Thomas J Parlette
“Our Yearly Visit from John”
Matt. 3: 1-12
12/7/25, 2nd Advent
So here we are, the second Sunday of Advent, and we have our annual visit from John the Baptist.
There is a rhythm to our Advent texts. Every year, we start with some apocalyptic readings that talk about judgment and the second coming of Christ. Then, on the second Sunday of Advent we welcome that mysterious, boisterous man from the wilderness, wearing his camelhair clothes and eating wild honey like a human Winnie the Pooh. Although John is not nearly as sweet as Winnie the Pooh. The third and fourth Sundays of Advent are reserved for Mary’s Magnificat or John’s question from prison – “Are you the One, or should we wait for another,” as well as the story of Joseph and his angelic visitor informing him that he will have a son.
As for John, he always rolls into town with words of judgment and rebuke, but the John we read about in Matthew’s gospel is especially harsh. The text tells us that one day John walked out of the wilderness,
proclaiming “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.” Everyone knew that these were the words spoken by the Isaiah long ago – and now, a new Isaiah appeared bearing the message –
“Repent.” People from Jerusalem, the big city and the people from Judea, the simple country folk, all came to be baptized along the Jordan, confessing their sins. But then, along come the Pharisees and the Sadducees, “coming for” baptism. There’s an interesting little word used here by Matthew – a preposition “epi.” Usually this word gets translated “coming for,” but according to William Herzog in the commentary “Feasting on the Word,” this word “epi” could also be translated as “coming against.” (1)
The Pharisees were a political interest group with a holiness agenda for Israel, and they promoted their program by aligning themselves with factions within in the powerful ruling class. Those the Pharisees and Sadducees were different in many ways, they had a common, potential enemy in John. This honey-eating wilderness man was a threat to their power and control over the religious life of Israel. They needed to check up on him and see what he was up to. John sensed this immediately. They weren’t really there to receive baptism, there were coming against his baptism. The religious leaders from Jerusalem did not want John usurping their authority. So it’s no wonder that John offers them such harsh words. “You
brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath that is coming. Even now, the ax is ready to cut you down – every tree that does not bear goodfruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Yes, I’m looking at you
Pharisees and Sadducees.
We would like to think that it’s just the religious leaders way back in Jesus’ day who are the targeted audience here. But, in all honestly – it’s all of us. These words are hard to hear – they are not the warm
fuzzy’s that we would prefer in the days leading up to Christmas. The Chilean biblical scholar Pablo Richard has written a number of works on Revelation and has noted the popularity of the book among Latin American peasants. Whereas themes of judgment are often upsetting to North Americans, these same themes are relished by the poor. It’s not hard to see why: judgment is upsetting only when you
think the judgment will go against you, rather than in your favor! (2) The poor clearly hope that God’s judgment will be good news for them. For us, North American Christians who are pretty comfortable in most things, this call for repentance carries with it a sense of warning and rebuke.
Rebuke is an interesting word. Our bible study this past Wednesday night, we did a quick Google search on rebuke as it related to the original Isaiah. What we learned was that a rebuke was meant to correct and teach – much like a parent would correct their child. They would “rebuke them” with the intent that their child would learn and change their ways. We all had a much more negative idea of the word rebuke than what it was meant to be. We all focused on ideas like punishment, instead of correction. Although John comes across pretty harsh, his call to repentance is less about judgment and punishment and more about teaching and correcting. The word used in this passage is “metanoia.” It means to take on a new mind-set. In this season of Advent, John calls us to change the way we think.
Over the last several days, I’ve been watching the new release of the Beatles Anthology documentary on Netflix. The last episode followed how the remaining members of the group – Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – went about recording the last song that John Lennon recorded on his cassette player at home. After cleaning up the recording as best as they could, they set to work on recording their parts and mixing the sound. All three remembered how strange it felt to hear their friend’s voice through their headphones after so many years. Often, they were too overcome with emotion to get any work done – they didn’t want to make any changes out of respect to their fallen brother. So they sat down and decided to change their mind-set. They decided that they would approach this process like John had taken a last minute vacation and left them a message. “Listen boys, I’ve gone on holiday for awhile, but I left you this song I’ve been working on. Go ahead and do your thing with it – I trust you.” With that change in their mind-set, they were able to work collaboratively, like they always had and released the last songs John
had been working on solo, as the Beatles.
In this Advent season, John calls us to change the way we think. Our preparation for the Advent of God through Jesus has nothing to do with presents, twinkling lights, hot chocolate and fresh baked cookies or anything else that our consumer society would tell us we need to have to get in the Christmas spirit. Our preparation for the baby soon to be born in Bethlehem, is about taking time to reflect on our life. It’s about getting ourselves into a new mind-set and clearing the way for God to break in upon the world once more.
Karen Hanson is a chaplain at a busy hospital in Minneapolis. She remembers a time when the hospital did some major remodeling. She works as a trauma chaplain, so she is in the emergency room quite a bit.
It was very important that there was a direct path from the ambulance bay to the Stabilization Room so that the critical trauma patients could be quickly transported to life-sustaining help. She remembers at the time that the paramedics had to navigate several tight corners and occasionally an obstacle like some piece of
equipment or an unused wheelchair or extra bed had to be moved to get the patient where they needed to go. When they did the remodeling, they redesigned the Emergency Department to create a beeline straight to the Stabilization Room – no turns, no space for extra equipment to accumulate, just a clear, straight path (3) In an emergency situation, removing obstacles, clearing the way, literally saves lives.
John calls us to repent, to change our mind-set and clear the way for God to break into our lives once more. Yes, John’s words can be harsh, they can be hard to hear. But John’s message can be boiled down
to “Come and get it!” That’s the word that we need to hear today. A fellow preacher, Ozzie Smith, points out that “Hope has emerged from the wilderness. It’s not over,” says John. Grace is here, come and get it. It’s yours for the asking. Smith goes on to say that his preaching professor at McCormick Seminary, Don Wardlaw, used to say, “Leave room for Auntie Grace.” And John’s preaching, although harsh, draws us nearer with grace. Auntie Grace. Auntie Grace says it doesn’t matter what you did, matters what you can still do.” (4)
So, as we gather at the table in this Advent season, let us hear once more John’s call to repent, change our mind-set, and clear the way for God to act once more. Let us not get bogged down with what we have
done, but let’s look forward to what we can still do as we live in God’s grace.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. William Herzog II, Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Knox
Press, 2010, p 49.
2. Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, Connections, Westminster John
Knox Press, 2019, p 33.
3. Karen Hanson, “Prepare the Way,” Bearings Online, Nov. 30 th ,
2021.
4. Ozzie E. Smith Jr., “Come and Get It” Day1.org.
