Prepare the Way for the Lord

Matthew 3:1–12

In those days, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 2 “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near!” 3 Yes, this is he of whom this was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.” 4 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him. 6 They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit in keeping with repentance! 9 Do not think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. 10 Already the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I baptize you with water for repentance. But the one who comes after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”     (EHV)

Do you ever wish we didn’t have to hear about sin in church? Do you ever squirm when you hear God’s law? Certainly, we’d all rather be flattered than censured, even in church. But when it’s a matter of life and death, flattery doesn’t go very far, does it? You wouldn’t appreciate it very much if your doctor would try to make you forget your fever by telling you that your red cheeks improved your natural beauty. You’d tell him, “I’m paying you to cure me, not to flatter me.” All the remedies in the world won’t help if the doctor doesn’t diagnose the problem and apply the right cure. You want an honest doctor who gives you the honest truth and makes you take the medicine.

John the Baptist was such a man. He knew what was afflicting the people of Israel. God sent him to give them the bad news with both barrels, and then to give them the cure. “Prepare the Way for the Lord,” he said. Repent and Be Baptized. Then Bring Forth Fruits in Keeping with Repentance.

Repent

In those days, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 2 “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near!”The word “repent” means “Change the way you think and act.” Have a complete change of heart. Stop dead in your tracks. Don’t go any further! Turn around and go back. Full reset.

True repentance requires being honest with yourself, and that takes some soul searching. True repentance is not just some generic confession that we’re not perfect. True repentance is learning and acknowledging that of ourselves we are completely sinful and deserve nothing but death from God. The apostle John wrote what we regularly recite in our liturgy, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9). Without repentance, there can be no forgiveness. Without repentance, there is no gentle Jesus of Christmas, only the Jesus who will be a stern Judge on the Day of Judgment. Don’t lie to yourself about your sins. Don’t try to hide them from God. God sees everything. So, admit your sins to God.

When John told the people: “Prepare the Way for the Lord” he was reminding and teaching them that we do have the power to block God’s path. We are more than able to prevent our own salvation. No, we don’t have power to invite Jesus into our heart, but we sure are able to throw Him out and padlock the door. Sin puts obstacles in Jesus’ way and impenitence totally blocks the road. Isaiah wrote: “Your guilt has separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden God’s face from you, so that he does not hear” (59:2).  St. John the Apostle wrote: “If we say we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his Word is not in us” (1 John 1:10).

Yet despite the fact that the Baptizer’s message was so blunt, rude and to the point, still “Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him. 6 They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.” I guess it’s not so surprising that people went out to see John in the wilderness. He looked and acted like a prophet of God, following the Nazirite vow. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.  He didn’t cut his hair in keeping with the vow. He was a sight to behold.

What’s a bit more surprising, is that people listened to him and took his preaching to heart. He told the crowds in no uncertain terms that they deserved eternal punishment for their false beliefs and their wicked lives, and instead of grumbling and rejecting him, they confessed their sins and were baptized.

That tells us something about owning up to our own sins. If we’re willing to take God’s Word to heart, rather than making excuses, or focusing on some personality quirk of the preacher, we’re instead going to focus on ourselves, our own shortcomings, and be grateful that someone was sent to be honest with us and call us to repentance.

Not everyone repented at John’s preaching. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

The Pharisees were “too good” to repent. Their lives of hypocrisy had blinded them. In the Sadducees’ case, they were blinded by their sensibility. They were the ‘modern’ theologians of Jesus’ day who didn’t even believe in the afterlife, or the resurrection or that there would ever be a Judgment Day. Why should they repent? You can picture both of these groups on the hillside watching judgmentally from afar.

John called both the Pharisees and the Sadducees the “offspring of vipers,” baby snakes. They were not only spiritually dead themselves, and they were spiritually murdering others. They disparagingly observed the masses going down to be baptized and mocked them. “Just look at the fools, going down into that muddy river to be baptized by that uneducated, uncouth man” they thought. “If they want ceremonial washing, let them come to us at the temple.”

Remember Your Baptism

But what the Pharisees and Sadducees refused to accept God mercifully gave to those who confessed. In baptism He gave them the gift of forgiveness. John said to them, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But the one who comes after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” God gave the people John baptized the gift of faith. He gave them salvation. He washed away their sins. He set their consciences at ease by promising them forgiveness and eternal life.

Those are the same gifts we receive in baptism. St. Peter wrote, “Baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the body but the guarantee of a good conscience before God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). At your baptism God, adopted you as His child, and guaranteed you the right to stand in His presence. The salvation that Jesus earned for you on the cross was applied to you personally at your baptism. That’s why Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16a).

All that is God’s one-sided gift. But through baptism God also established a special covenant relationship with you. Our part of that covenant—our response of faith—is the pledge to keep drowning the Old Adam by daily repentance. We promise to continue to let the Spirit pour out His fire on us through the means of grace. John said “He, [Jesus], will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” That fire of the Holy Spirit is poured out on us through the Word—if we keep hearing and believing—and through communion, if we keep receiving it with penitent and believing hearts.

Bring Forth Fruits in Keeping with Repentance

Fire changes things. When fire touches paper, you can see the results. When the fire of the Spirit touches the heart of the believer, you can also see the results. The fire of the Holy Spirit, first given to us at baptism, and given to us again and again in Word and Sacrament, enables us Christians to keep Preparing the Way for the Lord, By Producing Fruit in Keeping with Repentance.

John preached, Therefore produce fruit in keeping with repentance! 9 Do not think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.

No son of Abraham was ever saved by his Jewishness, as the Pharisees and Sadducees thought. Neither does God save anyone today because mama was a Lutheran, or even because “I’m a Lutheran.” Lots of folks have bought the devil’s lie that the Gospel gives us a license to do whatever we want. John makes it clear that nothing could be further from the truth. If we claim to be Christians but refuse to do what God says, we’re not fooling anyone, least of all God.

God saves us through penitent trust in him. God saves us through living faith in Christ, and living faith can’t help producing “fruit in keeping with repentance,” i.e. “good works.” Good works don’t earn me salvation. Certainly not! But good works are the necessary fruit of real faith. Believers know that instinctively. The prostitute Jesus forgave, didn’t go on being a prostitute. The adulteress Jesus forgave ceased her adultery. The Roman soldiers John baptized stopped extorting money from Jewish villagers. The tax collectors Jesus forgave paid back what they’d cheated people out of with generous interest. That’s what repentance is all about. That’s what John the Baptist preached. Already the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Nothing less than genuine, penitent faith—faith in the heart that produces fruits in keeping with repentance, will do. “If we say we have fellowship with him but still walk in darkness, we are lying and do not put the truth into practice. 7 But if we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7).

Jesus will thresh and divide, He will punish, and He will reward. “His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” St. Paul later wrote the same thing in Romans: “God ‘will repay each person according to what he has done’—7 eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality by persisting in doing what is good, 8 but furious anger to those who out of selfish ambition are disobeying what is true and obeying what is wrong” (2:6-8).

Take John’s harsh, but honest message to heart. It was meant for each of us, just as it was meant for the Jews who went out to hear him 2000 years ago. In this penitential season of Advent, let us Prepare The Way For The Lord into our own hearts By Confessing Our Sins, Remembering Our Baptismal Covenant, and Bringing Forth Fruits in Keeping with Repentance. Amen.

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