Malachi 3:1-7b 1“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.
7b Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. Luke 3:7-9 7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Goal: That the hearers may evaluate the source of their security and find it in Christ.
Introduction Our text for today is the gospel reading just read.
As the soft colors of Christmas have begun to permeate the world around us. Twinkling lights and cheerful holiday tunes meet our eyes and ears everywhere we go. The Christmas season is one of joy and happiness. Warm fires and fresh smelling Christmas trees adorn our houses. Everything is festive and bright. The sights and smells are all here to warm us and cheer us.
Imagine with me that you are walking along the edge of town enjoying this special season. Relaxed and carefree you start down the street to drink in all the Christmas spirit. Shop fronts are glowing and the light of a thousand small bulbs are glimmering on the lampposts. Down the street, and over by himself, you notice a strange character. He’s wearing cloths made of rough shaggy hair and talking loudly to whoever will listen. Slowly a crowd is gathering around him to investigate this strange sight. Intrigued, you go over to investigate. As you walk up to the edge of the gathering suddenly he turns, looks you in the eye, and yells: “You brood of Vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” Stunned, recoiling back you think: “What is this?? Doesn’t he know its almost Christmas! This doesn’t sound very cheerful or welcoming!”
But John doesn’t care, he continues on his rant: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire!”
John’s “Christmas” Message
All at once Christmas seems to have faded away. Where did this come from? Why the sudden change of mood? Why, out of all the things we could read today did we read about John’s angry sermon?
The first thing to consider as we try to unravel John’s very peculiar Christmas message is what John is actually saying. Let’s start with his opening words: “You brood of Vipers. Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” If you are like me, the first thing that jumps out about this statement is John’s immediate condemnation of the people coming out to listen to him. He doesn’t even give them a chance, or the benefit of the doubt. Instantly he makes everyone feel insecure and on edge. And even more disturbing than being called a snake, he immediately follows this up with haunting words about a coming wrath.
Wait, what wrath? John is preparing the way for Jesus right? I mean, John baptizes Jesus not to many versus after this, inaugurating Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus brings salvation and grace. Where is the wrath in that? What is John trying to get at?
It is so natural for us to hang on to the warm gentile picture of Jesus coming in a manger, so little and helpless. This is the kind of image we normally think of and hang onto during this happy Christmas season. Things that remind us that Jesus will grow up and be a great healer and a kind savior.
But John seems to have had a very different message ringing in his ears as he turned to speak to the people that day. A word that made everyone squirm with insecurity. John did not just come up with this on his own. Preaching like this is part of his job description. In fact, we already read part of John’s job description today. Malachi looked into the future and spoke about the day John would come saying: “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.” And not only this, but John was sent to speak about the coming of Jesus in a very different way than we are used to hearing. John boiled down the message of Jesus coming into a few short lines. But the full message sounds something like this: “Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.
Yikes, that doesn’t sound like John is preparing the way for a gentile savior, but a great judge and king! Someone to come in and set things right. To wash away the dirty with soap and even burn away more stubborn impurities.
But this is Jesus we are talking about. How can He be God’s coming wrath? Well, John gives us some more specifics about this: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire!”
For these words of John to make any sense we need to remember who he was originally talking to. I don’t know about you, but thinking Abraham is my father isn’t a problem I find myself running into every day.
John was speaking to his fellow Jews who were living under the oppressive rule of the Romans. The Romans where their enemy; and if they had anything holding them together as a people: it was their claim to be God’s Chosen People through Abraham. Abraham had received the promise of God. A promise that his descendants would become great. And so they held onto this promise. And so the logic goes like this: if God promised to make the descendants of Abraham great, and I am a descendant of Abraham, I must be doing pretty good, I’m safe. I don’t need to worry about anyone or anything because I was born into the right family.
But this safety is exactly what John has been after this whole time. What safety is there in what your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather did? Absolutely none! God can fulfill his promise to Abraham however he wants, YOU are not safe.
So we’ve got it now, it makes sense. John doesn’t want us to feel to safe. But why? Why is it such a crime to feel safe?
Application
The answer to this is not so much that we DO feel safe, but WHY do we feel safe. The Israelites felt safe because they had the special membership card, the one that says, “child of Abraham” on it. But they were forgetting the very reason that meant anything in the first place. God is the one who made the promised to Abraham. God is the one who could make the promise a reality. The subject of the promise is not Abraham or his descendants. God is. God is where security comes from. The whole point of John’s harsh words is to shock his hearers out of their own self fabricated safety. To break down the apathy of a people that takes what God has given them for granted. No longer treating it as a gift, but as a right.
We need this same shock to the system, because we also settle into safe little holes. Comfortable and reliant on things and not God. Just think about how much we rely on the security we get from our own country. We trust America to be a place of freedom and a place of security. Over and over we boast that America is blessed by God because it IS free and safe. And so it becomes hard to imagine that there could even be another country on this planet that can be as safe or as great as our beloved America. And yet, at the end of the day, who really holds our security? If all of America were to fall apart today and everything we’ve known disintegrated, would we still have a safe place? Could we still say that we trusted God if one day we woke up and had no possessions, no rights, no comfort, no job, no family or friends; the life we are used to living completely pulled out from under us.
You see, it is easy to give God lip service when it comes to security as long as the true sources we rely on are not upset. For you maybe this kind of security does not come from being an American citizen, but from a job, or money, or education. The deceitfulness of our sinful nature can turn just about any blessing from God into this kind of false security. A car, a house, even relationships all become the things that keep us safe instead of God Himself.
Even being a Christian can turn into this. The amount of people I have known that feel safe just because they are Christian is sad. Christianity is not a box to check, or some kind of divine health insurance. Being a Christian is, at its core, the humble acceptance of God’s grace and mercy. We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, and we most definitely cannot own or possess it.
No one likes feeling uncomfortable or insecure, but John has done his best to teach us that there is something deeper than feeling a smug sense of security. There is a security that runs to the very core of creation. He is the security John is preparing a way for. Jesus is not just a soft pushover come to smile the world into loving God. No, He is the strong judge that has the power to condemn or to acquit. He is the fullness of the all-powerful God coming to live in the flesh. He is not a light breeze on a brisk morning, but a howling hurricane that leaves nothing standing in its wake. He is the piercing roar of a lion. A roar that rips across our lives until everything that is not Him is melted away.
Where is our security in this terrifying roar? How do we live with it? The most human thing would be to run. Run from God and burrow down into all the places we feel secure. But the Children of God do not run from Him. Instead we echo the words of Hosea “When he roars, his children will come trembling.” And so we should tremble in awe before the Great Holy One who is in our midst now. The Power that merely whispered a word to create everything that you have ever tasted, seen, or heard, is roaring for your return to Him. He calls across the entire cosmos: 7b “Return to me, and I will return to you.” And so we tremble and fall before the feet of the lion, of Jesus the Holy son of God.
And as we bow here at the feet of Jesus completely stripped bare of everything we thought could keep us safe. We feel his hand touch our shoulder, not pushing us down, but pulling us up, until we are looking straight into His eyes. This time, we do not hear words like John’s. Now, looking into the eyes of the Savior, we hear Him say: “You are forgiven, You are mine.” And so out of nothing He recreates us. With nothing else left to hold onto He becomes the only thing worth holding onto in the first place. How strange it is that the coming wrath John warned us about it where we find our security. The roar that can flatten the whole world becomes our call home. His words give us a security that extends beyond life and death, comfort and suffering. The very last place we would think to look for security is actually the only place we can find it.
This week, as we go back into the world. Back to our possessions, our rights, our comfort, our jobs, and family and friends. Remember who stands over all of them and who gives them in the first place. They cannot do anything to keep you safe, only their creator can. They will change and shift like the sand. Even the stablest job or the safest community or the strongest family will change and come to an end. Only one thing will last forever, and His name is Jesus. Run to Him, let Him hold you up. His terrifying strength will not attack you, but defend you. And so we can laugh at the future. Let the whole world fall apart. War, disease, death - every fear that creeps into our minds can try to do their worst. But our lion will roar at them and THEY will scatter in panic. That roar we dreaded to hear becomes our song of deliverance. So cast aside the false holds of security! Do not burrow into the flimsy security of people or things, but bury your face in the rich mane of our Lion Jesus Christ!