The Fruit of “I’m Sorry”

Matthew 3:1-12

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea announcing,  “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!”  He was the one of whom Isaiah the prophet spoke when he said:

The voice of one shouting in the wilderness,

        “Prepare the way for the Lord;

        make his paths straight.”

John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey.

People from Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and all around the Jordan River came to him.  As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.  Many Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized by John. He said to them, “You children of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the angry judgment that is coming soon?  Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives.  And don’t even think about saying to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God is able to raise up Abraham’s children from these stones.  The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and tossed into the fire.  I baptize with water those of you who have changed your hearts and lives. The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am. I’m not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.”

You may have noticed that Matthew skips many years in Jesus’s life.  At the end of Chapter 2, Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus have just escaped Egypt.  After Herod dies, and the threat is gone, they return to Israel and settle in Nazareth.  Many years pass before John begins to baptize folks in the Jordan.  The gospels including Matthew tell us precious little about Jesus’s childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood.  We can only imagine what it was like for the Son of God to grow up in the household of Joseph and Mary.  The traditional assumption has always been that Jesus had a relatively normal Jewish upbringing. I note this here because we will return to it in our next reflection when we talk about Jesus’s baptism, which is not part of a traditional Jewish upbringing.

So again, many years after Jesus’s family settles in Nazareth, John the Baptist (more accurately John the Baptizer) begins a ministry of calling Jews to repentance, “for the kingdom of heaven has come near” with the arrival of Jesus.  Many heard and received John’s message to heart and repented.  As a sign of their repentance, John “baptized” them.  Before Christian baptism emerged as we know it, the immersion of Jews in water was practiced in some communities as a sign of ritual purification.  On some occasions, it was used with Gentiles who wished to convert to Judaism as a symbol of their status changing before God.    But here, at the banks of the Jordan river, John practiced the baptism of repentance.

This sets the stage for the arrival of Pharisees and Sadducees and John calling them out, questioning their motives.  John doesn’t hold back in his confrontation, even calling them a brood of vipers.  Then he says something very interesting.

“Bear fruit worthy of repentance”

Often, we equate “repentance” with being sorry or regretful of past actions.  However, the root word for repentance literally means to turn away.  It implies not just regretting the past but turning away from it and living differently.  Repentance is more action than feeling.  John is literally calling the leaders of his entire faith tradition to change their ways.  “If your really sorry, show us,” he seems to say.

I’m asking us to put ourselves in the place of the offenders in the story, not the heroes.  I believe the Bible would have a greater impact on our lives if we made that a habit.  It has certainly worked that way for me.  As I imagine myself being one of the Pharisees or Sadducees making a show of repentance and being called out by John, I must admit that I do things because I want to appear more “holy” than I actually am.  I confess that I often do the right thing for the wrong reason.   Sometimes, the “fruit worthy of repentance” is lacking in my life.  If I can admit that and turn away from it, then I am in the place God wants me to be, the place where John was calling people (including his leaders) to be. 

Question:  Where are the pockets of falsehood and pretension in your life that are keeping you from “bearing fruit worthy of repentance?”

Prayer:  Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.  Amen (Psalm 139:23-24, NIV)

Prayer Focus:  Focus your prayer today on asking God to help you deal with changes you know you need to make.  

Song – Lord, Have Mercy – Keith & Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, Sandra McCracken