Urgent

John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” . . . When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. . . Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.” (Matthew 3.1, 7-8, 10)

As many of us know from experience, urgent care medicine is a branch of medical services that specializes in acute care for conditions that may be chronic or complaints that require attention that, if left untreated for a short period of time, may pose a threat to health or even to life. Unlike emergency rooms that provide high level care for injuries that require immediate evaluation and treatment to mitigate the possibility of death, urgent care addresses less severe concerns before they mushroom into a major medical emergency.

Almost without exception, the Hebrew prophets were urgent care physicians, at least in matters of the heart. Whenever and wherever one of these prophets saw the people of Israel teetering on the edge of a spiritual downfall that could easily result in the loss of a relationship with the Most High God, the source of life, they stood up and spoke words of caution, seeking to redirect the people back to God so that they wouldn’t seriously injure themselves by stepping off the cliff.

Today, we meet the last of the great Hebrew prophets, at least in the minds of Christian believers. His name was John the Baptist, a man who carried on the tradition of earlier prophets, both in demeanor and in determination, and who, like his predecessors, expressed urgency in the people’s reversing course and returning to the ways of the Lord God. His message, like theirs, was a warning and a reckoning.

Listening closely to his words as provided to us by Matthew, who introduces us to this prophet of the Jordan near the start of his gospel, we can’t help but feel the urgency in his sermon. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” he says to the people gathered on the banks of the River Jordan. “Flee from the coming wrath!” “Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.” 

Clearly, John believes there is no time to be wasted, an indication of just how bad things had gotten, the urgency in his words measured by the moral decadence of the times. Like the ancient prophets, John looks around and sees the people departing radically from the ways of God, not by a step or two, but by miles and kilometers, so much so that doom and damnation are about to erupt like the magma and miasma from a volcano.

Whereas a geologist might urge a person to run for cover in the face of such a volcanic eruption, a prophet such as John urges the people to return to God, the only way to save themselves from sure destruction. The word of warning that John uses to express the urgency of changing course in the immediacy of destruction is “repent.”

Of course, repent is a word with which we also are familiar, understanding the word to convey a sense of remorse or sorrow. Our word repentance contains a similar notion of contrition. However, the word that John uses is “metanoia,” a Greek word that, although translated as “repent,” actually reflects a change of mind and purpose. So, more along the lines of John’s thinking, we might use other words such as “rethink,” “reconsider,” “reorient,” or “redirect ourselves.”

My personal favorite for “metanoia” might be “turn around.” That’s because the old prophets, in calling the people to reform, often used a Hebrew word that meant “return,” specifically to return to a right relationship with the Lord God. Hence, while the word metanoia or repent implies a turning away from something evil, a more complete understanding of the word also includes a turning towards something, or, in this instance, towards somebody.

Understood in this way, John’s call is a radical one because it is a challenge to his listeners, not only to reverse course, but to reorient their lives completely. We might say to have “a change of heart” or “to get one’s act together.” In other words, it is not enough to stop doing something evil, but it is also necessary to start doing something good. Repent, in this sense, is not to feel bad, but to think and to act in an entirely different way.

And, as we’ve seen, John, understanding our tolerance for wrongdoing and our reluctance to change our waywardness, lays out the urgency for our reform, his words intentionally selected to express the need to waste no time, not to procrastinate, which typically is the human response when we’re called upon to make big changes in our lives.

John explains the urgency in simple terms, telling his listeners that the change is needed because “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” by which he means the rule of God. Interestingly, when speaking of the reign of God in our world and in our ways, the other evangelists typically speak of “the kingdom of God.” Perhaps Matthew uses the kingdom of heaven in deference to the Jewish hesitancy in using the name of God.

Regardless, the intent is the same. John foresees the immediacy of the kingdom of heaven, recognizing in the man of Galilee the imminent entrance of the reign and rule of God. “The one who is coming after me,” he tells the onlookers, “is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals.” Again, John forecasts something extraordinary about to happen, a seismic shift in the world, the Most High returning to earth to reclaim what is rightly his. 

And when he reclaims his own, John promises “his winnowing fan is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and he will gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire,” a powerful and frightful way of saying things are about to change in a big way. The smart person, John intimates, will waste no time in preparing for it. 

Given his message and his prediction of the coming of the Messiah, it makes sense that John the Baptist should show up during the season of Advent, a time of preparation for the birth of the Messiah, even if Jesus of Nazareth is already a full-grown man when John is speaking his words. In a short while, the Galilean will stand with John at the Jordan, a changing of the guard taking place in that moment, the prophet and the promise standing side by side.

There is something apropos about the placement of John at the passageway to Christmas, a sentinel that allows us to step into the stable with the shepherds only after we have been steeped in his speech like a tea bag in a cup of boiling water. His presence at the door challenges us to consider if we have heeded his words. As Christmas dawns, do we, in fact, present ourselves as changed persons, people willing and ready to reorient our lives around the ways of God rather than around the ways of the world?

A good measure of our readiness, I propose, is to examine carefully those things that we find urgent in these days before Christmas. As we have seen, John’s message is one of urgency. But do the things we find urgent correspond to the things that John considers urgent? Or have we made other things more urgent, things that have little or nothing to do with John’s preaching? That is the million-dollar question. 

As the days before Christmas count down, undeniably most, if not all of us, feel a sense of urgency. But is our urgency a result of changing our ways to align with the ways of God, or is our urgency a result of our getting all the presents purchased and wrapped? Even a superficial reading of the text makes clear that John says nothing about purchasing the perfect present for someone, but says a whole lot about getting our lives back on track.

John’s words force other questions to seep through our consciousness. Are we urgent about making the hard changes in our lives or are we urgent about getting our travel plans for the holidays changed? Are we wasting no time in prioritizing the ways of God or are we wasting no time in planning our annual Christmas dinner? Are we looking into those places or positions in which we need to change our mind, or are we more interested in changing out our Christmas decorations this year?

Granted, nobody likes a Scrooge, a person who casts a shadow upon Christmas, whether in a movie or on the banks of the Jordan. But, like it or not, we need to hear John’s message so that we see in stark contrast the reason for the season. And John leaves no doubt as to how he believes we best prepare for the birth of the Messiah. And–all things considered–it may have far less to do with a fruit basket and much more to do with “producing good fruit,” his words, not mine.

Again, we don’t want to miss the point. It is incredibly easy for us to make things urgent that aren’t urgent, while putting off the things that are urgent. We’re masters of misprioritizing, always choosing the easier path instead of the more difficult path. And, obviously, the changes that John asks of us require heavy lifting, not a pleasant idea to people who prefer light dusting over the top of our dresser, but never strain our muscles to move it away from the wall to sweep away the dirt underneath it. 

However, what John understands better than we do is that evildoing, left unchecked, only grows and metastasizes, becoming more virulent, taking over more and more of our lives, until we have little strength or willpower left to tackle or to treat it. Evidence of this fact is all around us, living, as we do, in a world increasingly divided, darkened, and destroyed by an ever-accumulating mass of evil that has sprung from the heart of humanity.

So, John’s words of warning are as pertinent now as ever, urging us not to delay anymore, but to undergo a full body scan, identifying those places where evil has taken root, removing it so that it can do no more damage, restoring health to our overall system so that we might live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord God.

Although John the Baptist is associated for the most part with Advent and with Lent, liturgical seasons considered penitential, we do ourselves no service if we only listen to him at these times. His message is important year round, especially since a change of heart, if it is to be done, has to be done incrementally and continually if it is to have any chance of success.

Understood in this way, we can appreciate the urgency in John’s message. The time for a change of heart never increases with each passing day, only lessens. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.

–Jeremy Myers