Bearing Fruit Worthy of Repentance.

Luke 3:7-20

December 16, 2018

I. 

John unflatteringly refers to those who came out to hear him and be baptized as a “brood of vipers.”  The people are like this knot of nasty, slimy, venomous, deadly, untrustworthy, forked-tongued vipers who are totally unconscious of anyone else, or of their own effect on the world, or even of their own destiny.

It’s like he’s saying to them, “You’ve all spent your lives in a miserable, mindless little tap-dance of depravity: lying, stealing, betraying and killing each other; fomenting hated, and fear, and anger, with no clue about the damage you were doing to each other or the kind of world you were making.  You were only aware of what made you feel good or what hurt you.  Then maybe somehow you get a vague inkling that you might have to face some consequences someday, so you come out here, hoping that I can do something to assuage your consciences.  Forget it!  You have to change your lives.  There is no other way.  If you’re not ready for that, go back to the rat-race and see how that works for you.”

“Oh, and do not rely on your ancestry, your patriotism, or your religion.  God cares absolutely nothing about that.  It gets you no credit with God whatsoever.  Indeed, claiming to be God’s special ‘chosen people’ only raises the bar on what is required of you.”

John is saying that it is not enough to come to the realization that our life is unmanageable and headed for disaster.  It is not enough just to, as John says, “flee from the wrath to come,” which means to seek an escape from the consequences of our bad actions.  John is not just going to dunk people in the river and assure them that God forgives us and everything’s going to be okay, so they can go back to their normal lives.

No.  They’re going to have to “bear fruit worthy of repentance,” which is to say, they’re going to have to change their way of life.  They’re going to have to start acting differently.  

I am reminded of a story in which someone asks a rabbi about how to be a good Jew.  The rabbi replies, “If you want to be a good Jew, act like one.”  It is the same advice that people in recovery give to each other when they say, “Fake it till you make it.”  If we act in a certain way, eventually we will be a certain way.   

John doesn’t tell the people who come to him to believe anything.  He doesn’t urge them to have different theological opinions.  He tells them what to do.  He says they need to act differently.  Then they will be able to welcome the One who is coming after him.  We behave our way into believing.

God is about bearing good fruit.  A tree that does not produce, gets chopped down, chopped up, and thrown into the fire.  Our only job in this life is to produce “good fruit;” that is to say, to do good actions that have beneficial results for everyone.

II.

Then people ask John for some specifics about what “bearing good fruit” could mean in terms of actual behavior.  As an example, he says that “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”  So to bear good fruit first of all means sharing what you have, so that everyone has enough and no one has too much.    

John says that if we have more than what we need, the bare minimum for a simple, decent quality of life, we are required to share with those who do not have enough by the same measurement.  The goal here being some kind of economic equality.  Like we heard last week about the filling of every valley and the bringing low of every mountain, here he describes this in economic terms.  God does not create the world so that some have too much and others too little.  There is enough for all.

John appears to propose a simple needs-test.  He doesn’t make a  determination about how someone managed to become hungry or coatless.  He doesn’t ask whether they were robbed of their only coat, or lost it, or even sold it to buy a bottle of Jack Daniels.  Why someone does not have enough to eat may be an important question, but it does not affect our action in providing food for them.  As with Jesus, all that matters to John is the actual need that a person has right now.  Someone deserves a coat because they’re cold.  They deserve food because they are hungry.

Neither does John have any conditions under which having an extra coat is justified.  He appears to know that he is talking to the extra-coat crowd here, which is why he is so direct.  He doesn’t let them off the hook if they have have a career where they supposedly need to project an image of success and affluence.  No.  He says enough is enough.  What’s the minimum you need to stay comfortable?  Anything over that is excess, effectively stolen from the needy.

Coats, of course, stand for all of our possessions.  Just like it wasn’t about fruit, it is only partially about literal coats.  It is about stuff.  It is about possession and assets.  It’s about enough.  And it is about sharing. 

John advocates for the same kind of sharing economy that Jesus will also talk about.  He is requiring a redistribution of wealth downward in such a way that no one has too much, and no one has too little.

We are coming up to a day of the year upon which almost all of us will receive a massive infusion of stuff we don’t need.  What we really need is to hear John’s words here.  If we want to avoid “the wrath to come,” which is a way of talking about the consequences of our actions in terms of both human misery and a wrecked planet, we need to start acting differently now.      

III.

John then goes on to respond to questions from specific groups of people: tax collectors and soldiers.  Both of these jobs were inherently, necessarily, and systematically unjust.  Both were engaged in working for an oppressive and exploitative system.  Both were intentionally designed to be abused, indeed, the abuse was part of their purpose in keeping a population subjugated under a dominant, colonizing empire.  

He doesn’t tell them they have to quit their jobs.  He just says that they should do their work with integrity, honesty, generosity, and unselfishness.  That will make a difference.  If they have the chance to steal with impunity and don’t, that will create enough of a contrast with normal behavior as to earn them the respect and trust of people.  

To tax collectors he says they should just collect what is assigned to them by the government.  To soldiers he says not to engage in extortion.  To both he says that they should not use the power, advantage, privilege, and the chance to make a lot of money that may have been the whole reason they went into these careers in the first place.  

What he is really saying is, “Everything is not about you and what you manage to get for yourself.  Real success is not measured by the bottom line.  Maximization of profit is not the meaning of life.  Life is not about getting as much wealth as you can by any means necessary, no matter whom you run over in the process.  But it is about not using or abusing your power for your own gain.  Life has to do with building a community of trust, fairness, and love together.”

Look, there are basically two ways to go through life.  You can do whatever you want; or you can do whatever God wants.  You can obey your own ego; or you can obey God’s laws.  John tells the people who come out to him that they need to let go of their mindset that is all about taking, getting, extracting, gaining, and winning.  When they do, God’s Presence and love emerges with, within, and among them.  That’s when they are able to see the One who is to come. 

“And if you think I’m tough on this,” says John, “the One who is coming after me is way more powerful than I.  I just dunk you in some water; he will immerse you in the refining fire of God’s very breath.  He will separate and gather in the good fruit, the wheat, the ones who are giving in grace and generosity.  But the unproductive chaff, the hard ones who suck up and consume and hoard resources for themselves, the mercenary winners in the world’s sweepstakes?  Them he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

We don’t like to hear about the unquenchable fire or the wrath to come anymore than John’s audience did.  And some argue that the Messiah who arrives is not exactly the one John appears to expect.  Even John later has his doubts.

IV.

Luke tells us that John’s message is nevertheless “good news to the people.”  It’s good news because it reveals a way out of the unquenchable fire and the wrath to come, which are the consequences of our own selfish attitudes and behavior.  He’s throwing a lifeline to people who were otherwise doomed.  

He’s basically saying, “Look, if we start to bear fruits worthy of repentance, and live according to God’s justice, love, and peace now, if we practice generosity and equality now, if we let go of our greed now, we will see God’s redemption emerge now.  The Messiah, the One who reveals our true life, is coming into the world.”

How will we experience him?  As worthless and cheap chaff, living only for ourselves and doing no one any good?  Or as fruitful, generous, joyful, and nurturing sharers of goodness and love?  Will we be consumed as we consumed?  Or will we be given the blessings we give?

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