Luke 3:3-14+18
John came to the whole region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
Luke 3:3-14+18
"There is a voice of a preacher in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight! Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the uneven shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."
Then John said to the crowds that came out to be baptised by him, "You brood of vipers, who assured you that you would escape the wrath to come? See to it that you bear righteous fruits of repentance; and do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I tell you, from these stones God can raise up children to Abraham. Even the axe is already laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
And the crowd asked him, saying, ‘What shall we do then?’ But he answered and said to them, ‘He who has two coats, let him give it to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.’ Tax collectors also came to be baptised, and said to him, ‘Teacher, what are we to do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than you are authorised to collect. Some soldiers also asked him, ‘And what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be content with your wages.’
With many other exhortations he warned the people and preached to them.
Dear Congregation,
In his travelogue ‘Jürnjakob Swehn der Amerikafahrer’ (Jürnjakob Swehn, the American Traveller) by Johannes Gillhoff, Jürnjakob reports to his teacher in his old homeland about his experiences in his new home in America. The year is around 1870. As in South Africa, German settlers have gathered there in communities. They must laboriously build everything themselves and pay the pastor's salary. After a prolonged drought, they inform the pastor that they can no longer pay his salary and will now have to manage without him.
Jürnjakob then describes the first church service without a pastor, held by a church leader:
Dear friend, I want to tell you what happened next, something I've never heard in my life. It wasn't spiritual. It wasn't worldly. It was just fearful and utter nonsense. He (the leader) began:
My dear fellow Christians! Or, as the Apostle says, you brood of vipers and snakes! You snakes! he says. – You snakes and vipers! – – You vipers and snakes! – – You vipers! – You snakes! He roared this out, and he banged his fist on the pulpit. But he did not do it out of strength, but out of fear. He wanted to encourage himself. He did not succeed. He did not know what to do next. He lost his way in his text. He started again: You brood of vipers and snakes! – You brood of vipers! – It was all over again. He looked up. He looked at us. We looked at him. We sat very quietly. He started again, but he was completely lost: You snakes! You vipers and scorpions! – – You brood of vipers! – That came out quite forcefully. And then he sat there, completely stuck. His admonition was over. He looked around like someone in great distress.
While reading Luke 3, I remembered this story. The board quickly realised that preaching was not as easy as they had thought. The next Sunday, the pastor was back.
But my point here is not to say that preaching is not easy. I am concerned with this text, which the poor chairman had also chosen. And I wonder how John the Baptist felt when he hurled these harsh words at the people. Matthew intensifies the whole thing when he says that these words were addressed primarily to the Pharisees and Sadducees who had made the pilgrimage to him. It takes courage to hurl such words at them, the role models of society. Doesn't it? John knew that he was called to be the forerunner of Christ. ‘The valleys shall be exalted, and the hills shall be made low,’ it says.
On our return travel from Pletternbergbaai, we saw the construction sites on the N1, which is getting a secondary carriageway in places. Enormous amounts of earth are being moved to create a ‘level track’.
With his words, John does exactly that – he points out the valleys, the shortcomings in people's behaviour. And above all, he points out the hills – the things that block the path between man and God. And he knows that sometimes it is precisely the pious who block God's path to people with self-righteousness, arrogance and condemnation of fellow human beings who are not as pious as they are.
Now I stand on the pulpit today with the question, what must I say to you? Should I, like the leader, shout and bang on the pulpit? Or should I rather say a few nice words, explain how it was back then, and try not to step on anyone's toes?
I pray that I will do neither, but that, like John back then, I can contribute with my words to ‘preparing the way for the Lord!’
In Luke, I find three important references to this.
1. It is important to pause and admit guilt
“Repent!” John cries out. Somehow, this does not seem to fit in with the Advent season, the time before Christmas. But that is exactly what it is all about: reflecting, finding oneself, considering what is going wrong, what has been neglected. Preparing the way for the Lord Christ.
Repentance is not a punishment but aims to free us from what stands between God and us, between us and others.
In John's baptism, it was symbolically implied: wash yourself clean. (This baptism is not to be confused with baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Christ is the one who acts. He gives the baptised person new, eternal life). Repentance baptism was known at that time – not only through John. It was something like what we know from confession – which, unfortunately, has also fallen into oblivion: expressing guilt, confessing where I have failed. In our time, visits to counsellors and psychologists have replaced this penance and confession. People speak their minds out there. I am grateful for this opportunity. I, too, have received good help from visits to psychologists. But the penance referred to here has something that counsellors and psychologists cannot offer.
The promise of forgiveness. This brings me to the second important aspect.
2. The promise of forgiveness.
John preached “repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. How healing are the words: Your sins are forgiven! And when hands are laid on me as well – it is so liberating!
So, today's Sunday does not want to come with thunder and lightning – even if John makes it sound that way at first. It wants to entice us: become free before thunder and lightning catch up with you, before you – like the poor preacher in the story – become so embittered and lost that you no longer know what to do.
‘Your sins are forgiven’ – this clears the way for the third aspect:
3. Reorientation
Luke mentions two groups by name: tax collectors and soldiers. Neither were welcome. The tax collectors were hated because they worked as tax collectors for the Roman occupational forces and often demanded more than Rome required. And the soldiers were the representatives of this occupying power.
I would probably have said to them: Find another job! But John does not do that. Basically, the same applies to both: Do not abuse your power! In other words: Be good tax collectors, good soldiers. If you give up your job, Rome will hire others to replace you. Stay where you are but be good to people. Do not exploit them! Reorientation is good!
Reorientation can be unpleasant. Immediately after this text, we read that King Herod had John arrested because he had confronted him for his adultery. He did not want to reorient himself. Instead, he had the messenger removed. Ignoring the message does not set you free – at most, it delays the storm a little. For the consequences of my actions will catch up with me!
2. The promise of forgiveness.
John preached “repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. How healing are the words: Your sins are forgiven! And when hands are laid on me as well – it is so liberating!
So, today's Sunday does not want to come with thunder and lightning – even if John makes it sound that way at first. It wants to entice us: become free before thunder and lightning catch up with you, before you – like the poor preacher in the story – become so embittered and stuck that you no longer know what to do.
‘Your sins are forgiven’ – this clears the way for the third aspect:
The call to share with others who have less is not directed at the super-rich, but at the masses who have made their way to John. It affects us all in some way, and it is uncomfortable!
Dear sister, dear brother – I do not know where John is addressing you today. I pray for myself that I will not be annoyed when a valley or hill in my life is addressed.
Let us prepare the way for the Lord; he wants to come to us; he wants to come into this world through us. The world needs Jesus Christ!
The ‘Hope for All’ translation says, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord... Yes, the Lord comes as a mighty God. He rules with great power.’ And then we read on: ‘He brings with him the reward for his labour: his people, whom he has acquired. They go before him. 11 He cares for his people like a good shepherd.’
Let us be “pioneers”.
Do not be afraid of repentance – pour out your heart.
Accept His forgiveness.
Have the courage to live a better life – to the glory of Jesus Christ!
Amen.
Horst Müller,