The other half of the equation...- A sermon for Advent 2

Like a couple weeks ago, I got into the pulpit and the Spirit moved me to preach something similar to this manuscript and yet it was completely different

December 8, 2013

Matthew 3:1-12

In 1970, a musical debuted at Carnegie Mellon University, it was called “Godspell.”  Musical was written by Stephen Sondheim and based off of the Gospel of Matthew, with some parables thrown in from Luke.  The musical found its way to Broadway and even had a film version made, staring Victor Garber as Jesus.  The movie version of the musical begins with a random selection of New Yorkers being visited by a John the Baptist character, who sings “prepare ye the way of the Lord.”  After he blows his shofar, a ram’s horn used in the Jewish culture, the group gathers in central park and is baptized in a fountain all the while dancing around the fountain and singing “prepare ye the way of the Lord” aloud for all that could hear.  And although the movie is based off of the Gospel of Matthew, this is not the John that we hear about this morning…well it is, but not really. 

What I mean by that is this, the John that we find described in the Gospel of Matthew is a harsher version of the John the Baptist that we hear about in Mark and Luke.  In Matthew, as in Mark and Luke, we see meet John the Baptist in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey, wearing camel’s hair and pretty much looking like a mad man.  This John baptizes the folks who come to him, preparing them for the coming of the one greater than he.  He is the loud, audacious man with the shofar, baptizing people in a fountain in Central Park, dressed like a circus entertainer.

But’s that’s really as far as the similarities go.  For in the movie, the scene in which John baptizes everyone is joyous.  All the characters are laughing and playing in the fountain.  And in Mark and Luke, John’s baptism is billed as a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  But in Matthew, the loud audacious man with the shofar is preaching one thing and one thing only “REPENT!...you brood of vipers!”  No forgiveness is preached by this John the Baptizer.  His baptism is one of repentance alone.  And grace?…zero, zip, zilch.  Just look at his interaction with the Pharisees and Sadducees in this text. 

“⁷But 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? ⁸Bear fruit worthy of repentance. ⁹Do 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. ¹⁰Even 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. ¹¹“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹²His 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.”

Harsh, right?

And maybe that’s why Matthew doesn’t seem to know what to do with him.  Did his fire and brimstone attitude make the folks as uncomfortable as it can make us sometimes?   I mean, all law, no gospel is a pretty rough way to go.  Or maybe he was a little too much like the guy he was preparing the way for.  He preached repentance, he had crowds of followers and disciples, he didn’t get along with the religious authorities, and he died because he challenged the status quo and made even the politicians uncomfortable.  And to top it off, it was John who baptized Jesus…something that teachers did for students, not the other way around. 

But, despite all of this, we know that John was not the messiah.  He was, for Matthew, the one whom Isaiah spoke of as the voice of one crying out in the wilderness “prepare the way of the Lord” but that’s about as far as we go. 

And maybe that’s part of Matthew’s point.  John gets to the repentance, but not the forgiveness.  John’s ministry has parallels to Jesus’ ministry, but John is merely the one who is preparing the way for Jesus.  What if, in making John this tough character to digest, Matthew is revealing to us that John’s teaching is only half of the equation.  As the one whom Isaiah foretold, it was John’s task to make way for the one coming after him…to point to the one who would baptize with the holy spirit and with fire, the one coming with a winnowing fork in his hand, ready to separate the wheat from the chaff. 

Now, you may be asking yourself, Pastor Jen, where’s the good news? 

In Kansas, there was a member of Trinity who served as a pilot in the Air Force and was stationed in Spain for a while.  During that time he purchased a winnowing fork that was crafted out of the roots and trunk of a thin olive tree.  They soaked the roots in water to make them pliable and then bent them to make 5 tines.  The distance between them was big enough that the wheat would fall onto the threshing floor, but the chaff would stay on the fork and could be thrown into the fire. What this means is that of the wheat stalk, some parts are desirable and other parts are not.  It’s the same thing for us, some parts of us are desirable and other parts are scarred by sin.  And when Christ comes with the winnowing fork, he is coming to separate the wheat from the chaff in each of us.  It is Christ who holds the other have of the equation.  John speaks of a baptism for repentance, Christ speaks of forgiveness of sins. 

John is not the only character in Matthew’s Gospel that is different from Mark and Luke.  And I must pause to note that there is a reason that I have left the gospel of John out…John’s gospel is completely different than Matthew, Mark and Luke’s which all have quite a bit in common.

In Matthew 26, we find Jesus at the table with his disciples, sharing his last meal.  And it is here where we find the second half of the equation that John started.  When Jesus takes the cup, he lifted it up and said, this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 

John preached repentance and called us to turn from our sinfulness. And his teaching is important, repentance and changing the way we live with others is important.  Jesus picked up on these aspects of John’s teaching in his own ministry. But it’s all for naught if we forget that it’s only half of the equation.  Repentance is for nothing if there is no promise of forgiveness. And for that we need to look to Christ. 

So as we watch and wait and prepare during this advent season, we do so looking to Jesus, who holds the whole equation of law and gospel.  Who points out our sins so that he can forgive them, who gives us the law so that he can also give us grace, who died so that we could have life.