Steven Sim

JR and I were reading the gospel the other day, we were reading Luke’s gospel together. Nothing scholarly, just plain reading out loud from Scripture, New International Version.

As I was reading it out for us, at chapter 3, I was surprised to come across what could have been a sermon note from John the Baptist’s earliest messages.

When the Baptist called people to repentance, he did not merely call people to undergo a religious conversion in our modern sense of the word. He did not tell us, or if he did, Luke did not see it important to record him telling us, to take up some sort of religious practices, reading religious books, fasting, praying, preaching, engaging in god-talks, singing, attending religious meetings, proselytizing and doing the familiar religious what-have-yous.

Instead, of appealing to religious tradition, John the Baptist said that true conversion really means that we must deal humanely and justly with others.

“John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe 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.”

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none and the one who has food should do the same.”

Tax collectors asked him “Teacher, what should we do?”

John answered, “Do not collect any more than you are required to.”

Soldiers asked him “And what should we do?”

John answered, “Do not extort money and do not accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.” (Luke  3:7-14)

How often we go to Church to hear such sermons which tell us to literally be part of the solutions to the social problems in our society? Modern day preachers will probably ask today’s equivalent of the dishonourable tax collectors in John’s time to quit their job for the love of Jesus Christ and God. Our pastors and elders will probably ask us to attend church, read the Word of God and pray and share the gospel with non believers if we asked how we can avoid God’s coming judgement.

But what did John say? John of whom Jesus said none is greater than who were born of women (Luke 7:28), told us to toe the line in our line of duty, to deal humanely and justly with others. The converted followers are to be God’s solutions to the social problems of their times; because in and through them, or the Church if you like, the Kingdom of God is presence and actively working.

And of course, we all know later John was unjustly imprisoned and sentenced to the most cruel death by decapitation. Because John the preacher par excellence, no, the greatest of all who were born of women, spoke against the political powers, their excesses and their corruptions.

The Beheading of John The Baptist, Rembrandt, 1640