Repent & Rejoice
Readings: Luke 3. 7-18
It’s quite the contrast in our readings today; Old Testament – Rejoice! New Testament – Rejoice! Gospel – You brood of vipers, repent! And yet they fit together. How will we respond to the news that God is coming, that the Kingdom is at hand, will we rejoice, or will we fear?
We’re back with John the Baptist again this week. Having introduced him last week Luke now gets into specifics of what he’s saying, and you probably wouldn’t want him on your pastoral team, he doesn’t mince his words does he.
Here come these great crowds flooding towards him, and what does he do? He doesn’t pat himself on the back at a job well done, doesn’t even welcome them; ‘come on down’. Instead he challenges them, even rebukes them. You’re rushing to the waters, rushing to me to try to escape the judgement that is coming, but are you just running? His words cut through their outward appearances to the heart. He isn’t interested in having more people in his following, swelling his reputation, he’s interested in something more, something deeper. Are these people actually coming to be changed, coming to start afresh?
Many, he senses, are coming with false motives, they’ve heard his preaching, realised the time is short, that the axe really might be at the root of their tree, and know they need to do something, need to get right. And so they’ll do this thing as that will sort it all out, get baptised, wash away all the bad, and that’ll do it, problem solved, back to what I was doing before.
But they’re lifeless, spiritually dead, they’re not bearing fruit. They may have Abraham as their ancestor but they’re as lifeless as the rocks. And yet God can bring life even to the stones.
He’s got their attention now, they start asking what they need to do, what fruit should look like. And John’s challenge to them is about contentment and about power.
Firstly they’re to be content, if you have more than you need be ready to share from that surplus with those who don’t have what they need. Don’t try to use others for your benefit by getting as much money from them as you can, be content with your work and your pay. And it’s about power, and the abuse of it. Tax collectors draining people dry to line their own pockets, using that position for gain, soldiers using the power of their station and force to get money out of those they should be protecting. Even the soft power of having more than we need and choosing not to help others. If you have more than you need, you have power to change the lives of others, and to not, is a use of that power. He’s really practical, here’s what fruit looks like. And at the core it’s a changed heart and changed priorities, wealth and comfort no longer at the centre of our lives, looking to others before ourselves.
As we prepare for Christmas, as we prepare for Christ’s return and the judgement that comes with him, we’re to hear the same challenge for ourselves that this crowd heard as they prepared for Jesus to appear in their midst. Are our hearts, are our priorities in the right place? Are we bearing the fruit of our repentance or is it all just words?
And there’s a challenge to us there both personally and as a church. Firstly, for us, how do we think of our faith? Is it primarily about getting to heaven and avoiding hell? Eternal fire insurance as someone rather pointedly put it. Is that what it’s about, avoiding judgement and getting blessings? John would have rather harsh words for us if that’s all it is for us, we’ve missed the point, more on that in a moment.
But the challenge for us as a church is do we actually challenge one another in our walk? Are we so desperate for people to join us that we’ll welcome anyone whatever their motives and do whatever it takes to keep them? Because again John would have hard words for us. I’m not suggesting that we interrogate everyone who walks through the door about their motives, have they accepted Jesus, are they living good lives? That’s not the way to go. But actually the last thing we want is for people to join us, or who have been here for many years, who are just here. Never really considered what it’s all about, are spiritually dead. Not because that’s bad for us, but because there is so much more, so much better for them.
Repentance just means to turn around, but we often use it as shorthand for turning from something, our sins primarily. But here’s the thing about repentance. It’s not an end in itself. Have you ever considered that? Repentance is not an end in itself. When Jesus uses the word repent in the opening of Mark’s Gospel it’s coupled with the words ‘and believe’. John here is telling people to repent, but to be ready to receive. Repentance isn’t an end in itself, it’s the preparation for the better thing.
John is preparing these people for ‘the more powerful one’, the one whose sandals he isn’t even worthy enough to untie. Repentance is the first step to receiving Jesus, to welcoming him. Turning our hearts away from all that is wrong in us is in preparation for our hearts to be filled with him. And in him all that we’ve been looking for in those other places, for contentment, for security, for power, for hope, in him we find them all in their fulness. Which means in receiving him we can rejoice, for all that we have been longing for is found in him. Repentance is so that we can receive, and in receiving we can rejoice.
And repentance isn’t just a one time thing. That’s the real challenge of John’s message. The people are coming to repent, and yet John’s challenge that they bear the fruit of that carries with it the challenge to continually be aware of our lives and our fruit, and so to continually be turning from all that is wrong in us. When we became Christians we repented of our sins, but we can assume that that’s all done and dusted now, move on. Instead though we need to actually be examining our lives, aware enough of our own priorities, our hearts, our motives, to know what needs to change. If you think you have nothing to repent of anymore you’re not looking deeply enough or you’ve become so used to your sin that you no longer recognise it as a problem. And yet in repenting it allows us to receive Jesus ever more fully.
Yes, turning in repentance from sin and to Christ in faith and trust in the first place is sufficient for our Salvation, that’s sorted, but there’s so much more if we keep on with that walk. For as we continually grow and change and turn from more that is wrong in us we will see more clearly his hand at work in us, see more fully his light growing within us. For us who know and love the Lord Jesus, who have repented and continue to do so, and in doing so have received him into our lives, for us his second coming isn’t a cause for panic or to flee. Our judge is also our redeemer, in him we can rejoice, for he will complete the work he has begun in us.
And if you don’t know Jesus for yourself this morning, if repentance really is for you just about trying to do better and nothing more, I’d love to invite you to discover Jesus for yourself, to open the Scriptures and see him for yourself, the one to whom you can turn as you turn from the broken and the bad.
My brothers and sisters, let us hear the call of John, examine our lives, that we may daily turn more and more of it over to him. And discover in him the deeper satisfaction for our longings and needs. For in turning from the false offers of this world, to the one who can truly satisfy we will find joy. For in him is our peace.
Amen.