Out with the Old

Luke 3:7-18 (The Message)  ^7-9When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: "Brood of snakes! What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God's judgment? It's your life that must change, not your skin. And don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as 'father.' Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire."
 ¹⁰The crowd asked him, "Then what are we supposed to do?"
 ¹¹"If you have two coats, give one away," he said. "Do the same with your food."
 ¹²Tax men also came to be baptized and said, "Teacher, what should we do?"
 ¹³He told them, "No more extortion—collect only what is required by law."
 ¹⁴Soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"
   He told them, "No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations."
 ¹⁵The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, "Could this John be the Messiah?"
 ^16-17But John intervened: "I'm baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I'm a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."
 ^18-20There was a lot more of this—words that gave strength to the people, words that put heart in them. The Message! But Herod, the ruler, stung by John's rebuke in the matter of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, capped his long string of evil deeds with this outrage: He put John in jail.


For Reflection John chides the people not for being curious about his baptizing or the fortelling of the arrival of the Messiah, but rather for having false expectations.  His observations point out how dependent the people had become on ritual and behavior uncommitted to the glory of God.  Put your money where your mouth is, he says.  Make you ways consistent with God's ways.  It is not what robe you wear or what church you attend. It is what is inside you that counts.  Take account of yourself.  What trash could you collect and burn to put you in a more proper place before God?

Pray
That the sacrifice Christ made for you frees you to act according to the way of your soul.