I have spent the majority of my life in Evangelical Christian spaces. I have experienced a lot of church hurt. I now write to explore topics that often are at the intersection of politics and Christianity. My desire is to discover how we can move away from Christian nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and church hurt to reclaim the Gospel of Jesus together. I'm glad you're here to join the conversation. I look forward to talking with you.
The Wilderness Voice.
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Hello my friends, Today I want to look at Matthew 3:1-12 with you and explore the themes of repentance, fruit, and the prophetic task within it and how they might shape our perspectives today. Recommended Resources -The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann This little book has had a profound impact on my perspective of the biblical prophets and the message they came to proclaim. I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet. -Falling Upward, Revised and Updated: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life By Richard Rohr I have just recently begun reading this book. I have found it insightful so far and thought I would recommend it here as well. Don't Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering By Joseph Nguyen -The Daily Stoic Podcast by Ryan Holiday. The philosophy of stoicism has many intersections with the teachings of Jesus. You may have already discovered this podcast, but if you haven't, I have found it rather insightful. The host mentions Jesus often and how his teachings and Christianity as a whole align with the ancient stoic. “The Wilderness Voice”Matthew 3:1–12 John the Baptist Prepares the Way "In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” “In those days.” Matthew’s opening line places John the Baptist inside a great, Biblical rhythm: the prophetic kairos when God interrupts ordinary time with a summons. The Greek word kairos refers to an opportune, strategic, or "appointed" time. In the Bible, it refers to a moment of divine significance that is distinct from the ordinary passage of time (chronos). It represents a sacred or critical window of opportunity where God's will is revealed and divine action is taken, requiring believers to be spiritually attentive, ready, and responsive. In this framework, John appears as the one who is pointing to and calling people toward that critical opportunity. We can see that he is not a domesticated preacher but as a desert prophet, wearing camel hair, leather belt, eating locusts, and wild honey. Matthew wants his hearers to hear a familiar echo of the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:7–8). In the memory of Israel, Elijah was the uncompromising voice who confronted kings, defended the vulnerable, and called the nation back to fidelity. To see John as Elijah is to hear, urgently and plainly, that the reign of God is at hand and that the whole people must be summoned to account. It is very fitting to see the season of Advent in this way too. The Prophet’s Shape and Task Prophets in Scripture are not office-bearers who protect religious honor. They are, at root, those who stand between God and the world, shouting God’s mercy and God’s justice into places of complacency. They expose hypocrisy, name exploitation, and so compel the community to remember what it has been created to be. Again, John’s clothing and diet are not eccentricities but a Biblical reminder that he is kin to the wild, to the margins, to the memory of Israel’s boldest dissenters. Just as God did the work of advocacy and reformation in the wilderness with Israel after liberating them from Egypt, John proclaims the joy of the coming kingdom and speaks for the poor, for the voiceless, and against powers that hoard and silence. You may have heard the phrase “God just didn’t need to get Israel out of Egypt, God needed to get Egypt out of Israel.” Israel had been in Egypt for hundreds of years. It was shaped by its values whether it knew it or not. God leading Israel through the wilderness was a way of reestablishing relationship with the community and invite it to embody the ways of God over Egypt. The same is true for John’s call in the wilderness. To get people out of the ways of empire and get the ways of empire out of them, while proclaiming the kingdom of God. So, when John lashes out, “You brood of vipers!” his language is fierce because the stakes are so fierce. Notice how his harsh critique is not directed towards ordinary people, but towards the religious leaders. He is not content with sentimental religion that protects the power and wealth of those who control the status quo. Instead, he calls the leaders and the people back to the root of covenant life, like charity that transforms structures, justice that resists tyranny, and faith that shows itself in concrete deeds. Repentance and Joy: A Single Movement Too often we imagine repentance and joy as opposites. As if repentance is somehow synonymous with shame. John refuses that false dichotomy. His summons, which is metanoia in Greek, means literally a changing of mind and heart. It is an opening, not a closing. An opening to the gift of God. Repentance reorients desire. It clears the channels through which God’s joy flows. When the kingdom is “at hand,” turning from the ways of sin and death to God is not penance that drains life away but the preparation that allows genuine joy to arrive. Repentance in this prophetic frame is communal. It is not a privatized sorrow for personal faults only, it is a public reordering. John calls for baskets of fruit that match the soil, actions that feed the neighbor, that break the exploitative patterns of economy and law, that demonstrate mercy. The ax at the root is a warning: religious identity alone, like lineage, pedigree, ritual, and claim will not stand unless it bears fruit in justice and compassion. Judged by Fruit John presses the point further with describing how trees are known by its fruit. Repentance is verified in repair, healing, peace, and justice to how we live together. To be baptized by John was not merely to confess an individual moral ledger, it was to enter a narrative of communal renewal modeled after Israel’s crossing of the Jordan River. The people come down to the water because they sense a new promised land is near. But the promise demands transformation, the kingly classes must stop exploiting, the merchants must stop cheating, the religious must stop hiding behind texts while people suffer. This is prophetic criticism at its best. It refuses cheap grace and refuses spiritualized complacency. It insists that the gospel manifests in polity as well as piety. For the Church Today If John’s voice were to speak in our churches now, it would be both consoling and unbearable. Consoling because the word of the Lord still promises restoration and a God who draws near; unbearable because the same word indicts our complicities. The task of the church is not to be either a guarded fortress of private devotion or a cheerleading squad for the powers that be. The church is called to be a prophetic people, caretakers of the oppressed, truth-tellers to those with power, and cultivators of practices that produce good fruit. This means our Advent preparation should be neither merely decorative nor merely doctrinaire. It must be a disciplined readiness that produces mercy, justice, and hospitality. The church must practice communal repentance, like liturgies that recalibrate our hearts, educational work that exposes unjust systems, and forms of solidarity that place the vulnerable at the center. Action Steps
Closing Prayer Holy God, who comes to us in the wilderness, Show us where our comforts prevent us from hearing the cries of others. Grant us repentance that opens us to joy, Make our words true by the justice of our deeds; For the sake of the hungry, the captive, the oppressed, return to us, renew us, and root us in your saving love.
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Rev. Benjamin Cremer
I have spent the majority of my life in Evangelical Christian spaces. I have experienced a lot of church hurt. I now write to explore topics that often are at the intersection of politics and Christianity. My desire is to discover how we can move away from Christian nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and church hurt to reclaim the Gospel of Jesus together. I'm glad you're here to join the conversation. I look forward to talking with you.
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