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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
In my mother’s yard, I have seen tree‑stumps, once cut down to the ground, later sprout new shoots; maybe in your or someone else’s yard, you also have seen roots produce new branches that bear fruit. That ability of certain trees, once cut down, to sprout again provides the figure of speech used in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 11:1-10), part of which is cited by today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 15:4-13), in order to prophesy of the Messiah—the Christ, the Savior—Who, from the seemingly dead royal line of Jesse’s son David, is new life (Austel, TWOT II:957; confer Isaiah 6:13). In today’s Gospel Reading, John the Baptizer also speaks of roots, trees, and fruit as he warns of Jesus’s coming. John’s work is in keeping with prophecy that God gave through Malachi, parts of which prophecy we heard as Old Testament Readings several weeks ago, prophecy that promises to send a messenger ahead of and to prepare the way before the Lord; the prophecy said that the Lord, when He appeared, would be like a refiner’s fire, purifying His people to bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord, but setting on fire the evildoers so that they will have neither root nor branch (Malachi 3:1‑4:6; confer Bieder, TDNT 6:988). John the Baptizer warned the people then—and warns us today—that even now the axe is laid, not to the trunk, but to the root of the trees—as if to take out the stump—therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Not only is there such individual fiery judgment between fruitful and unfruitful people already now, such as at our deaths, but, as John goes on to say, there also will be collective fiery judgment between the wheat of the Church and the chaff of the world on the Last Day.
John the Baptizer’s three mentions of “fire” in just three verses apparently prompted The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther to refer to him as “the fiery angel St. John, the preacher of true repentance” (Smalcald Articles III:iii:30-32, Tappert, p.308). John’s garment of camel’s hair and leather belt around his waist seem to mark him as the forerunner of the Messiah like Elijah (2 Kings 1:8; Malachi 4:5; confer, for example, Matthew 11:14), who is said to have last appeared in the same wilderness of Judea where John appeared (Lenski, ad loc Matthew 3:4, p.99; confer 2 Kings 2:6-12). Of course, Jesus Himself, His disciples, and their successors, pastors today, also similarly call for repentance since the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and they also preach that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (for example, Matthew 4:17; 7:17‑20; 10:7). “Repentance” is one of those terms that we sometimes use assuming that people know what it means. Generally speaking, we understand “repentance” broadly as consisting both of “contrition”, that is, sorrow over sin, and also of “faith”, that is, trust in God to forgive sins (for example, Apology of the Augsburg Confession XII:28).
In today’s Gospel Reading, the Jewish leaders that were coming to John’s baptism—whom John calls a “brood of vipers”, that is, “offspring of snakes”, perhaps a reference to their being children of the devil, later repeated by Jesus (Genesis 3:15; John 8:39-47)—those Jewish leaders apparently were not repentant, perhaps they did not confess their sins as the other people confessed their sins. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther criticizes both what he calls “false penitents”, people who he says wrongly think that they have repented enough, and what he calls “false saints”, people who he says wrongly think that they do not need to repent. All people are sinful by nature and so commit actual sins of thoughts, words, and deeds, so all people need to repent; and, since we sin daily, we need to repent daily, so, in that sense, we never have repented enough. But, by nature, we are like tree‑stumps that do not have the ability to sprout again and so develop new branches. We are as dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5) as the stones in the wilderness of Judea, until God raises us up as Abraham’s spiritual children made righteous by faith in Jesus (for example, Galatians 3:7), as God once raised up the Jews as physical children to Abraham and Sarah, who were once described as rocks (Isaiah 51:1-2; confer Jeremias, TDNT 4:270-271).
Only faith in Jesus, the Divine and human Messiah, can save us. In today’s Gospel Reading, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Divine reign, God Himself, is at hand in John’s preaching about Jesus. John’s preparing the way for Jesus is described as preparing the way of the Divine Lord, and, in today’s Old Testament Reading, the Messiah comes from the stump of the human Jesse, from King David’s royal line (confer Acts 13:22-23). Today’s Epistle Reading makes clear that His salvation is for all people, including us. God’s righteous wrath that we deserved on account of our sinful natures and actual sins (confer Romans 1:18) was carried out on Jesus as our substitute. Jesus hung on the tree of the cross and there was “cut down” in death for us (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13; Fickenscher, 9), and then He rose from the stone‑sealed tomb (for example, Matthew 27:60). Out of God’s great love for even our fallen human race, Jesus delivered us from God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10). In Him, we have God’s pardon of our sin, His peace, and His joy! That pardon, peace, and joy come to us through God’s Word and Sacraments.
As John the Baptizer in today’s Gospel Reading is described coming by God’s inspired—and therefore inerrant—Word, so John in turn preached God’s powerful Word and so led people to be baptized with water and the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins (confer Mark 1:4). The people who were baptized did not baptize themselves but were baptized by God Himself working through John, as God works through pastors today. Baptism was not repeated for any one person then, as it should not be repeated today. Today there are not many different baptisms but only one baptism (Ephesians 4:5), and, then and now, Baptism is a way that God actually gives grace, actually saving those baptized, regardless of their age or ability (1 Peter 3:21; Titus 3:5; confer Acts 2:37‑39). So, under normal circumstances, Baptism is necessary in order for one to be included in the Kingdom of Heaven, and so Baptism should be done as soon as possible—eight days is a good Church custom (John 3:3, 5; Mark 16:16). Notably, when Job speaks about hope that a stump will sprout again, he mentions the role of water in its budding (Job 14:7-9).
Similarly, God through the prophet Ezekiel speaks of His sprinkling water on people and thereby cleansing them, removing their old heart of stone and giving them a new heart of flesh, putting His Spirit within them, and causing them to walk in His statutes (Ezekiel 36:25-27). We who are baptized have confessed both our sorrow over our sins and our trust in God to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake. Such confession is an example of what today’s Gospel Reading called both “fruit in keeping with repentance” and “good fruit”. As we live each day with sorrow over our sin and faith in God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, through our hearing God’s Word read and preached and through our regularly receiving both Holy Absolution and the Holy Supper of Christ’s Body and Blood—in, with, and under bread and wine—we are forgiven, and we remain in Christ and He remains in us, and so we bear even more good fruit (John 6:56; 15:4-5). Our good works do not earn our forgiveness but show our inner nature outwardly; they are the evidence of our righteousness by faith so much so that the Bible can describe them as the basis for the judgment on the Last Day (for example, Matthew 25:31-46). Then, we repentant believers will receive what John in today’s Gospel Reading apparently describes as a “baptism” by the Holy Spirit in the form of eternal salvation, and un‑repentant un‑believers will receive what John apparently describes as a “baptism” of fire in the form of eternal damnation.
This morning, we have considered today’s Gospel Reading in terms of “Roots, stumps, shoots, and fruit”. The internet gives lists and videos of a number of different ways of removing tree‑stumps, no doubt both those stumps the roots of which will not produce new shoots and those stumps that people do not want to produce new shoots. We thank and praise God that as He made the roots and stump of Jesse to produce a new shoot and fruit, so He gives life to us, who otherwise deserve to have our stumps removed, and also makes us produce good fruit. We look forward to the picturesque peace of the Last Day described in today’s Old Testament Reading, when we will join God for eternity in His resting place that will be glorious.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +