Postkiwi Duncan Macleod

Years later, John the Baptist started preaching in the desert of Judea. He said, “Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

John was the one the prophet Isaiah was talking about, when he said, “In the desert someone is calling, ‘Get the road ready for the Lord! Make a straight path for him.’ ”

John wore clothes made of camel’s hair. He had a leather strap around his waist and ate grasshoppers and wild honey. From Jerusalem and all Judea and from the Jordan River Valley crowds of people went to John. They told how sorry they were for their sins, and he baptized them in the river.

Many Pharisees and Sadducees also came to be baptized. But John said to them: You bunch of snakes! Who warned you to run from the coming judgment? Do something to show that you have really given up your sins. And don’t start telling yourselves that you belong to Abraham’s family. I tell you that God can turn these stones into children for Abraham. An ax is ready to cut the trees down at their roots. Any tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into a fire.

I baptize you with water so that you will give up your sins. But someone more powerful is going to come, and I am not good enough even to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His threshing fork is in his hand, and he is ready to separate the wheat from the husks. He will store the wheat in a barn and burn the husks in a fire that never goes out.

Matthew 3:1-12, Contemporary English Version

To tell the truth, I don’t think I would have liked John the Baptist. He would have smelt bad, looked rough, and sounded extreme. He doesn’t seem to have the attractive poise that Jesus showed. Despite all these draw backs, John had people turning up to listen and respond to his radical challenge.

So what’s the good news here? “The kingdom of heaven is almost here”. God is about to break into our world in a way that will sort out the true from the false. God will bring clarity and justice to our time. The coming judgment will show what God really thinks of our way of life.

I guess this is one of the places from which many Christians have developed their “wrath of God” approach. God is coming back and he’s not happy! Jonathan Edwards delivered a sermon that was entitled “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”, outlining the dangers of being sent to hell. The reference to being thrown into the fire that never goes out obviously provides a whiff of sulphur, a threat of eternal damnation. It’s a wake up call. “Turn or burn”.

There’s no getting round the angry nature of John’s sermons. On the other hand, John is speaking in the mode of Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah, warning that the complacent attitude of God’s people will end them up in trouble. We’re not yet in to Jesus’ engagement with the people.

John’s talking about the arrival of a person who will penetrate the hypocrisy of a society that claims to be God-focused.

What stands out to me, behind the rude interchanges between preacher and would-be repenters, is the call to radical conversion. John is not interested in some religious act that will appease the conscience of God-worshippers. He expects to see changes at the very core of people’s being - changes that affect life style. That must have stunned the people lining up for baptism. If he’s challenging the Pharisees (known for personal moral purity) and Sadducees (known for correct approaches to worship) then where does that leave everyone else?

“The axe is ready to cut the trees down at the roots”. That’s where the word ‘radical’ comes from: At the root of the matter. The gospel here provides a radical challenge to the perennial preoccupation with self that still troubles us today.

The good news here is not a product. It is not a package. It is not about where people go when they die even. It is about being equally accountable to God for who we are and how we live.