For Such a Time as This: Surrender

Surrender

Matthew 3: 1-12

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, and 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; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. 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.”

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The theme for the second Sunday of Advent, and as we continue to travel through Advent, was peace.

In this time of peace, we receive the fiery echoes of John the Baptist’s sermon in the wilderness of Judea. In his rallying cry to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” his uniquely anti-priestly rebuke of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the harrowing imagery of the coming Messiah sifting folks as wheat, it does not seem like the most peaceful message. It is a message to make the turn in your life toward the coming Messiah, quickly; to bear fruit of that said repentance; and to hope the fruit you bear is good fruit, not fruit of a barren tree that is thrown into the fire.

But our Advent text is not just about John the Baptist; it’s about who he was preparing the way for. The tension in this text is that John the Baptist is preparing his disciples for the idea of a Messiah that doesn’t exactly come in the way he describes. Jesus, the coming Messiah, doesn’t come as the “mightier one,” a strong judge who completely overthrows the Empire that was oppressing John the Baptist and his community, day in, and day out. But the coming Messiah does come as a peacemaker. 

Henri Nouwen, spiritual leader and thinker, claims in his work, “Peacework: Prayer. Resistance. Community,” that, “Nobody can be a Christian without being a peacemaker.” Drawing from Jesus’ blueprint, Nouwen explains that being a peacemaker can be countercultural to how we live:

“I am asking for a conversion of our whole person so that all we do, say, and think becomes part of our urgent vocation to be peacemakers. Such a conversion can indeed lead to change and specific actions, but it can also make us live the same life in a totally new way.”

Though John the Baptist may have been confused? disappointed? frustrated? by the way the coming Messiah will come (in another Advent text, John the Baptist will send his disciples to ask Jesus – “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”), Jesus still confronts power and consistently brings conflict to Empire’s front door by living life in a totally new way. Judgment is what John the Baptist expected, perhaps even longed for, through rebuke and a calling for repentance. But, Nouwen shares another offering –  the other name for judgment is mercy.

Jesus replies to John the Baptist’s question in Matthew 11: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” This is what I believe John the Baptist didn’t account for in the coming Messiah: mercy, compassion, undeserved kindness, forgiveness, favor.

There is indeed a tension between Jesus’ arrival as Messiah – who brings “unearned restoration and renewal” (Richard Rohr) – mercy – and John the Baptist’s message of responsibility to bear fruit that is worthy of the repentance that we are called to. Scholars note that Matthew leaves this tension between John the Baptist’s message and the Messiah’s arrival, on purpose. Both are true – after all, Jesus rebukes, flipped over tables, and drove folks out of the temple, too.

John the Baptist and his witness as prophet is necessary – we must repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. But Jesus, in his witness as prophet, reveals that we must surrender to the process that repentance requires. That is actually how we bear fruit that is worthy of our repentance, how we build the capacity to struggle toward repair, and how we reclaim the Good News. Not the fleeting, tepid attempts of manipulating Scripture to steal, kill, and destroy, but the enduring gospel that is still to proclaim good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Messiah’s favor. 

We are surrendering to a coming Messiah who doesn’t always show up in the exact way we expect the Messiah to – but who does teach us, over and over again, how to live the same life in a totally new way. The coming Messiah does break into our lives and into our world to bring love, justice, mercy, and compassion. As we repent, we find peace in the One who is always re-creating our lives, and the world, anew.