Why is John so angry?

I didn’t grow up following a lectionary. That means that I haven’t typically associated John the Baptist’s fiery presence with Advent.** His father in the temple and his pregnant mother with Mary, sure. But not angry, adult John.

But I’m realizing anew how good, necessary, and yes, even hopeful, his message is. He called elite religious leaders, many of whom I believe were genuinely convinced they were living lives pleasing to God, ‘a brood of vipers.’ Ouch. He told them, ‘bear fruit worthy of repentance’ (Matthew 3). The sad but undeniable truth is that we have plenty of modern-day church leaders who have earned a similar declaration. Nothing new under the sun, I suppose.

What I haven’t seen as clearly, coming as I do from a religious context that has tended to overemphasize what filthy, horrible, abominable sinners we (ESPECIALLY women) are, is that God’s judgment is good news. It means God doesn’t turn a blind eye toward those who bring harm and destruction to people. As Hagar named him, he is a God Who Sees.

With that in mind, try reading some of this morning’s OT passage in light of John’s words:

“you who make iniquitous decrees, 

who write oppressive statutes, 

to turn aside the needy from justice 

and to rob the poor of my people of their right, 

that widows may be your spoil, 

and that you may make the orphans your prey! 

What will you do on the day of punishment, 

in the calamity that will come from far away? 

To whom will you flee for help, 

and where will you leave your wealth, 

so as not to crouch among the prisoners 

or fall among the slain? 

For all this his anger has not turned away…” (Isaiah 10:1-4)

Do you know who cares most about justice? It’s not the powerful or the wealthy. It’s those who are oppressed. And even though there are still those who rob the poor, who write laws that make the rich richer, God hasn’t stopped noticing. The boys kidnapped this week in Nigeria? God knows each of them and the families anxiously hoping for their return by name. He sees asylum seekers hunkered down in tattered tents or shivering in ICE cells. Lord have mercy, he sees.

But most of us aren’t writing nefarious laws or supporting their passage (hopefully). So what about also reading some of this morning’s Psalm in light of John’s words:

“You make friends with a thief when you see one, 

and you keep company with adulterers. 

“You give your mouth free rein for evil, 

and your tongue frames deceit. 

You sit and speak against your kin; 

you slander your own mother’s child.” (Psalm 50:18-20)

Have you ever kept friends around who brought out the worst in you? Have you ever trash-talked your family? I know I have.

My invitation is to let this season do its good work of helping me hold up a mirror to the fruit of my life. It’s to cultivate more good fruit. Our call is to join God in seeking justice, rejecting oppression in all its forms, and embracing compassion and lovingkindness.

**My reflections here are informed by Fleming Rutledge’s Advent: the Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ which I’ve been savoring this season.