Scripture Daily

Context No. 895 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 3:7-11: in context

7He said therefore to the multitudes who went out to be baptized by him, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance, and don’t begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father;’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones! 9Even now the ax also lies at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10The multitudes asked him, “What then must we do?” 11He answered them, “He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise.”

John the Baptist is preaching at the Jordan, and he does not flatter the crowds who come out to be baptized. He calls them a brood of vipers and asks who warned them to flee the coming wrath. Do not lean on your ancestry, he says; God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. The ax is already at the root of the trees. When the crowds ask what they should actually do, his answer comes down to the ordinary: whoever has two coats, give one to the person who has none; whoever has food, do the same.

The sharp part and the plain part belong together. John tears away the one thing the crowd is counting on, their descent from Abraham, the religious pedigree that made them feel safe without changing them. Being born into the right family, or the right church, is not the fruit; God is not impressed by a lineage he could reproduce from rocks. Then, when they ask the honest question, what then must we do, he does not send them to the desert or demand heroics. He points at their closets and their kitchens. Repentance, in John's mouth, is not first an emotion or a doctrine but a redistribution: if you have two coats and your neighbor is cold, the gospel has arrived at your wardrobe. The fruit worthy of repentance turns out to be small, concrete, and immediate, the spare coat handed to the person shivering next to you.

I have things I own two of while someone near me has none. Where is repentance asking to show up in what I actually hand over?

Sources