Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Here we are, feverishly trying to get in the mood and ready for Christmas and John the Baptist goes ahead and kills the holiday spirit! This odd, misfit son of a high priest preaches to you this Advent, and I assure you, your human nature is not going to like it. He says, “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.”

Ouch. Hey, Baptizer John, you might as well cut down our Christmas tree with those words. Why don’t you just go ahead and shut off our holiday music on the radio, and stomp on our heirloom decorations? We’re in Church, aren’t we? Why don’t we have some happy thoughts? I know— We’ll help others who must live without the blessings we take for granted, and we’ll remember Jesus is the reason for the season. That would be good enough for the Church’s preaching this time of year, wouldn’t it?

But John is not impressed. You can’t fool him. He won’t put up with your excuses, either. He doesn’t care that the Christmas holiday deadline is fast approaching. Advent remains Advent, and he’s the man to listen to right now. He says to you, “Repent. The Lord is coming soon. How can you love and serve others when your selfish heart is thinking about who’s number one?” Remember why you come to church in the first place.

John the Baptist points out the reality of your situation: The reality is that you are a poor, miserable sinner, and you deserve nothing but punishment. By sinful nature, from your conception and birth to the present day, you are subject to the temptation and influence of that old serpent, the devil, who through a tree overcame your ancestors Adam & Eve without a fight. As a tree, God’s Word in His holy Law points out that you have not produced good fruit. You have put your trust in other things. You have hurt others by your words and deeds, and you have offended God by your thoughts. You are an unfruitful tree, and John has just pronounced what God intends to do with unfruitful trees.

Your entire life and salvation hinge and depend upon the grace and Gospel of God. You need something to stand between you and the ax that is poised at the root of your unfaithful and unfruitful tree. For that ax would otherwise chop you down, and you would be thrown into the fire of everlasting punishment. It is the Lord’s gracious Gospel, and only that, which instead spares your life and enables you to grow and produce good fruit.

Without the Good news of Jesus’ sacrifice for your sin, your trunk would not survive the sharp blows that chip away your puffed-up pride and arrogance. You imagine yourself in Eden’s lushness, standing firm and strong, thanks to how good you think you are, but really you are more like the desolate wilderness where John the Baptist likes to preach and baptize. The Ten Commandments strip away the bark façade you’ve put forth, then the wood underneath melts into mush because your sinfulness has eaten it all away. Don’t try to compare your impressive height or fruitfulness of good works with other Christian trees that you see around you. They are just as empty and hollow inside as you are. The truth is, as John has already proclaimed, you all, all of us sinners, need to be chopped down.

Your heavenly father wants to transplant you in His garden. He wants to make a new tree out of you, a shoot that will stand stronger and firmer than ever before. He wants to forgive your sins and conform your life to that of Jesus Christ, His dear Son. God desires for you to be identified not by the righteous things that you have tried to do, but to call you His own through your Baptism into Christ. The Lord is not interested in pounding more and more morals into your head, morals that you have failed to uphold. He wants to raise you from death and give you new life, the only life there really is.

And since your sinful nature does not want that new life, but it prefers the death into which we all were born, you need John the Baptist to jar you with His one-word sermon, “Repent!” What he means by Repent is: there must necessarily be some change and indication in your life to confess that your life is in fact, a life completely in Christ, cut off from yourself and joined, even grafted into Him by faith. That’s what repentance is. That’s the only way you can be made into a fruitful tree.

So, what is the life that you live in Christ going to look like? It’s going to vary in its specifics from one person to the next, according to your circumstances and place in life. But, in general, it means that you serve your neighbor as Christ Jesus serves you—not selfishly, but sacrificially; not for any personal gain, but simply because you are His. And the particulars of all that are spelled out for you (by God, and according to His Word,) in the specific demands and responsibilities of your vocations. You do what those vocations require of you (in faith toward God, and in love toward your neighbor), neither neglecting your duties, nor abusing your position and authority. John did this in his desert sermons on the Catechism by answering a few questions from people in various callings in life.

As a husband and father, or as a wife and mother, you serve your spouse and family. And as a son or daughter, you honor your father and mother, serve and obey them, love and cherish them. As a worker, you serve your employer, your clients and customers, by faithfully doing your job. As a citizen, you serve your community and your country. And as a member of the church on earth, you serve your congregation and your brothers and sisters in Christ, with your time, treasures and talents, according to the needs of the church and the gifts and abilities with which the Lord has blessed you.

In each and all of these ways, you bear the fruits worthy of repentance, confessing that your faith and your life are in Christ Jesus, by serving your neighbors in love, just as Christ served you. And when you serve your neighbor, Jesus assures you that in reality you are serving Him, as He is hidden in the skin and bones of that person in need. This is what it means to produce good fruit, those good works that come from the new tree that God has planted in you. It won’t do any good for someone’s salvation to impersonate Christian charity, even at Christmas time, when at the same time you refuse to repent and confess your sins and receive God’s gift of forgiveness.

None of us produce these genuine fruits of repentance as faithfully as we should. Even if we could, and even if we did, those good works would still not save us. They’re not meant to, nor does it work that way. Rather, the fruits worthy of repentance demonstrate and give evidence of just the opposite! Namely, that you do not rely upon yourself, nor upon your own sincerity, efforts, works or accomplishments—not at all—but you rely entirely upon Jesus Christ.

Because the real heart of repentance and faith, and your only real hope, is to be turned away from yourself (away from your sin, but also your good deeds too), and turned toward the Lord Jesus Christ, who is alone your Savior and Redeemer, your Life and Salvation. His harsh law has cut you down, but His sweet forgiving word of Gospel raises you up better than ever before. And Jesus backs up His Words with His actions.

He is the One who suffered the axe and the fire that threaten you; which is to say that He suffered all the righteous wrath of God and all of the judgments and punishment of the Law. And all of this He suffers in your place, in order to spare you from the death and damnation you deserve. What is more, He suffers and bears all the burden of your sin as well, in His own body, all the way to the Cross. That is, all the hurt and harm that you have done or caused by your sin (and all that has been done to you), He has taken also that upon Himself; not for retribution or revenge, but for mercy and forgiveness, that you and your neighbor might be reconciled, in Him, to God and to each other. He was cut down, only to rise again on the third day.

He is the One who feeds and clothes you with Himself, who showers you with all His riches, who heals you, guards and protects you, and gives to you His own divine, eternal life. Indeed, all that the Law requires, as far as love for your neighbor, all those things the dear Lord Jesus does for you. There’s nothing for you to earn or obtain for yourself; He’s already accomplished it for you. Now He gives it all to you by grace, as He has done beginning with your Holy Baptism. There by the washing of the water with His Word, He shared His Cross & Resurrection with you personally. You died and rose with Him in those waters. That’s what repentance is! Being crucified and resurrected with Jesus Christ. It is dying to sin, death and hell, and rising to new life in Him through the forgiveness of all your sins. He is uniting you with Himself, in His Cross & Resurrection. He also bestowed upon you His own beloved Sonship, the inheritance privileges, and anointed you with His Holy Spirit; so that you are no longer the brood of vipers that John condemns, but a dear child of your dear Father in heaven.

The reality is that He and His Cross are truly the good Tree of Life, which bears the only worthy fruits there are for the forgiveness of your sins—for life and salvation in Him. Above all, these very fruits of Christ and His Cross are given to you here, from this Altar in His own holy body and precious blood. Come, therefore, not to work or produce, but to cut down your worthless tree of sinful selfishness and to receive and trust in the fruits worthy of your repentance: the fruits of His redemption, given and poured out for you. And then, even John the Baptist says, you will truly be ready, at least spiritually ready, for Christmas.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Mal. 3:1–7b I send My messenger … who can endure the day of His coming?
Psalm 66:1–12 He turned the sea into dry land
Phil. 1:2–11 that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment.
Luke 3:1–20 the voice of one crying in the wilderness