In our third Advent Sunday reading, we are taken to Luke 3:7-18, following on from the Peace of last week. Whereas we started to hear of John the Baptist (JtB) and the ‘Way’, this week we hear, rather abruptly, of the ‘children of vipers, who warned you of the wrath that is to come‘ – Luke 3:7. Some translations have ‘broods of vipers’. It originates from the Jewish understanding that baby vipers can eat their way out of their mother’s body, and thus kill their mother (Amy-Jill Levine, Jewish Annotated New Testament, p116). Nice.
What is this wrath that is come?
If the author of Luke’s Gospel wrote this, as many scholars suggest, in or around 80AD, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem was a decade earlier. The locals would have seen such a change in that last decade or more. The Romans would have exerted their considerable strength and domination to ensure that ‘peace’ was maintained. The governor, would have used his own band of armed guard, Herod’s soldiers could exercise control over what he could do. The tax collectors, who derived their own income from what they did: obtaining the obligated tax from the locals to support the foreign power, the Romans. Were all of these ‘forces’ the wrath that was to come, given that the Gospel was written with Jesus written in the present tense? In Luke 3:9, there is that chilling line of an ax cutting down the tree – there is some urgency to what is coming.
The author suggests, quite strongly, that those who are listening should not cite any authority from their descendants. Those in the Abrahamic line were no more special than others. Note that, although Matthew’s Gospel links Jesus to Abraham, Luke links Jesus to Adam. So, for today, being a member of a certain denomination, church, private school, political party, even club, doesn’t get you any closer to the kin_dom of God.
In the next sets of verses, the locals call out what do we need to do? Who are the ‘we’?
- To the crowd in general, those who are barely able to scrape two coins together, there is some practical advice. If you have two coats, share one with the one who has none. Do the same with the food that you have. This may sound seemingly trite and what is often asked of us today: but do we?
- To the tax collectors, they were told to collect no more than prescribed. This would have significantly affected their own income.
- To the soldiers [Roman and Herod’s], don’t extort money through threats, be satisfied with your wages. Their wages weren’t exactly generous in the first place.
All of these statements were challenging: they would be now, but more so perhaps then. JtB was challenging the way of life itself. It has all the hallmarks of the Woke Agenda.
When we think of these statements, we could reflect upon:
- our food waste, what percentage does get thrown out?;
- our savings, when is that rainy day, and what of inheritance tax we have recently heard so much about?; and
- what of those who never got to ask “what of us?”. I am thinking of the homeless, those who didn’t have a voice then, or not so even today.
What might have JtB have said to us?
In Luke 3: 15-18, JtB continues with speaking about baptism. Whether this is the author speaking ‘for John the Baptist’ or they had a good recollection to quote, I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Baptism was the offer from God of good news: but for who?
Unlike any capitalistic sale, baptism is a free offer from God that we do not need to do anything. God’s baptism is available, and it is for us to decline, reject or accept – it’s always there. To take the benefit of that offer, we need to change, aka repent, to turn around, change direction. Not physically, but to change our perspectives.
Baptism was already very much part of the Jewish tradition. Many a Jew may have washed themselves in the river, or have had their feet washed to represent being with God. In the Second Temple period, from 586BC-70AD, Jews could have been baptised by those from the synagogue/Temple.
It was Matthew who proclaimed that Jesus, who was never recorded as baptising anyone, declared that his disciples should be baptised in the name of the ‘trinity’ (Matthew 28, the Trinity not being specified at all in the Bible). The formal liturgy of baptism took on greater and greater significance, post the 3/4th C, and in particular after the welcome of Christianity into the Roman way of life in 381AD. Those with low life expectancy their parents etc may have elected to have them baptised as babies so that their eventual path to Heaven was set in stone, as it were. Some folks wanted to live the life of Riley1, they could, without great concern for their deeds, but then seek a ‘deathbed’ baptism as a form of atonement.
So what?
JtB isn’t suggesting anything about eternal torment here, just a cry out to society so that we can change our ways. To Jews, it was a communal thing. They all needed to change direction to help all within their society. In the modern day, it may be every one for themselves – the rich do not understand the poor.
Why is it that we measure the success of our society by the FTSE Share index,
when so very few of us even have shares? What about using the ‘living wage’?
So, to find Joy this year, our thoughts in Advent time may be focussed upon helping our community.
- By sharing what we have, rather than gaining more and more.
- By not cheating others, including seeking better deals by falsifying information – even with a pinkie promise, heard often with obtaining cheaper tariffs with electricity companies.
- By seeking to engage with our neighbour: listening, discerning what exactly is the issue, rather than pressing to get an advantage for ourselves.
Hope WE can have joy this year and the next.
- The term living the life of Riley is an American phrase, it first appeared in the early 1900s. There is some suggestion that the idea of a gentleman named Mr. Riley enjoying a luxurious, easy life is suggested in several earlier vaudeville songs, though the phrase living the life of Riley appears slightly later. (last accessed 25 Nov 24, Grammarist) ↩︎