We all have dreams, desires, or changes we are moving towards. There are times when going after the new is exciting, and there are times we go kicking and screaming.
When we are attached to the old, moving towards the new is brutal. Old dreams, desires, and longings are crumbling around us. What we loved and cared about is left in the rubble.
There is no going back, yet moving ahead seems impossible. Our resistance to moving forward is valid.
The Kingdom of Heaven is Near
The Mythologist, Joseph Campbell, says that every journey of transformation starts with “The Call To Adventure.”
In the Bible, the guy who brings a thundering call is John the Baptist.
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this was who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make his paths straight.’”
Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Mathew 3:1-6
John is a wild man, in the desert, wearing strange clothes and has a weird diet. He is calling people to turn from their old ways and embark on a new way of life. Go through the threshold into a land unknown, an uncertain world, without a map, looking towards the stars inside yourself to guide you.
His words have power. Many are drawn to him and compelled to follow what he is saying. He inspires courage and bravery.
His message was simple “the kingdom of heaven is near.” What a powerful invitation!
I read somewhere that the location of this scene is the same spot where the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land.
Repent means to turn and leave your old ways behind. Everyone from the entire region came out to join in.
By being baptized, they were reenacting a historic moment in the faith of their people, marking a moment in their lives that signifies leaving the old behind and moving forward through life in a new way.
Brood of Vipers
Some came out who looked down with contempt on this new movement of God. John the Baptist provokes them:
But 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 the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Mathew 3:7-10
John provokes legalistic and moralistic people who think they have it all figured out. The Old Guard wants to hold to tradition. They are trying to squelch this new movement of God.
While the resistance here is coming from external forces, if we are honest, we each have it inside of us too.
There is a part of us that is resistant to change. Fearfull. Or even nostalgic and longing for the good old days.
The Brood of Vipers represents anything inside of you that is trying to kill off the possibility of a new life. This could be wounds from past hurts, anxieties, fear of change, or our inflexibility. Sometimes when you are sure of something, you are unable to entertain something new.
The Brood of Vipers is the old inner voice that no longer gets us where we need to go. It is time to thank them for how they served you in the past and tell them that they are no longer of service.
Separating the Wheat From The Chaff
“I baptize with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is at hand, and he will clear his threading floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Mathew 3:11-12
When John talks about the winnowing fork, on one level, he is talking about who is in the Kingdom and who is not. But there is also a message for those of us in the family of God. The image of sifting comes up multiple times in Scripture, and it can refer to the purification of our individual lives.
In an earlier post, I tried to talk about how only what we do by faith will remain. When we operate from our True Self, that part of us that is Christ in us, we are joining God in building the Kingdom. What we do from the False Self, or the flesh/ego, will not make it through the fire.
Psalm 1 makes this same distinction when it talks about the two ways to live. The righteous delights and meditates on Gods ways:
He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Psalm 1:3-4
By living grounded and rooted in Christ, our lives are substantial. We are not blown around by the wind.
This is why self-awareness and the work of integration is so important. When we have blind spots or parts of us that we refuse to acknowledge, they unconsciously have control of our lives.
Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand.
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Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12