Opportunity comes with so many different faces that we often don't recognize it. That's probably why we sometimes miss its call. A previous generation said that opportunity comes dressed in overalls. And they were largely right, for nothing succeeds like hard work. Our generation thinks that opportunity comes with a college diploma. It may, but there's no guarantee.
The divine opportunity comes in what is, to our human eyes, the most unlikely garb of all. It's no wonder we don't recognize it; or that, recognizing it, we resist it. This Advent season is an especially good time to experience the divine opportunity. Any time is God's season; but because you and I find certain settings and circumstances especially hospitable to religious experience, Advent and Lent are particularly attractive.
The first Advent preacher, John the Baptizer, offered opportunity in a compelling, almost ferocious way. When you read his words, you don't think he's offering opportunity; I expect that if we had heard him in person, we would have been even more doubtful. William Barclay said that John's message "was not good news; it was news of terror" (The Gospel of Luke, Westminster John Knox Press, p. 28). I understand what Professor Barclay was saying, but I see it differently. It seems to me that good news must sometimes come dressed in rough clothing.
That was surely the nature of John's approach. When we read the brief gospel summaries of his messages, we wonder why people went to so much trouble to hear him. Were they masochists courting abuse, or did they perhaps hope to hear him thunder against the sins of their neighbors?
One way or another, the crowds flocked to him. And largely, I think, because they felt, in the integrity of his message, an opportunity which they had sought for a long time. His was a message of judgment; but in the judgment was opportunity. And opportunity was wrapped up in the word repent.
People say John the Baptist may have had an effect on people not unlike that of the famous Green Bay Football Coach.
Vince Lombardi. One of his former players said that when you were summoned to Coach Lombardi’s office and he told you to sit down, you didn’t even bother to look for a chair. You just sat right where you were. His players were absolutely intimidated in his presence. And these were fully grown, huge, muscular, adult men!” End quote.
To be sure, John the Baptist is pictured by the Gospels as an intimidating figure. Aside from his rugged appearance and even more rugged diet, his preaching style was anything but gentle. Could you imagine me, stepping into this pulpit, week after week, and screaming out insults at you. “You brood of vipers…you poisonous snakes. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Listen to me. The ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Somehow, I can’t imagine myself doing that. And if I did, I can’t imagine that our worship attendance would improve significantly. We United Methodists are a little too refined to appreciate such rugged, blatant talk, especially when it is aimed at us. And yet, the Gospels tell us that crowds came out to hear John preach, and to be baptized by him. And they weren’t only the people of Israel who flocked to hear John. As our lesson indicates, there were even some Roman soldiers among the crowd.
So why is it that the people traveled out of the cities and towns to hear John preach and to be baptized in the muddy Jordan? One of the reasons that Dr. Campbell suggests, [Ibid.] “is that John was no respecter of persons. He treated everyone alike – rich or poor, young or old, titled or untitled. The Baptist apparently paid no special deference to privilege or influence. We all like to see that in leaders…” End quote.
Well, that is certainly true. John showed no partiality to anyone in his call to repentance, including Herod, whom John had rebuked because of his relationship with Herodias, his brother’s wife. Of course, that was one time that John should have kept his mouth zipped, because Herod had John imprisoned, and Herodias later had him killed. But John spoke the truth, even when it was not politically correct – even when the truth cost him his life. And that is an admirable trait.
But I doubt that John’s integrity was the sole reason that the people came out by the thousands to hear him preach. John not only spoke the truth without partiality, his message, as rough and direct as it was, proclaimed the Gospel. John was calling people to prepare themselves, to repent of their sins, to open their hearts to the will of God, because God’s Messiah, who would usher in God’s kingdom, would soon be revealed.
That is the significance of the last verse of our text for this morning, which reads, “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.” Yes, John spoke with harsh words, calling a spade a spade, in order that he might motivate the people to prepare for what God was about to accomplish through Jesus the Christ.
John’s message had a tone of urgency about it, to be sure. He wanted those who heard him to not delay, to turn away from those things that they knew hindered their relationship with God – because God was about to accomplish their salvation. John calls us to repent because we are about to behold the grace of God in Jesus the Christ.
And unlike Vince Lombardi, whose players were so intimidated, simply by being in his presence that they would sit on the floor at his command John humbles himself before the people. As they were questioning about whether John might be the Messiah, he stated, “I am not even worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.
I am certainly not one who preaches in the style of John the Baptist, but I do believe that if we want to take this text seriously during this Advent season, we need to realize that we are not just preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ. As important as God’s incarnation is to the faith of the Christian church, John’s message is not about a baby born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger.
His message is about opening our hearts and minds to the fact that in the person of Jesus the Christ, God has come among us, and invites us to become members of his kingdom. It is an awesome message that John proclaims – a message that states that God is acting to redeem us from sin and to restore us to a new life in relationship with God.
This is the Good News that the people came out to hear John proclaim. This is the Good News that we proclaim today, centuries later. And yes, it is a message that calls upon us to be honest with ourselves, to take a good look at how we live our lives, in the hope that we might repent of our sins, in order to embrace God’s kingdom with integrity.
For although we are in the midst of preparing to celebrate Christmas, and the amazement of the incarnation, John reminds us that the true glory of God is not just revealed in our Lord’s birth, but in Christ’s faithfulness to his Father’s will. John call us, as he did the people of his day, to open our hearts and prepare to receive God’s presence among us, in the person of his Son.
For it is through Christ’s faithfulness to God’s will, that he endured the pain of the cross, and died, that the forgiveness for our repentant sins, which John preached at the muddy Jordan, might be accomplished. So let us not take this call of the Baptist lightly. For it is as timely a message that any of us might hear. And don’t be offended by the fact that we are all called a brood of vipers, for that is what we are. We are all in need of God’s grace, in order to redeem us from our sins.
Thanks be to God, for the truth of John the Baptist, who calls us to prepare for God’s kingdom. Amen.
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