Droves of people are rushing out of Jerusalem into the wilderness? Why?
Would a simple rumor cause hundreds if not thousands of people to suddenly repent and confess their sins to a wild man in the desert?
The Gospel writers make it clear that John’s appearance is in direct response to the ancient prophecy of Isaiah as well as other Old Testament prophets with which all Jews are familiar.
But there is something more – the nearly tangible presence of the Spirit of God creating a climate of anticipation for the coming of the Messiah, who was also predicted repeatedly more than four hundred years ago.
It is safe to say that large crowds of people are being convicted with a sense of urgency. Is this the moment to repent before it is too late? John says that the kingdom of heaven is at hand – now, not later. Maybe there will not be another chance.
The accounts of Matthew and Luke have one distinct difference:
“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism…” (Mt 3:7a, ESV);
And:
“He said therefore, to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him…” (Lk 3:7a).
To whom is John speaking now – all the penitents, moved by prophecy and the Holy Spirit, or just the Pharisees and the Sadducees?
We ask this because of what John says:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come” (Mt 3:7b; Lk 3:7b)?
Is John calling the entire crowd or just to those sent from Jerusalem to challenge John’s authority a brood of vipers?
The answer lies in two definitions: “brood” and “viper.”
Webster defines a brood as all the children in a family or the offspring of a family. This is very broad, very inclusive.
But Webster defines a viper as something very, very different: a family of venomous, poisonous snakes!
John is addressing two broods: the brood of all children of Israel earnestly moved by prophecy to seek repentance before it is too late, as we shall see next time; and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the true brood of vipers fleeing the wrath to come.
The poison borne by the second brood is their failure to repent at the signs of the times, which they should recognize more quickly than the common people! The brood of vipers is the group of poisonous snakes (does this ring a bell perhaps from the Garden of Eden?), the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
We will see next time where this leads.
For today it is important for us to focus on two questions.
First, as individual people, are we truly the bride of Christ, always prepared, even daily, to respond to John the Baptist’s call for repentance?
“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance…” (Mt 3:7; Lk 3:8).
Second, and this is more difficult to ask, is there anything in our churches and denominations that hints of a parochial poisonous power and control that prevents the true brood of Jesus, that is, the bride of Jesus, from coming together in perfect unity?
In the headlines this morning as I write, there is news of a crackdown of the Chinese government on Christians. And the assault on the last bastion of Christian holdouts in Idlib, Syria, led by Russia, Syria, and Turkey, has begun, which in the end will result in the massacre of tens of thousands of believing men, women, and children.
The day may come when God may consider us a modern brood of vipers if we do not start coming together in broad, worldwide unity before it is too late, as Jesus prayed in John 17:20 -26.
Are we the Bride of Christ or a new Brood of Vipers?