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 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.” – Luke 3: 7-9
Does that strike you as weird? Out of place? John didn’t say hi. His salutation was “You brood of vipers!” A viper is a type of poisonous snake. This would be like walking up to someone in charge and being greeted with “You rattlesnake! Why are you here?”
The people coming to be baptized were not exactly welcome. But they stayed. Somehow they knew this was where they needed to be. This crowd consisted of tax collectors and soldiers, among others. Tax collectors were not like our IRS workers; in an absence of accountability, tax collectors collected the required amount, plus whatever they could squeeze out of a person. They were known to be greedy. And soldiers? They were the ones enforcing the laws of the Roman empire. Often without grace.
Those are the two people groups specifically mentioned in Luke. Both of them seemed unperturbed by the harsh greeting. Both asked what they needed to do in order to receive the baptism of repentance that John was offering. John’s answer? They needed to live the life counter to what their culture said: be content with what we have and take care of those in need.
This story ends with John reminding them that One more powerful than he was indeed coming. Then Jesus shows up and gets baptized (which kicks off His ministry), Herod shows up and John rebukes him, and then John goes to jail.
But backing up, they needed to live a life of generosity. Isn’t that also counter to our culture? We masterfully live in excess, just like the tax collectors. They took it to an evil extreme, so don’t think I’m calling us tax collectors, just saying that we have something in common with them. Tax collectors did their job, and then took in whatever else they could, at any price they could. In our American culture, we pay our bills, and then max out credit cards, collecting every little trinket or fancy meal that we can.
God says to be content with what we have. We don’t need to live in excess. In this season of clearance sales and long return lines, check your heart. Be content, because you already have enough.