Repenting in the wilderness

Matthew 3:1-12 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea ² and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." ³ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" ⁴ 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. ⁵ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁷ 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? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹² 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."

On November 19, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, President Lincoln delivered a 272 word speech that lasted a bit more than two minutes. According to the Chicago Times, Lincoln’s words were less than outstanding. It reported, “The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the president of the United States.”

Another newspaper, the Patriot News, (back then called the Patriot & Union,) out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, wasn’t much more complimentary. Suggesting the speech was motivated purely by party politics, it described Lincoln's message as having been nothing more than “silly remarks” and “shortsighted.”

Today, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is considered to be one of the most beautiful, profound and insightful presentations ever written in the English language. The Patriot News agrees. A month ago, the newspaper published an apology and retraction for their critical editorial, which had been penned a century and a half ago.

It makes me think that if a hardened East Coast newspaper believes it’s never too late to repent of an error, we Christians ought to feel the same.

Unfortunately, repentance over past transgressions is something which is often left undone. And so we become comfortable in our sinfulness. Repentance over our new sins is almost unheard of, as we join with the rest of our culture in excusing every abhorrent behavior and finding justification for every detestable lifestyle.

God calls us to be different from everybody else. If we wish to be different, there is no one better to listen to than the voice calling in the wilderness – John the Baptist. It is hard to be more different that John. John was a raging bull in a religious China shop. He dressed like one of the Duck Dynasty boys, but wore camel, instead of camo. (And he was probably just as popular.) He enjoyed locust and honey smoothies. John was sent by God to  shake up the spiritual landscape. John came to prepare the way for the coming Christ and His Kingdom. John came in the wilderness so he might prepare us for paradise.

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea. John does not come where we are comfortable. He comes in the wilderness, for it is the place of sin. The wilderness is dry, dead, nothingness. It is a hard and barren place. It is the very opposite of the world God created. In the beginning Eden was paradise. It was life, a garden of perfection, well-watered trees and an abundance of everything. But then sin entered the world. Eden was vacated and Adam and Eve had to live in a new world that was infected with sin. It became a “wild” place. A place of thorns and thistles, of pain and hard work, of separation from God, dust and death.

We may feel pretty comfortable in our world – a couple cars in the garage, smart phones in our pockets, flat screen TVs on our walls, closets full of clothing, plenty of food in the fridge and pantry. We may think we have it pretty nice … until we look around. Our homes are broken by divorce or disheveled by fighting. Our teenagers grunt something unintelligible as they walk by to cloister themselves in their rooms. Our patience wears thin with our children and even thinner with our aging parents. Our schedule is so full that we are just trying to survive for another week.

And that’s just in the home! That’s not including the outside world where violent feminist women attack Christian men defending a church in Argentina or in Belgium where it is now legal for parents to euthenize their children or where atheists put up another blasphemous nativity display by placing a Cabbage Patch baby girl in a manger at Wisconsin Capitol.

We are living in the wilderness. It is a dry, unspiritual desert. It is a wasteland of filth and decadence. It is the complete opposite of Eden. It is the dark valley of the shadow of death.

It is in this wilderness that John preaches, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

We have been infected by living in this wilderness. Our lives are affected by this spiritual wasteland. Don’t you see it in yourself? You are dried up. Your life is desolate. You are in need of nourishment. Whatever you are doing right now is not effective. Living opposite of God’s commandments isn’t working. Fulfilling your every sinful desire isn’t filling you with happiness. Making excuses for how you act doesn’t excuse you before God. Hiding your skeletons in your closet becomes cumbersome. All of this only leads you further away from God, further into the desert, further into the dark valley of the shadow of death.

So John calls you to do something else. “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” Reverse course and make a straight path back to Christ. Empty your closets. Censure your excuses. Revile your desires. Strip away all your phoniness and pretenses. Quit pretending that everying is fine. Because it’s not! That’s only a mirage. It is a wasteland out there (the world)! It is a wastland in here (our hearts)! There is only one way out of the wilderness and back into the garden, back into paradise – and that is to die. To die to sin and live for Christ. To die in repentance to our old way of life and be raised to a new life in Christ. St. Paul said, “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer” (Romans 6:2)?

Repenting in the biblical sense is more than having a change of heart or a feeling of regret or guilt after being caught. It is more than a New Year’s resolution. Repentance is turning away and turning back. A turning away from sin and a turning back to God. It is time for you to recognize the horror of barreness of living in the wilderness, the horror of missing out on the paradise that comes with Christ.

The wilderness is a dry, arid place. When you are in the wilderness you need water. By the grace of God, He provides that water … in Baptism! With your repentance, John would immediately point to the water of Baptism. After all, he was John the Baptizer. St. Peter would add that with repentance comes the refreshing waters of Baptism (Acts 3:19). Just like after a hard day’s work, you feel refreshed to jump in the shower and feel the hot water wash all the filth and stress away. So every time you repent, your Baptismal waters wash over you again, cleansing you, washing you, refreshing you. The dryness of your sin and the hardness of your heart are soaked in your baptismal waters. And it doesn’t matter how long ago your Baptism was – if it was 90 years ago or just this morning. You come to the waters of life and begin to live. No longer hiding; no longer pretending – but living in the reality of sins forgiven.

John would remind you that you are privileged to have received the greater Baptism from the greater One. You have been baptized into the death of Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. Having been baptized, you are clothed with Jesus, with His seamless robe of righteousness. Not the camel hair of the wilderness, but a garment of perfection that covers all your sin and shame and wraps you in a wedding suit for an endless wedding party of the Lamb in His kingdom.

Your wilderness food is not locusts and wild honey, but living Bread that is Christ’s body. Wine from heaven is your drink for it is the lifeblood of Christ. Just as manna kept the Israelites until the day they stepped foot in the promised land of Canaan, so Jesus’ Body and Blood are your Manna from Heaven, keeping you until the day you set foot in the Promised Land of resurrection and life.

You are called out of the wilderness of this world into the presence of God in the garden when the worship service begins. You may hear the voice of your pastor, but they are the words and power of Christ. You repent of your sins. The voice of Christ washes over you His forgiveness purchased on Calvary’s cross. He refreshes you through His Word read at the lectern, through His Psalms and hymns sung in the pews, through His body and blood received at the communion rail. We are in the presence of God, as we are given a foretaste of Paradise.

Jerry had a lengthy list of illnesses. He had been seen by plenty of doctors. He had been poked, prodded and punctured. The bag carrying his cures no longer fit into the overhead storage compartment of any major airline. He resigned himself to living a life with all his ailments, until one day, he received word from a doctor that she had reviewed his case and believed she could cure him. With high hopes Jerry met with the doctor the next day.

She said, “My friend, you’re a sick man.” He knew he was, but it was nice to have someone confirm his complaints. The doctor continued, “You can get well again if you will follow my advice. I want you to lose about 45 pounds, start a walking program, get eight hours of sleep each night, and eat more dark-green vegetables. And ....”

Ahh, here it comes, Jerry thought to himself, she’s going to suggest surgery, or prescribe some super pill.

“And ...” the doctor went on: “you can dispose of your pills in the proper way. You don’t need them. That’s it.”

After his initial shock, Jerry stammered and pleaded for some kind of potion, some kind of tonic that would make him well. The doctor stood her ground by saying, “You need a change in your life, not in your medicine.” She was done with him, but he was not done with her. Jerry left the doctor’s office and told everyone the doctor was a “quack.”

That story explains sinful humanity’s relationship with the Lord. God is the Doctor and in the blood of Jesus Christ He always has a cure for the sins which ail us. In His Holy Word He calls us to a change of life by saying, “Repent, believe, be baptized, be saved.” That’s what God says, but it’s not what humanity wants to hear. Even as Christians, we don’t like to be told we’re sinners; we don’t want to be told we need a new life and a new heart; we don’t want to have anyone suggest it is only through Jesus Christ that we will get into heaven.

We don’t like it, but it’s true. If we’re going to be saved, we need to repent, believe, be baptized, be saved through Jesus.

We need this Jesus who was born into the wilderness of our world. He received the sinner’s Baptism. He defeated the devil in the desert. The serpent beat humanity in the garden so Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to crush the serpent’s head. Christ’s lips were parched and his mouth dry, but He was still able to shout with authority, “It is finished!” Then He died so that we might have life. He rose so that we might live a new life in Him and for Him. We can now live the life God intended for us from the very beginning. A life no longer infected by the wilderness, but a life preparing us for paradise!

So your tree is not cut down, accept Daniel’s advice: “Renounce your sins by doing what is right” (Daniel 4:27).  Listen to Peter who speaks from experience: “Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19). Hear John the Baptist preach a message totally contrary to our society: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

So, if you haven’t done so in a while, why not take some time to repent of those old sins and, as long as you’re at it, include the new ones as well. Amen.