Fruits Worthy of Repentance

Good Morning you Brood of Vipers!

Good morning you brood of vipers. Who told you to escape the wrath to come? These are the jarring words of the voice shouting in the wilderness that greets us on this third Sunday of advent.

John the Baptist preaches to the crowd coming to be baptized about what true repentance looks like. It starts with jarring words and ends with clear direction on how to live.

The crowd, like us today, are waiting in eager expectation. On this third Sunday of advent we wrestle with living a life that bears the poisonous fruit of a brood of vipers and a life that bears fruit worthy of repentance. A life that looks like Christ. John’s challenge to us today is don’t tell me you follow Christ, show me by how you live your lives.

Isaiah 29:13 NLT

13 And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

Brennan Manning a pastor and preacher that has since gone home to be with the LORD once said, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle"

Brood of Vipers

John welcomes the crowd to the wilderness with brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee God’s coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. What is a brood of vipers and how does it relate then and now?

A brood of vipers is a family clump of poisonous snakes. The people of Israel would understand the poisonous bite of a viper. They grew up with them not just in their yards but also in the stories told of the Israelites wandering through the desert. You can find that story in Numbers 21:4-9. The crowd would understand the damage a viper bite can cause.

John’s greeting put another way. You are all a bunch of poisonous snakes bent on causing death and destruction. Who told you to escape the wrath of God that is to come? John directs his greeting in Luke to the crowd. Matthew’s gospel gives it more of a focus.

In Matthew John addresses the scribes and the pharisees as a brood of vipers. Jesus does it again in Matthew 12:33-37

Matthew 12:33–37 NRSV

33 “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Ezekiel warned people of this in Ezekiel 33:30-31

Ezekiel 33:30–31 NRSV

30 As for you, mortal, your people who talk together about you by the walls, and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to a neighbor, “Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.” 31 They come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they will not obey them. For flattery is on their lips, but their heart is set on their gain.

Whether we are in church leadership or just in the crowd the message remains the same. John with his harsh greeting and how to live ending present us how to live a life that shows repentance.

Vipers are responsible for about 100,000 deaths a year and many others suffer limb loss due to its venomous bite. In contrast John challenges his crowd to bear fruits worthy of repentance. Fruit that builds up not venom that destroys. The people shaken by the words of John ask, “What shall we do?”

John doesn’t present a new idea or way of living. Just the same one that God has been trying to communicate since the fall. Clothe the naked, feed the hungry, treat others justly.

Isaiah 58:6–8 NRSV

6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Micah 6:8 NRSV

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

John challenges the crowd, the tax collector, and the soldier to put this in action. Bear fruits worthy of repentance.

Holy Spirit and Fire

The people were waiting in eager expectation for the Messiah and they had thought John might be it. John tells the crowd there is one coming after him who with baptize with the holy spirit and fire. Jesus Christ, whose birth we are eagerly awaiting, is that Messiah.

We can live the way John is challenging us to live today in and through the Holy Spirit at work in us. May his fire burn up the chaff in our hearts that we may bear fruits worthy of repentance.

Brood of Vipers

If we were run a low light reel of the atrocities that have happened this year, we would see a picture of humanity that more resembles a brood of vipers. With kidnappings, brutal needless wars, assassination attempts, mass shootings, and the more recent killing the united healthcare CEO. Humanity as a whole is more venomous than a brood of vipers. Too often we act in ways that takes life or tears someone down instead of giving life and building others up.

As we wait in eager expectation for the birth of our LORD Jesus Christ, John presents two ways to live. At the expense of others, or loving and caring for others. Life in and through the Holy Spirit produces the fruit. What the world could really use is for people to live and love like Christ.