Going Through the Motions – Matthew 3:1-12

Yes, there really is a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” musical soundtrack and in the overture Buffy sings about going through the motions:

“Every single night the same arrangement. I go out and fight the fight. Still I always feel this strange estrangement. Nothing here is real, Nothing here is right. I’ve been making shows of trading blows, just hoping no one knows that I’ve been going through the motions, walking through the part. Nothing seems to penetrate my heart. I was always brave and kind of righteous…I don’t want to be going through the motions, losing all my drive. I can’t even see if this is really me, and I just want to be…Alive.”

I don’t know what Buffy was supposed to be going through, but these words can speak to me and you about our own lives with regard to Jesus. Don’t you want to be…Alive!

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he 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.

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 from 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 for 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.

“I baptize you 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 in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:1-12 ESV)

Any king always has a retinue that goes in advance of his coming to set things right for his appearance.  In Israel this might even include shaping up the road by filling in potholes or leveling steep sections.  Isaiah and Malachi both join to alert Israel to Yahweh’s coming and to His messenger who comes before Him as a voice calling out in the wilderness.  Only the preparation required of John the Baptist’s listeners is in their hearts, where repentance must take place in anticipation of God’s sovereign kingdom coming in the person of Jesus. 

Every life in the realm must be aligned with the King’s will.  And John is not some aristocrat or plush-living sophist, but a prophet of God.  And the people come to him.  They are ready for the kingdom, ready to give their allegiance to Yahweh and His messenger.  So they are baptized as a symbol of their repentance.

But the Pharisees and Sadducees are getting baptized just because it has become the popular thing to do if you’re religious.  So John challenges them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.  After all, God’s judgment is coming with fire to burn up what is insincere. 

Are we playing the religion game or are we genuinely captivated by the King and desirous of honoring Him with our lives?  It’s all about Jesus, Yahweh in the flesh, whose first coming was the call to repent but whose second coming will make it too late for those who merely went through the motions.