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

 

 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 

 

In yesterday's lectionary reading we were first given the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:  Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.  Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.  Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon.  Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king.  David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.  Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa.  Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah.  Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah.  Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.  Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.  And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.  Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor.  Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud.  Eliud begot Eleazar, Elezar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob.  And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.  So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.   From here the lectionary began with chapter 3 of Matthew's Gospel:   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, 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?"  My study Bible explains that Sadducees were members of the high priestly and landowning class who controlled the temple and the internal political affairs of the Jews.  They denied the resurrection of the dead and had no messianic hope beyond this life.  The Pharisees, on the other hand, formed a lay religious movement, which was centered on the study of the Law and on strict observance of its regulations.  From their understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures, they believed in the resurrection of the dead and they cherished a messianic hope.  But they taught that righteousness is attained on the strength of one's works according to the Law, and that the Messiah would be merely a glorious man.  John uses the title for them, brood of vipers.  This same title will later be used by Jesus (Matthew 12:34; 23:33).  This title is indicative of their deception and malice, and also reflects an influence of Satan.

 

"Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance . . ."  My study Bible comments that repentance, confession, and baptism lead to fruits worthy of repentance, a way of life which is consistent with the Kingdom of God (see Galatians 5:22-25).  It says that if a fruitful life does not follow, sacramental acts and spiritual discipline are useless.  Therefore in many icons of the Baptism of Jesus, there is an ax chopping a fruitless tree.  See also the commentary on verse 10, in which John declares that "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."

". . . 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."  This warning that from these stones (in Hebrew 'ebanim) God can raise up children (Hebrew banim) is a play on words.  My study Bible says that God will not admit fruitless children into God's house, but adopts other 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."   See the commentary on verse 8, above.  Fire here refers to divine judgment (see Isaiah 33:11, 66:24; Ezekiel 38:22, 39:6; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9).  See also "fire" in verse 11 which follows.

 "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."   Christ baptizes in the fire of the Holy Spirit; this is the power and grace of God which is divinely poured out on all believers at baptism, my study Bible says.   In John's culture, a slave would carry the sandals of  the king.  Therefore what John declares here is that he is even lower than a slave of Jesus.  John's inability to carry Christ's sandal has another meaning; for to carry another's sandal once meant taking someone else's responsibility (Ruth 4:7).  Here it shows that John could not have carried the responsibility that Christ carries, and that the Law could not redeem the world as Christ has come to do.  

"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."  Winnowing the threshed grain from the chaff (a process by which the indigestible chaff is separated from the good grain) is a metaphor for the divine judgment, which will separate good from evil.  

John the Baptist sets his call for a baptism of repentance within the framework of the coming of the Messiah, and of Judgment.  It is a call for preparation for what is understood to be a cosmic event of the utmost significance.  So, even in the context of the Old Testament Scriptures and Jewish religious literature of this period in which Christ's ministry took place, there was expectation of the Judgment with the coming of this messianic figure of whom John the Baptist speaks.  Preparation, then, was not simply for a Messiah who would rule as an earthly king, but for a judgment regarding the preparation of the people for this divine visitation, for God coming near.   When John speaks of fire in warnings to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious authorities of his time, who oversaw the temple and its activities and formed parties of the Council, he is speaking in the context of Judgment and the failure to live a life devoted to the true things of God.  Jesus, of course, will continue to speak in this vein of discourse throughout His ministry.  This also takes place within the context of Jewish Scripture, as Jesus will quote from Isaiah:  "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" (Matthew 15:8, quoting from Isaiah 29:13).  Jesus' cleansing of the temple (Matthew 21:12-17) will indicate to us the extent of corruption and the ways in which personal profit was being derived, and the care of the poor neglected will be evident in Christ's many teachings, such as His observation for the disciples of the poor widow who gave all that she had to the temple treasury (Mark 12:41-44).  John the Baptist's words regarding the dead wood of fruitless trees, the ax, and the fire also remind us of the figurative significance of Jesus' withering of the fruitless fig tree so soon after the cleansing of the temple (Matthew 21:18-19).  When Christ enters the temple, what He does are authoritative acts which indicate Christ's role in Judgment, His authority in the Judgment which is to come.  But what we cannot forget, and why these Scriptures and these acts are important for us to consider today, is that John's words in today's reading remain ultimately true for us all.  It is a question of how we are living our lives, and what we accept as our priorities and values.  Do we pay lip service to things but fail to show compassion?  Do we put emphasis on an outward show or does the state of our hearts matter to us?  To throw out the chaff from the good grain, to put the chaff in the fire and chop off dead wood from a tree, are all images that resound with meaning regarding a great and final judgment by the One of whom John says that he is not worthy of carrying His sandals.  But they also teach us about our daily lives.  Repentance is a process whereby we can winnow from ourselves and our worldly sense of self the things that do not serve Christ in that ultimate Judgment, the things He calls us to cast off.  And in so doing, we support the good growth, the fruit we are willing to bear for Him, the spiritual fruits of a life lived in prayerful devotion.  The poor widow may not look like she gave much, but she gave all that she had -- which is significant simply because it expressed the great love in her heart.   Ultimately, the fruits we bear are not about the judgment the world might render from our appearance, but about the closeness of our hearts to God, our capacity to welcome Christ's visitation which is always present to us now, even as John sought to prepare people for Jesus' presence as human being with a ministry in the world.  These meanings and values remain present to us, even as John's and Jesus' term for the religious leaders of their time "brood of vipers" remains meaningful for us -- suggesting those who do not work for God, but rather against God.  The hidden motivations of those who "put on a good show" so to speak, but whose actions cause chaos and destruction and harm the poor rather than help, reveal the hardness of their hearts, a lack of compassion, and true motivations of greed and power.  Let us consider our place in this great historical story of salvation, for we each have a role to play, and fruits to bear, within the context of our communities and our love of God.  John speaks to all of us when he warns us to prepare for the One whose sandals he is not worthy to carry.  For fire is the real fire of the Holy Spirit, an energy that both kindles the heart with its infinitely creative spiritual power, and also destroys what cannot stand in its holy presence.