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But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
- Matthew 3:7-12
Yesterday, we first read Matthew's Genealogy of Jesus Christ, and then the beginning of chapter 3: In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD, make His paths straight.'" Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" So significant are John's words, that my study bible has notes on each verse in today's reading. Here, we're told, "The Pharisees and Sadducees are skeptical of John's mission and oppose Jesus. Sadducees, members of the high-priestly and landowning class, controlled the temple and the internal political affairs of the Jews. Denying the resurrection of the dead, they had no messianic hope. The Pharisees were a lay religious movement centered on the study of the Law and on strict observance of all its regulations. They believed in resurrection and cherished a messianic hope, but taught that the resurrection to righteousness is attained solely on the power of one's good works according to Mosaic Law, and that the Messiah was only a glorious man. John's epithet for them, brood of vipers, sharply denounces their malice as being influenced by 'the snake,' the Adversary, Satan (Job 1:6)."
Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance . . . A note says that "repentance, confession, and baptism lead to fruits worthy of repentance, a way of life consonant with the expected messianic Kingdom. If no fruit appears, sacramental acts and spiritual discipline are useless." Often in Orthodox icons of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by John, there is depicted an ax on a fruitless tree (see the lower left corner in this icon, for example).
" . . . and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." My study bible tells us, "The warning that from these stones (Heb. 'ebanim) God can raise up children (Heb. banim) is a Hebrew play on words. God does not admit fruitless children into His house; He creates new children from the Gentiles."
And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. My study bible says, "Even now shows that the Baptist anticipates divine judgment on God's people through the coming of the Messiah. Fire, a symbol of destruction, often describes the final judgment (see Isaiah 33:11; Isaiah 66:24; Ezekiel 38:22; Ezekiel 39:6; Zephaniah 1:18)."
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." A note reads, "John's baptism of water only prepares for Christ's baptism of water and the Holy Spirit. Christ baptizes in fire, for as the grace of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire, so is that grace poured out in baptism. In John's culture, a slave would carry the king's sandals. Thus John powerfully contrasts himself with God's Son, Jesus the Messiah."
"His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." A note tells us here: "The figure of winnowing the threshed grain from the chaff is a metaphor for divine judgment, which always separates good from evil."
In today's reading we have images of fire that are both negative and positive: negative in the sense of judgment, and that which perishes in the fire, and positive in the sense of that which is linked to the Holy Spirit, which appeared in the form of tongues of fire at Pentecost (the commemoration of which we now await after Easter). Somehow Christ's baptism, which John points to in his prophetic role, confers both Judgment, and the power of the Holy Spirit, each symbolized by fire. Reconciling this seemingly contradictory imagery, there is something important and essential to keep in mind: fire is also a purifying agent. As a gold test, fire separates out the inconsistent, the false element, the flaws, so to speak. And it leaves the pure metal, that which is sought that is of true value. It burns away impurities. Therefore, if Christ brings the Holy Spirit, in the form of fire, we expect this same work in us. To bear fruits worthy of repentance therefore is to bear a lot of this pure gold within ourselves. The power and energy of the Holy Spirit, therefore, would burn away those things we need to discard, in order to be - as much as possible - pure gold. Jesus will speak about this in the Sermon on the Mount, when He encourages His followers in another symbol for casting off what is flawed, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you . . . " But this is not purely negative; instead, it is saving, reconstructing, transforming. Fire is perhaps the best symbol of energy, the pure energy of the Holy Spirit and its deeply transforming power. In repentance, we give up the old in order to be transformed in the new, in that which God asks us to accept for direction in our lives. So God's love burns with the fierceness of this fire, to change us into that which is consistent with this love, which can stand in the fire. It is an immensely creative energy. We may go through difficult things in our lives, but the fruits those difficulties bear will far outweigh the negative. I have a friend who met a particular priest the week before she found a lump in her breast. Eventually she had a mastectomy, but she sees it as God's way of leading her to a profoundly helpful priest, a good place in her life, whose spiritual benefits to her and to her children far outweigh even cancer! And she continues to be grateful. Let us consider God's fire, and where and how it may lead us. There is a great purpose to all of it. As Jesus will point out when He speaks of Himself as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and each time He criticizes a particular interpretation or practice of the Law He finds false, the whole point of all of it is God's love for His children; that is where we are on the way to -- that is the one thing necessary, the thing for which Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. In the ministry of Jesus, the fire of God's love reveals that in God's sight, it is not pure "justice" that is justice, but it is mercy that must rule for true Judgment. Let us remember that this is our work as His children, to become united in that fire, one with His love. These are the fruits worthy of repentance.
