People went out to John from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
The question is: Why?
Why did so many go out to John, this seemingly strange character with bizarre behaviour, crying out in the desert? That’s a question that came up in our Story time bible study series a few weeks ago. Why did so many people go out—to the harsh and inhospitable Judean wilderness of all places—to come to John?
Did they want to see for themselves this eccentric individual, dressed so unusually? He would have been quite a sight, wouldn’t he? Yet it’s worth noting that John’s appearance and behaviour may not have seemed so out of the ordinary at the time. Zechariah 13:4 tells us that a garment of hair was the customary clothing of a prophet. The use of locusts for food is mentioned in Leviticus 11:22 and middle eastern and Asian cultures still eat them today, dried, salted and roasted. They are highly nutritious, with 50% protein per 100g of dry locust[1]. In 2016 the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, Israel, hosted an “Exotic Biblical Dinner” with crispy caramel-dipped locusts on the dessert menu[2]—sounds very similar to the locusts and wild honey John was eating in our text!
This locust-munching, camel hair-clad prophet may not have appeared so unusual to the people of the day after all. So why did so many come to John, even out there in the desert?Matthew tells us that this is not just some self-appointed spiritual guru that has happened to show
- This is one who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah—promised hundreds of years earlier—the forerunner to Jesus, who will call out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
Could it be that the people came not for what they could see, but for what they could hear?
John came to prepare the way for the people to meet with their Lord by the message he proclaimed: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
To repent means to turn around. We usually think of repentance as turning away from our sin and then turning to God. But if we could do that, we wouldn’t need a Saviour. You remember the parable of the prodigal son, how the son returned to his father, as sinful as he was, as ritually unclean as he was, and said: “Father I have sinned against heaven and against you” and before he could even finish his confession his father had embraced him.
That is what repentance looks like! And that is the purpose of repentance: receiving grace from God! We confess our sins not to make God love us anymore than he already does, but because he already loves us, he calls us to turn to him with our sins for him to take them from us.
This was something the people were longing to hear. For years they had been living under the oppression of a religious performance-based framework. The Pharisees and Sadducees assumed that they would be saved from the wrath to come simply because of their ancestry, their supposedly superior moral performance, and their external marks of religious respectability. The Pharisees created 610 of their own rules which they imagined would help them preserve the righteousness of the community, but in doing so obscured God’s own commandments. Their hearts were far from God, and they imposed an impossible burden for the people to bear. Later in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus gave them the sharpest of rebukes:
“They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matthew 23: 4-7, 13).
God warned that the axe of judgment was ready to swing at the roots of the trees. Every tree not producing the good fruit of faith would be cut down and thrown into the fire. Those who came to John knew they could not escape this by their own performance. They knew they could not produce the good fruit that God requires.
That is why John called the people to repent—for Jesus is, the King of Heaven, was near! He was coming to be the righteousness of God for the people, to rule in their hearts with grace. Here is the other way—the only way to God—the Christ child who had been born! They didn’t have to climb the mountain of moral performance to get to God. Rather, in the Person of Jesus, the gracious rule of God’s Kingdom had come to earth. Jesus had come not to condemn the world, but to save it. It was a message of such relief for people bound to sin, shame, death, fear and despair.
God had appointed John to call the people to turn to him with their sin to be forgiven, ready to meet their holy saviour Jesus. Today we put on a green branch on our Jesse Tree reminding us that from this felled tree of false righteousness came the truly righteous One, God’s own Son.
The Kingdom of Heaven is near for us too. We usually hear that and think of that in a time sense. Well, it is true: Jesus will come again, and he promises that he’s coming soon. And when he comes, he will bring his just judgment of which John the Baptist proclaimed: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” What is to say that Jesus won’t come this afternoon? Who knows? If he does, are you ready? That’s what our faith holds to…isn’t it? Are you ready for Jesus to come again soon, with his just judgment?
John the Baptist didn’t come to tell people “It’s all good.” “Repent!” he cried. We must hear that call, too. The call for us to repent is ultimately from the thought that we could have any goodness within ourselves that would cause God to show us his favour, and that we could therefore be more deserving of love and grace in the coming wrath than others. That was not just a problem for the Pharisees and Sadducees. It’s the default way of human thinking and behaving. We think that the way to get God’s favour is to be better. Rather than putting on Christ we can so easily wear the wardrobe of the Pharisees: God will be more pleased with me because of the money I give…he will show me mercy if I show other people mercy…he will look upon me more favourably because of the way I prayed…I will really be righteous in his sight when I put on my best Sunday church behaviour. Yet from underneath all this still comes our sinful thoughts and attitudes, words and actions, which are so far from God’s will for his people to love him by loving others.
The passage from Isaiah that Matthew quotes says that mountains and hills are to be levelled and valleys raised up. The hills and valleys are symbolic of the sin in the human heart that separates people from God. Just as levelling mountains and raising valleys is a task beyond human ability, so too is making a way through sin to fellowship with God. It is a task that is utterly beyond human power. Only God can construct a way through such obstacles. He must prepare a highway to come to his people and deliver them. Notice our reading does not say: “Make a straight path so we can travel to him” but “Make a straight path for him”.
None of us are here because we have been good. We are here because God has first been good to us. He has made the roadway and travelled it first in the person of Christ, the King of heaven, who came all the way down to earth, born in a stable at Bethlehem to be God with us. And he brought that highway to you in your baptism, where, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work through his word, God went to work to transform the rough ways and mountains and valleys in your heart to bring you new birth, wash you clean, and join you to his own death and resurrection.
John’s call: “Repent” has a promised attached: “…for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” In Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Wherever the King is and rules with his power and his grace there the Kingdom of Heaven is to be found. The Kingdom is right here, for you again, today, as Jesus comes to rule in the hearts of his people on earth with his grace. Like the people in the desert so relieved to hear of God’s grace, we can come to Jesus with our sin, for him to take it from us and cover us with his own garment of righteousness. And so we light the second advent candle—the candle of peace—reminding you that because of Jesus’ righteousness, given to you in faith, you have peace with God.
Although we don’t know when God’s Kingdom will come again, we know where it comes now—wherever Christ is ruling in the hearts of his people through his word and sacraments. There Jesus reaches out with all the treasures of his grace, forgiveness, life and salvation for you. Looking for him in these means with humble hearts, open hands and open ears is the best way to prepare for Christmas, and for the time of your Saviour’s return. Just as Christ will come again, he is also already here, using his authority and power to serve sinners, blessing you with his grace, that you might have the peace the world can neither give, nor take away—forever. Amen!
