John the Baptist: Isaiah 11: 1-10; Matthew 3: 1-12
The phrase “yelling into the void” is a rather descriptive way of saying that nobody is listening to you. Pastors, teachers, parents of teenagers are all apt to feel the meaning of this phrase. For instance one example of the phrase is this: “Every time I tell my teenager to clean his room, it’s like I’m yelling it into the void.” My grandfather also provides a great example. He would say something funny. After an appropriate amount of time where no one responded, he would would say loudly, “That was a joke…nobody laughed.” Usually that got the desired response of giggles and snickering.
John the Baptist is probably the ultimate Biblical example of someone who is yelling into the void. John was the one who brought the forewarning of Christ’s coming. His message, according to Matthew, was “repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” The prophet Isaiah foretold of John saying, “He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him.’” Now that phrase “shouting in the wilderness,” has a very literal meaning. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness clothed with coarse camel hair and leather belt, eating wild honey and locusts. I am certain he was quite a terrific and terrifying sight to see and hear.
But there’s a more subtle meaning as well to shouting in the wilderness that is more similar to “yelling into the void.” Though many heard John’s word and repented in their hearts, his message set in motion the desire to kill him in Herod’s palace and in the temple. John called the Pharisees a “brood of snakes.” Other translations have this as “brood of vipers.” Many have asked why John didn’t try to help, to convert, to reach out to the wayward Pharisees.
It’s a simple answer—they would never have listened. We see the same throughout history—a heart is so hardened by its own self-righteous understanding that it only ever listens to respond and never to hear and understand. And much in the same way a bad attitude ruins everyone, a hardened heart that fails to listen will lead to ruin. A hardened heart can never make room for hope, and a truly hardened heart will make sure no one else can hear about hope either.
And that hope is ultimately the message John the Baptist came to bring. Now it was wrapped up in a crazy appearance, wild demeanor, and forceful yelling, but the coming of love incarnate, the Savior, the Messiah, was at its core, a message of hope for humankind.
If you read Matthew 3: 11-12, you see how John lays out the plan: “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon, who is greater than I am…he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” This was a promise, a breath of fresh air, a word which brought untold hope to a people defeated and desolate…to a people longing for a Messiah. The people in Jesus’s day were weary and worn down by the difficult daily life oppressed by Rome, their own leaders, and the Temple leaders as well. It was a society who was focused on the legalism of religion and had forgotten any of the spiritual side of it, almost as if that part had ceased to exist.
Into that world came John the Baptist talking about repentance, the Spirit, fire, and a faith which empowered, gave hope, and reminded the people of God’s power, not of the political power all around them. It’s the kind of hope which liberates, or frees, people. That is the kind of hope that Christ brings to us. When the world, our lives, and the struggle of our own wrongdoing has us oppressed and constrained, Christ comes to free us, to remind us of his power within us, and to encourage us along each step of the way.
But we must be prepared to listen with hearts opened to the message of hope. We must have a faith that lifts up and encourages. John gives a rather stern reminder that “even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever…yes, every tree which does not produce good fruit will be chopped down…”So let us listen, let us listen to hear and understand. Let us listen to share a word of hope with others who are struggling and oppressed. May we bear good fruit.
Isaiah gives us the picture of what bearing good fruit looks like. It is a portrait of justice: obeying God, not judging by appearance. not deciding on hearsay. Instead there will be justice for the poor, fairness to the exploited, righteousness and truth will be at the forefront. As Christians we are called to teach and live justice. Many have come to believe that when they hear the word “justice” preached in a sermon that it’s something bad or political or the lead up to one of “those” sermons. But the truth is that the Bible talks a lot about justice.
Here we see a long passage on it. In the New Testament, John calls for people to live and act in a just way. In Malachi, we hear the words, “do justice, love mercy.” In fact the Bible has over 2,000 verses talking about justice in some form or another. By comparison there are 141 verses using the word salvation in one form or another. We have from this a rather clear call to do justice, to live justly, and to oppose injustice when we see it. And I hope in saying such that I am not the one yelling into the void.
What does justice look like? We just read a glimpse of it: the spirit of the Lord will give wisdom and understand. And from that spirit, we read the following: He will delight in obeying the Lord; he will not judge by appearance, nor make decision based on what someone else says; he will give justice the poor, and make fair decisions for the exploited.
At its root, our faith should protect the vulnerable. This is at the heart of what John the Baptist was preaching—the hope he was trying to give. He called out the proud and the powerful while offering hope and redemption to the broken, the contrite, and the changed. They were the ones willing to listen and who were willing to respond to God’s call. A proud heart cannot make room for God to move and work within. A proud heart will only seek to shut out challenges instead of listening to wisdom, accepting hope, and seeking justice.
When I read the story of John the Baptist, I hear the challenges, the harsh call to repentance, the urgency, the pull for people to give up old ways and be willing to accept God’s hope and grace. And then I wonder what happened. I worry that John’s words, his fervent call to repent and change, were simply shouted into the void and never really, truly heard. We must pick back up the banner of preaching hope, teaching about repentance, working for justice, and standing against injustice and oppression. Christ will baptize you with the Spirit and with fire, so may we find that fire in our lives when we speak and when we live. May we ever stand ready to speak God’s truth, even if we, too, are yelling into the void, for it is a far better place to be than living in it.