Prepare the Way: Repent
Seeing Clearly
Matthew 3:1-12
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. Dec. 7th, 2025
It is “in those days,” we are told, when John the Baptist first appeared in the wilderness. It was in those days when the world was at relative peace. It was in those days when the Temple was functioning in all its beauty, and sacrifices were offered up to God. It was in those days when there were good harvests. It was in those days where there were a lot of building projects, new cities rising up on the shores of the sea. It was in those days where people ate and drank, where they were married and given in marriage. When people laughed and cried. When fishermen would wash their nets in the early morning and kids would run with dogs through the streets. It was in those good ol’ days, which were days just like any other, when John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness.
John didn’t walk through the streets. He couldn’t be found in the towns or the cities. He remained in the wilderness. Instead, people from the towns and the cities would stream into the wilderness to see him. He was a severe and wild man. He did not eat loaves and fish. He did not drink wine. Instead he subsisted on desert locusts and wild honey. And he did not wear linen, or animal skins. He wove together attire made from camel’s hair. A rough fiber that irritated the skin, but covered what it needed to cover.
When they streamed out to meet this man they didn’t find some hippy shouting about peace and love. Instead they found a voice crying out in the wilderness, a self-conscious prophet declaring, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!”
And when he made this declaration he considered no one exempt. He didn’t say only the tax collectors need to repent. Or only the great sinners need to repent. Everyone needed to repent. Everyone needed to change their ways, reset their minds, fix their hearts. In fact, when some Sadducees and Pharisees arrived his response was not to say, “oh thank heavens some good people.” But he increased his vitriol, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”
Abraham Heschel was a Jewish rabbi and he wrote a book on prophets. He said that a prophet is someone who can see through God’s eyes. For many of us our spiritual senses are dulled by sin. And a consequence of sin is resignation. We simply come to accept that powerful people are corrupt. We simply accept that some people take advantage of others. We simply accept lying. We simply accept hypocrisy. I mean, at least some people have the standards and values to be hypocrites. And on and on. Sin greases the wheels of the world and makes it go round. And if we were to be indignant at each and every slight, each and every injustice, every instance of wrong doing, we’d be exhausted or we’d be mad or both.
But the prophets are graced with sight as God sees. So they are indignant at all the injustices of the world. They do repudiate sin. They are enraged, they are sarcastic, they are horrified, and they despair. Because they see at a greater intensity that we allow ourselves to see. And God grants them his word. Whether that be a word of judgment, or reconciliation. Whether that be a word of insult, or consolation. God entrusts that word to those who are given the eyes that see and the ears that hear.
John the Baptist is one such prophet. Which is why he can say, “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Because he sees something that the pharisees and the sadducees cannot see.
Certainly the pharisees were not the sort of people to make their peace with sin. But they did think they had a good handle on it. They took great care to put what they called a “hedge around the Law” to ensure the Law was followed. Jesus called it human tradition, they likely considered it more a precaution. The Sadducees had made their peace with Rome, but that only allowed them to continue the Temple sacrifices and so sustain the people of Israel. Those in both parties would have thought of themselves as pretty decent, even righteous. And both of them would have thought, moreover, that they had an in. They were children of Abraham.
But John can see what’s coming. He sees the world and all its evil, but he sees it in contrast with the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. It is because he sees such a great and desirable thing coming that he shouts “Repent!” He sees the advent of justice, the coming of righteousness, God being with his people not in sacrifice but in mercy. Not through the Temple but in this person Jesus Christ. He sees what is to be, and he wants to make everyone ready for it.
In Advent we take time aside to hear the words of John once again. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near … Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance.” We may see our lives as the same old same old. We may be lulled by ordinary life. We may not think our lives are the sort God might interrupt. So John interrupts us. The ax is laying at the root of the tree. This is not the world we are made for. Repent. The new creation is coming. Repent. Be made ready for that day which has no end. Repent. Love what is truly lovely. Repent. Enjoy what is there to be enjoyed. Repent. The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.