It appears to me the Pharisees and Sadducees
should at least get points for trying. Instead John verbally attacks them for being
all repentance and no fruit. (All hat and no cattle) But to what end? To their
credit the Pharisees and Sadducees, teachers of the law and keepers of the
temple, come out together overcoming their natural animosity towards each other.
And they give up their respective positions of power to be subject to the poor
people’s prophet even if it’s just a weekend excursion for them. The diet of
locusts and honey and camel’s hair clothes with leather belt identify John as
one who has forsaken the world for the wilderness which is always the place of
preparation for Israel. So when the city slickers come slumming he calls them
on it. Who warned you to flee? Confession by itself is not worth the words used
to say “I’m sorry” unless it is accompanied by a change of heart and hand. That
is John’s point. You can’t come out to do a wilderness weekend of weeping and wailing
and then go back to the city of business as usual. To bear fruit worthy of
repentance is to live into the conclusion of confession which is the amendment
of the sinful life. The One who is coming after will do something more than
John and though he will burn the same Pharisees and Sadducees with words like
blind guides and brood of vipers and white washed tombs he will gather them in
with “Father, forgive them…” And so it is for us. Our confession needs a word
of judgment before welcoming words of absolution so that we will not be
satisfied with an “I’m sorry” that does not in some measure lead to “I can do
better.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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