"What Should We Do? on Luke 3:10-18 by Michelle Ellis – Dec. 15, 2024

As we keep journeying through the season of Advent, we’re looking again at another story of John the Baptist. The church decided that these stories are good ones to spend time with during Advent because John the Baptist’s role is to prepare the people for Christ’s coming. That is just the kind of posture we’re invited into as a church as we anticipate Christmas — to prepare ourselves for the reality that God became human and came to be with us. This is also the posture that we are in at this moment in history, waiting for Christ to come again and for all things to be made new.

If you spend some time in the Old Testament and especially with the prophets, you’ll hear what becomes a cry of the heart from the people of Israel — that God would come. That he would come and get rid of their enemies, that he would come and restore their land, their hearts, that he would stop being silent, that he would just come. You can hear it in Isaiah 64: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” This is the cry that we are left with at the end of the Old Testament, this desire for God to come. Likely, even if you haven’t spent a lot of time in the Old Testament, but you’ve just spent some time in life, you know this cry too, this cry of the heart, and you know it well. “God, come. Come and bring your healing, come and bring your peace, come and bring your power, come in the places I can’t see you, just come.”

Knowing this cry, knowing this longing, knowing the generations of waiting, what would you do if you knew that God was indeed going to come in a very real way? What would you do if you knew he was coming soon, like in a matter of weeks soon? This is the question that is burning on the hearts of the people that are going out to the desert to hear John the Baptist. What should we do, knowing that God is coming?

I have to confess that if someone came to me to ask me what they could do to get ready for the coming of God himself, I don’t think I’d call them a brood of vipers. But John isn’t as worried about pleasing people as I am. John cuts right to the heart and tells things like they are. He says if you have really been longing for God to come, it will show in what you do. John says if you have a sincere longing for God, it will show in what you do with your money. It will show in how you engage in your workplace, and it will show in how you treat people who are more vulnerable than you. John says your true self is revealed by what you do, not by whose family you came from or whether you were born into the faith, or whether you’ve been baptized. John says, your sincerity is shown with your whole being, with your heart, with your mind, and with your actions.

The people who came to see John and be baptized by him then say again, so what should we do??

Notice what John’s response is here. It is just as much a real challenge of genuine repentance and sincerity for us today as it was for John’s original hearers. And John’s response is just as true for us as we wait for Jesus’ coming as it was for the people who first heard John in the desert.

I want to notice first what John doesn’t say. Perhaps surprisingly, John doesn’t say, because God is coming, everyone should come out and live in the desert here with me, they should take leave of their lives, sell all their possessions, give the money to the poor and devote every moment to prayer and telling others about the Word. These are all good things and God has and will invite some people to do these things. But this isn’t what John says. Somewhere in my heart I believe that if I was a really serious Christian, these are the things that I should do.

But John doesn’t say any of that. Instead, John says to get ready for God’s coming, you should share what you have with people who have less than you. If you have extra clothes, you should give the extra to those who don’t have any. If you have extra food, you should give the extra food to the one who has none. John’s not talking in metaphors. He literally means this. How simple and yet how challenging is that? How many of us have two coats? How many of us have more than enough food? And yet how many people are cold, how many are hungry, how many worry about whether they will have enough this month. An altogether simple and yet altogether challenging command. Simple enough that anyone can understand it and follow it. Challenging enough that anyone would feel the burn, their defenses go up. John doesn’t even say take the clothes off your back and give them to someone else or go hungry so that someone else can eat. He says, those who have food or clothes to spare should share with those who don’t have any. Simple, doable, yet still a real call to justice, a real challenge. And what a difference it would make if the crowds did this, if we all did this as a matter of regular practice.

A number of years ago when we looked at this text, a group of people in our church felt invited by the Spirit to give their extra winter coats to the Broadway shelter in Smithers so they could give them to those who didn’t have one. And this is exactly the kind of thing that John says is how we get ready for God’s coming. Be generous with what you have. Give to people who don’t. It can be clothes, it can be food, it can be your time, your attention, your gifts, your skills. Look out for the people who have less and give from what God has given you. If you are longing for God, if you desire his arrival, this is how you have integrity in that longing. This is how you train your heart to be sincere in longing for God, in anticipating and acting now on how things will be when God comes again in justice.

The next two commands I’d like your to notice as well. Notice that now out of the crowds, two specific people groups ask this same question of John, “What should we do to get ready?” It’s worth noticing who these people are. We’ve been talking about how in this time, Israel is occupied by Rome and are under their rule, though there are Jewish puppet rulers like Herod. Of course, the Jews resented this country that defeated and occupied them. But perhaps even worse than the Romans themselves to the Jews, were the Jewish people who made a living from the Roman government, collecting their taxes or serving in their army. These people were seen as traitors and sell-outs, making a profit at the expense of their own people and for the sake of their oppressors. Surely these are the people that John would tell to quit their jobs, to quit working for their unjust, powerful employer to get ready for God’s coming. But John doesn’t say that. To the tax collectors he says, “Don’t collect more than you are required to.” Tax collectors were not closely regulated and could easily charge more than required as a way of padding their own wallets. They could easily justify this practice saying, ‘Every tax collector I know does this, it’s expected,’ or ‘Maybe if the Romans paid me more, I wouldn’t be driven to do this.’ Or ‘My work is worth this extra, especially because people despise me so much, surely that’s worth some compensation.’ John says, “Do your work with honesty, integrity and respect, and don’t take more than you are required to.” This is exactly what Jesus will later ask of the tax-collector Zaccheus. Give back the extra you’ve taken from others. John and Jesus don’t say quit your job, what you’re doing by working for Rome is unethical. John says continue to work within a corrupt system and for a corrupt power in the most honest and upright way as possible. That’s how you get ready for God’s coming, that’s how you know your desire for God’s kingdom is sincere. Live now, in accordance with how things will be when Christ comes and brings real justice. Again, incredibly simple and yet incredibly challenging.

Similarly with the soldiers. They ask what are they to do, again these are people who make their living from an oppressive foreign power. What are they to do, they ask? And again, likely most would expect that John would say, well, to get ready for God’s coming you people need to repent, you need to quit being soldiers. But this is not what he says. John says to them “Don’t extort money, don’t falsely accuse people and be content with your pay.” Soldiers had power and were in a position to abuse that power. And they too, were prone to using their low wages as an excuse to rob people when it suited them. It was kind of an expected part of their role that most soldiers likely took advantage of. John says, “Don’t use your position of power to abuse or take advantage of others, especially people more vulnerable. That’s what you are to do.” John says be content with your pay. John is saying “Don’t use your low wages as an excuse for taking advantage of other people.” John is again saying, “Live out your role with integrity and honesty. Work even in broken systems, with unjust coworkers and for questionable employers with honesty and with integrity. That’s how you get ready for God’s coming.”

What’s noteworthy about all this is that John says to get ready for God’s coming as a general rule across the board, to know you are sincere in your desire for God’s kingdom, you are to live out your own life, in your own context amid all its complexities and ordinariness with generosity, with honesty and with justice. In these ‘in-between’ times that we live in and the people in the text lived in, things are complex and messy. We are called to live with as much honesty, generosity and integrity as possible in the middle of very messy situations. John seems aware of the complexities that might drive someone to make their living by working for Rome. There are complexities for us too, as we live out our callings in the logging industry, the education system, the health system, within government, in our messy families, in our messy communities. The call is to live with generosity and justice within these messy situations. Not to get up and take leave of them. But to live now within them in a way that lines up with how things will be when Christ comes and brings real peace, real justice, and real truth. Do that in all the small ways. Do that in all the big ways. That’s how you get ready for God’s coming, that’s how you know your desire for God to come is sincere. It’s not rocket science. Yet, it’s a challenge for everyone.

Unless you hear a particular call otherwise, live out your own life, in your own context with generosity to people who have less, with honesty and with justice in whatever role you have, even if everyone else isn’t. This may look like paying fair wages for employees, spending extra time at work to help a coworker, volunteering at the soup kitchen, donating to the food bank, helping a newcomer to Canada navigate things here, or treating fellow students with dignity and respect. Can you ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you might do this in your own very particular context, in your own role at home, as a friend, as a coworker, as a boss, as a student, or as an employee working within a broken or even corrupt system?

I want to notice one more thing together. John tells the people what they need to do to get ready, which is what we’ve just been reflecting on together. But John also notes that his commands to get ready are not all there is. John says “Jesus is coming, and when he comes he won’t baptize just with water, he’s going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

It’s kind of like John has been saying, look, there are real things that you can do to get ready, real behavioural changes that you can make and I can point you to those. But when Jesus comes and baptizes you with the Holy Spirit, it’s going to be like the difference between water and fire. Fire transforms, fire refines, fire will consume the chaff. The Holy Spirit is going to come with a power that John can’t bring and that none of us can bring by our own willpower. “When the Holy Spirit comes,” says John, “he will burn up the chaff, he will burn up the chaff in us.” And isn’t that the work of the Holy Spirit, to burn with his fire all that is within us that is selfish, stingy, apathetic? To refine us with his fire? We have that gift, we have the Holy Spirit. And we can trust that he’ll reveal these things to us and burn within us if we ask.

One ‘lastest of last’ note: John’s invitation to live with justice now, to live with honesty now, as we wait for Christ’s final coming, we anticipate the full justice that we wait for, we anticipate the full justice that Jesus is coming to bring. We anticipate the full truth and honesty that we wait and long for. These aren’t arbitrary invitations. They are invitations that call us into connection with how things will be. When all people together are given dignity, when real peace and justice reign, when all people together are called children of God, when the lion lies down with the lamb, when all tears are wiped away. We’re invited to live now anticipating and living in step with what will be, even though it is not yet here. And this is our way too of crying out, come Lord Jesus, come.