John's Epiphany

Winter is my least favorite season. Although I know God gives blessings in every season, this one seems more dark and dry than any other season. The Christmas season is officially over now. We are in this in-between time of Christmas and Lent.

One day this past week I was waiting with my son for his school bus and noticed just how dead the plants in my flowerbed looked. They were black and stiff with death. The weather wasn’t as cold as it was the previous week, but the sky was just as dark. Unfortunately, I could not see any stars in the sky. Much of this is pretty normal for winter. Because of this, I look forward to spring, and the new life that comes.

Today we are going to celebrate two special Sundays on the same day. On the church calendar, it is Baptism of the Lord. Yet, we haven’t properly celebrated Epiphany yet. Epiphany is when we celebrate the awe-inspiring realization that the Lord has come, the true Messiah, as proclaimed by the Magi. The Baptism of the Lord signifies the start of His ministry with the scared act that we all must partake which is public baptism as a way of proclaiming that we are dedicated to being a part of God’s Kingdom and declaring Christ as our Lord.

The Magi had a star to follow as a sign of hope that the promised Messiah had come. John the Baptist knew the Messiah personally and therefore could see that Hope had come. However, when John began his ministry, Jesus had not yet begun His. Just as the wise men made their journey knowing that the time was near, John begun preaching repentance in the Jordan River declaring that the time is now. The Messiah had come. Today we are going to talk not about the Epiphany of the Wise Men, but the Epiphany of John that led him to declare that the time of the Messiah was at hand.

Let us pray and read Matthew 3:1-12

Matthew 3:1–12 NRSV

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 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. 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. 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. “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. 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.”

Notes from passage:

1) John first is stated to fulfill one of Isaiah’s prophecy. “One crying out from the wilderness.

2)John is compared to Elijah. Locusts are clean foods per Leviticus 11:22

Leviticus 11:22 NRSV

Of them you may eat: the locust according to its kind, the bald locust according to its kind, the cricket according to its kind, and the grasshopper according to its kind.

3)Locust and honey were the diet of those who lived in the wilderness.

4)John was a Rabbi, as in a teacher who taught on Repentance. However he did not belong with the Pharisees or Sadducees.

5)The Pharisees were the Jewish religious leaders who upheld the laws of Moses and taught the history and heritage of the Hebrew people.

6) The Sadducees were a little more liberal. They upheld the Jewish law and worked with the Roman empire on a balance between the two laws and the different ways of life.

John calls them both out as not truly following the commands of God and being “vipers” who strake at people who do not live as they live.

John’s message for all, including the religious leaders was to repent! Produce good fruit, yourself! Your title, your family, your culture can not save you.The Messiah is coming soon to cut those away who do not produce good fruit. Where John baptizes with water. Jesus baptizes with fire of His Holy Spirit.

Think about this: we need water to grow produce. We also need the warm of the sun. Without these things, nothing can grow. Cold, wind, and lack of water causes much of God’s creation to die.

John’s comparison of wheat verses chaff is reminiscent of Psalm 1

Psalm 1 NRSV

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

The wicked are like chaff which the wind drives away, or which is useless and burned up by the fire. The righteous do not burn up in the fire because they produce good fruit due to them being planted near the water. The fruit of the righteous is useful in the Kingdom of God. The Living Waters of Christ flows through us and the warmth of the Holy Spirit gives us what we need to do produce good fruit which is evidence of a good and pure life.

So, do you produce good fruit? In order for us to avoid being thrown into the fire, which is the destruction of sin and death, is through repentance. That was the imagery John was portraying through the baptisms in the Jordan River. This is his epiphany! It was a call to wash off the old sinful nature that we all have, and come up out of the water pure and new.

He heralded the coming of the Messiah who would divide the living from the dead. John declared that we need to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Because of Christmas, we know that He has come. We are now in the in-between time of when He came and when He is coming back. Right now, we have the baptism of Water through Christ, and the baptism of Fire through His Holy Spirit. Without these, we are as good as died, like chaff blowing in the end waiting to be broken down and thrown in the fire. With Christ, we have life and life abundant with fruit forever growing.

Do you realize what we have right now? Do you understand how important it is to have Christ in your life right now? What is your epiphany story? What bright light has shown that has given you life? Have you made good on your end of the covenant promise to repent of your sins and live for Christ who promises you eternal life and abundant life?

As you take Communion today, you are taking in that Covenant promise and declaring your life is in Christ. Let us repent and dedicate our life to Christ anew as we celebrate this sacred act of Communion.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen