Mt 3: 1-12

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Mt 3:1-12)

Sometimes we hear people say, ‘I know I have to change my life; I know I need to deepen my faith but I do not find enough strength or motivation to do so.’  What motivates people to change their lives?  Where do we find strength to return to the right path?  As we are in the Advent season, the liturgy helps to answer these questions.

In the first reading (Is 11:1-10), the prophet Isaiah gives voice to the eager hopes of Israelites who awaited the Messiah. In a symbolic way, the prophet describes all the beauty that the coming of the Messiah would bring.^[1]  As we read, He “will extend His hand … to recover” all brokenness on the earth.  In His time, even wild animals “will not hurt or destroy.”  The reading presents a vivid image of how meaningful and good our lives can be, when we allow the Lord to enter them.  In the Gospel, John the Baptist proclaims that the waiting and longing of Israelites for the Messiah are to be answered in the person and mission of Jesus.^[2]  This is why John invites people to be prepared for His coming.  But the language John uses surprises us, even shocks.  “You brood of vipers! … Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear the fruit of repentance”; otherwise, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”  We wonder, is this what religion is about?  We must bear fruit, perform good works; otherwise, we will be punished, ‘cut down’, and thrown into the fire?  Does God get angry and pay back like we do?  What does the wrath of God really mean?

There are many places in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, when we read about the wrath of God.  It is noteworthy, however, that the wrath of God is not an explosion of anger against people for their offences.  The wrath of God is always an expression of God’s concern for the people; it is always God’s intervention against evil, not against people who carry out evil acts.  God does not want to destroy or punish people but to bring them out of their sinful condition.^[3]  As Fr. Ron Rolheiser points out, when the Bible says that we experience God’s wrath when we sin, it doesn’t mean that God actually gets angry and punishes us.  There is no need for that.  The punishment is inherent in the sin itself.  Sin itself is an evil act.  When we sin, it is our own actions that punish us.  Excessive use of alcohol causes a headache.  The pain is not from God, though it feels like divine punishment.^[4]  God does not punish people for their sins.  This truth is quite clearly expressed through the prophet Ezekiel.  God says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live” … I am “God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love … forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Ex 33:11. 34:6-7).  Jesus himself emphasizes, “The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost” (Lk 19:10).  Christ came to save, not to destroy or punish.  The human heart is complicated and we know that.  And God knows that there is no need to destroy and punish sinners; He knows that much more powerful than punishment is to touch a sinner’s heart with mercy and forgiveness.  Indeed, the image of God in the Gospel is not an image of the one who destroys and burns the unfruitful trees.  It is rather an image of a gardener who nourishes and supports the trees without fruit.  Jesus presents Himself as the one who does everything to help the unfruitful tree to bear fruit.  In one of His parables, Jesus intercedes for the barren tree.  When the owner wants to cut down the tree, Jesus, the gardener, begs him, “Let the tree alone, sir, this year also, ‘till I dig about it and put on manure” (Lk 13:7-8 RSV).  God never gives up on us.  We can turn away from God; we can even go to hell but God will not stop loving us.

There are many in the church today who want sinners to be punished, not converted and saved.  Even John the Baptist, as we hear, expected the Messiah to come to punish sinners.  His concern was justice, repentance, asceticism.  He expected the Messiah to come precisely as a violent fire, a winnowing fan that would burn and destroy sinners.^[5]  John had to learn that Jesus was a gentler guide than he was:  no name-calling, not bringing the ax to the tree, but calling sinners His friends, not cutting the unfruitful trees down but rather nourishing them.^[6]

In today’s Gospel, John says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Mt 3:1-2 NRS).  Only in the light of God’s kindness and mercy can we understand what repentance is about.  Repentance was a crucial idea in the Judaism of John the Baptist’s time.  John declared that the chosen people’s salvation was not guaranteed by the fact that they are descendants of Abraham but by bearing fruits of repentance (Mt 3:8).^[7]  The invitation to repent is of great importance in our Christian tradition.  Each Advent season (and Lent) we hear about repentance.  What does it really mean “to repent”?  The world “repent”, as we know, is a translation of the beautiful Greek word, meta-noia; it means a total transformation of mind and will, we may say a change of the heart.  It implies that a person has found himself/herself going in a wrong direction and has made a complete turnaround in order to return to the right path.  What is noteworthy about that change of the heart is that it is not simply a personal decision to better oneself; it is rather a response of a person to the prior encounter of God’s kindness and mercy.^[8]  We may say repentance, in fact, is not first of all a change of one’s life; it is first of all an experience of being loved unconditionally.  Ultimately, it is not the power of our will that changes us; it is an experience of being accepted, welcomed, and loved that motivates us to change our life in a meaningful way.  There is a story that comes from a Jewish tradition; it illustrates what the power is that is able to touch a sinner’s heart.

There was a young Jewish boy named Mordechai who refused to go to school.  When he was six years old, his mother took him to school but he cried and protested all the way and, immediately after she left, he ran back home.  She brought him back to school and this scenario played itself out for several days.  The boy refused to stay at school.  His parents tried to apply all combinations of bribes and threats.  But nothing worked.  Finally, in desperation, they went to their rabbi and explained the situation to him.  The rabbi simply said, “If the boy won’t listen to words, bring him to me.”  They brought him into the rabbi’s study.  The rabbi said not a word.  He simply picked up the boy and held him to his heart for a long time.  Then, still without a word, he set him down.  What words couldn’t accomplish, a silent embrace did.  Mordechai, not only began to willingly go to school, he went on to become a great scholar and a rabbi.^[9]

What this story illustrates is how God deals with us, his stubborn yet loving children.  When people experience that there is someone who believes in them, who welcomes them as they are, they will find strength and motivation to make the most twisted and broken ways straight and right.^[10]

And so, as we are in the Advent season, as we hear, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”, we are invited to come to Christ, as we are, with our sins and brokenness, to experience His kindness and mercy.  When we allow Christ to touch our hearts, when we allow Him to embrace us in His mercy, we will see ourselves and our lives in a new way, the way God sees us, with compassion and understanding.   

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^[1] Patricia Datchuck Sánchez, Waiting and Welcoming the Coming One, http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/sanchez/.  (accessed October 26, 2016).

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] See, Fernando Armellini, “She will flourish like the palm tree and will grow like a Lebanon cedar.”  Second Sunday of Advent, A. https://sundaycommentaries,wordpress.com (accessed December 5, 2019)

^[4] See, Ron Rolheiser, “God and Violence”.  https://ronrolheiser.com/god-and-violence/#.XeprHy3Mw0o (accessed December 6, 2019).

^[5] See, Ron Rolheiser, “The God Who Is Revealed in Christmas”, Second Sunday of Advent, A.  https://liturgy.slu.edu/2AdvA120819/reflections_rolheiser.html (accessed December 2, 2019).

^[6] See, Neary, Donal SJ, Gospel Reflections, for Sundays of Year A:  Matthew. (Dublin:  Messenger Publications, 2016), 9. 

^[7] Davies, W. D., & Allison, D. C., Jr. (2004).  A critical and exegetical commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew (Vol. 1, p. 306).  London; New York: T&T Clark International.

^[8] Patricia Datchuck, Sánchez, Waiting and Welcoming the Coming One, http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/sanchez/ (access, October 26, 2016).

^[9] Ronald Rolheiser, Our One Great Act of Fidelity.  Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist. (New York: Doubleday, 2011), 31-33.

^[10] See, Neary, Donal SJ, Gospel Reflections.  For Sundays of Year A: Matthew.  (Dublin: Messenger Publications, 2016), 9.