We need to return to Luke 3:8-9 from yesterday, to set the context for what follows in today’s text.
Last time, in response to yesterday’s theme about the brood of vipers being warned about the wrath to come, John the Baptist continued:
“’Bear fruits in keeping with repentance…’” (Lk 3:8a, ESV).
Then came a warning and a command:
“’And do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire’” (Lk 3:8b-9).
In other words, God tells the crowd that they are only the children of Abraham if they obey God’s commands. If not, they are seen by God as total strangers. This completely terrifies the earnest ones who are convicted by John’s preaching to seek baptism for the forgiveness of sins, rather than be consigned to the image of being chopped down and thrown into the fire.
These convicted people in the crowd – not including the Pharisees and Sadducees – desperately question what the fruits of repentance really mean:
“And the crowds asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’” (Lk 3:10).
John answers the entire crowd:
“’Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise’” (Lk 3:11).
John’s executive summary of fruits of repentance, then, is to eliminate all forms of greed and to actively help those in need.
But here is where the conscience, in the presence of truth, can have multiple levels. Some in the crowd sense that they are at risk of judgment before God beyond just greed and failing to share:
“Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than you are authorized to do’” (Lk 3:12-13).
In addition to their greed, they must stop their extortion of extra taxes which goes straight into their pockets.
Then, something even more astonishing in response to John’s challenge to repent:
“Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be content with your wages’” (Lk 3:14).
Notice the progression of evil that the honest convicted ones should eliminate – greed, extortion based on authority, and extortion by threat of physical harm.
Without John’s having put it in words directly, I suggest that the Holy Spirit is moving the hearts of some to realize their broader immorality in sincere repentance and unity with God.
But no Pharisee or Sadducee comes forward with the same kind of conviction by John’s preaching. And we know that these rulers of the Jews will soon practice all three evils listed above, and many more, in their encounters with Jesus.
So, to whom is John referring as the trees about to be axed and burned? Hint: not repentant tax collectors and soldiers!
There is one more level to add to the progression of evils defined by John as the opposite of repentance.
It is religious leaders who practice the same evils, and worse, in the name of God. The Pharisees and Sadducees can expect, in the months to come, to exhibit, not the fruits of their repentance when they had the chance, but rather disobedience, disunity, and warnings, resulting in judgment of the most severe degree God can muster.
So, we must ask, as the church of Jesus running for two thousand years mostly in disunity, what then shall we do?
Ah, there are answers in the teachings of Jesus connecting perfect unity with obeying his commands which are far more voluminous that many of us think. And there are answers in teaching basic discipleship beginning with what all believers in Jesus have in common, not focusing doctrines which divide us.