘Collect no more taxes than the law requires.’” The questions and the responses went on, but the quality of repentance was clear…utterly change your life until it honors God and brings help to your brother or sister.
But the confession of sin and the call to repent were only consequences of John’s primary message: FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!! John was announcing the end of the silence and the arrival of the Messiah, the long awaited savior. His words inflamed the nation and the people went out to him by the thousands and thousands to respond to his call to confess and repent…for they knew it was the fullness of their time.
How disappointed they soon were to become.
Prayer: ”Father of mercy and grace, my sin is ever before me. It has stained my heart and hurt my life. It has become a burden. And yet, the worst of my sin is the sin I hide and avoid with such determination. I need courage to lay aside my old life in order to take up a new life. I am afraid that honesty will bring even greater pain. Yet, where can I go from your spirit, and how can I even think of hiding from you? I lay my heart before you, asking that you wash me so that I might be clean. Forgive me with your great mercy and cleanse my mind. Grant me the willingness to change utterly, and then the courage to step forward. Amen.”