John the Baptist is a bracing sort of fellow, eye-opening, and not in the slap some Brut on the face kind of way. (In another blog post we will have to explore how it is that Brut has made a comeback – before you say anything, it is related to Advent, after all, as those of us who grew up buying it for our fathers and older brothers for Christmas can attest!) He is preparing the way for the Messiah, as all four of the Gospels confirm, and in Matthew he calls out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (3:2). It is not just the call to repentance and the fact that he is preparing the way for the Messiah that makes him so bracing and invigorating, though that, I think, would be sufficient, but the way he challenges his compatriots to grasp the nearness, severity and significance of his message.

Verses 5-6 reveal only the great response to his message and John’s response to the outpouring of repentance: “Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” In their confession and baptism the people “make his paths straight” by readying themselves for the Messiah’s arrival. All are well, who repent well, it seems.

Then who should appear, but Pharisees and Sadducees? All of a sudden the tune of John the Baptist changes, it becomes discordant, not plaintive and moving. “But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance” (3:7-8). Hello, to you, too, John the Baptist!

Why does he turn on them so rapidly? Does it matter who warned them to flee from the wrath to come? Does not their coming to John the Baptist indicate that they desire to bear fruit worthy of repentance? The whole scene seems incomplete; we seem to have only a part of the picture, a partial view of the diorama. Frankly, as the scene is shown to us, it seems harsh. Why should not John welcome their repentance? There is something missing: maybe there is a look of judgment on their faces, or a knowing smirk, the sense of “Repentance, we don’t need your stinkin’ repentance!”

John warns them bluntly: “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (3:9-10). It is likely that John is referring to the 12 stones that are described in Joshua 4 which indicated that Israel had come to safety in the Promised Land. The issue for John is presumption, that the Pharisees and Sadducees should not think that because they are privileged members of the people of God that they have stamped their tickets to glory. Stones may be raised up to people of God – and might even Gentiles be? – so the issue is behavior not privileged position.

The consequences are dire for those who feel that the kingdom of heaven is theirs by right not as a matter of repentance and behavior – “every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” This is precisely John’s task, that is, to warn and prepare, and it does not help to pretend that the stakes are not eternal. This why the bracing wake-up call is necessary. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (3:11-12). This image moves us from stones to the common harvest imagery of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic thought. But be wary of equating Pharisees and Sadducees with chaff – they might have repented and borne good fruit. It’s our turn to prepare for the coming of the Messiah; and we ought not to presume.

John W. Martens

Follow me on Twitter @johnwmartens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.