Way of Faith

Matthew 3: 1-12

I knew two wonderful youth who were best of friends, but were extremely competitive.  Everything was a competition, especially academics.  I remember overhearing one ask, what grade the other got on a test.  “A” was the answer, and the one asking said “A, also,” after a hesitation, “94” the other replied with a larger smile, “95.”  They are very smart people, and their competitive nature I am sure had encouraged them to learn even more.  I was not that competitive with grades, and was in part why I chose to go to go to an undergraduate college without grades.  You may think that seems great, “no grades.”  However, it meant most of us students put in even more, but of course some simply did the minimum.  For most of us we worked hard to learn as much as we could.  We could not compare our success, except within ourselves.  I remember going to defend my senior thesis, there were two professors and a peer, and even though I had worked with my professors with drafts, I was still nervous I would not pass. 

In this scripture John the Baptist is coming to prepare the way for Jesus, which is on our mind as we wait for the baby Jesus.  However, John is talking about Jesus’ coming as our judge, not as a helpless baby.  Hearing that Jesus is coming with a winnowing fork can be scary, until you realize that each piece of grain has chaff and needs that removed.  Each of us needs our chaff, (sin) removed and how wonderful to know that Jesus will be down on the threshing floor working on each of us with the Holy Spirit (winnowing wind).  This is like the professor working with me to get me to that final meeting and John does remind us that there is an ax and the base of each tree.  Or how Paul puts it, “For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Cor. 5: 10)  Jesus will work on us as individually helping to remove our sin, but ultimately there is a judgment.  Just as John warned the Sadducees & Pharisees not to simply say “we have Abraham as our ancestor,” Christians should not simply say, “I have Christ as my savior,” for we will be judged not just on faith but how we lived our faith.

Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, that we are the light of the world, and shares the Beatitudes, including, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5: 29-30)  This tells me not that we must literally cut off our limbs but we must be self aware of the chaff that we have.  We are going to be judged, by the judge that gets down on the threshing floor with us so we may be ready.  I think the best scene for us to remember for the judgment, is when in John Chapter 8, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to trick him (why just the woman I am not sure, since last time I checked it takes two).  Jesus response was, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  I can imagine the silence, as he etched something on the ground.  Slowly different men leaving as they examined themselves and realized they had chaff and sin to remove, and to be forgiven.  Finally, Jesus looks up and asks, “’Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’”  Jesus asked each of the accusers to look in on themselves and passes a judgment of forgiveness to her as well as all of us from the cross, “Father, forgive them…”  We are not to judge others, for we are to worry about our own time before Jesus.  The good news is that our judge loves us so much that He spent time on a tree for all of our sins.  The way of faith is knowing we must “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3: 2)  That is “Act as you are judged, because the Love of God is near.”