‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’

+INJ+

This is somewhat of a strange saying, for John the Baptist is the person who warned the Pharisees and Sadducees, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

Not only this, but it is written that these very same Pharisees and Sadducees are not coming to judge John, but to be baptized by him. ‘When he saw that they were coming to his baptism.’

If they are coming to repent, and seemingly to be baptized by John, why, then, are they attacked, and even called a brood of vipers?

The right answer is the obvious one, though perhaps a distasteful one as well. It is because they are a brood of vipers, just like you.

Since we do not often speak of ‘broods’ and ‘vipers,’ we often lose what exactly here John is saying. We just take this as an insult, a perhaps more poetic version of ‘piece of garbage.’

But John is not insulting them, or not merely insulting them. He is describing them. ‘You brood of vipers.’ A viper is, of course, a venomous snake. A brood refers to children, as in a bird ‘brooding’ her clutch, or a man ‘brooding’ over a novel idea, that is, sitting on it, waiting for it to hatch into genius.

John is calling them children of a venomous snake, or perhaps, the children of the venomous serpent; even as we are.

You see, they, like all of us, are children of our father the devil, who as a serpent tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. By the poison of his temptation, Eve was deceived, and Adam tempted. They desired what God had not given; but more importantly, they desired what Satan had. He offered them the fruit of the tree, and it was beautiful in their sight.

It is written, ‘what father, if his son asked him for a fish, would give him a snake? Or if he asked for an egg, would give him a scorpion?’ Now you know, for like a father, Satan gives us what it is we asked for, that which God denied us: the fruit of the tree, and the divinity and wisdom it promised. We thought that we, in newfound wisdom, would swim in the waters of creation, and that partaking of knowledge, would have a new birth. Yet where we thought we asked to be fish, we were given the poison of the snake, and where we asked for the new birth of an egg, we were given the discord of a scorpion.

We asked to become like God. Instead, we are made like Satan.

We became children of our father, the devil.

Now a child learns from their father, and a child becomes like their father. So, too, have we been very good children, and quite obedient, to the devil,  and all of his works, and all of his ways.

What is it that a viper does? It poisons, that it may kill others, to devour them. And what is all sin, all that we do against our neighbor, and against ourselves, but to harm them, to weaken them, to belittle them, to mock them, to make light of them, to impoverish them, to rob them of their dignity and their honor, that our appetites might be fed by their loss?

This, then, is what it means to be the brood of vipers. To be a things of death. To suck life out of others, in hopes that our death might be delayed, and our little bit of living might be made a bit more lively.

The Pharisees and Sadducees are singled out and heckled by the prophet. Insulted in a way not noted of anyone else. But why? The word Pharisee means ‘the holy ones.’ The word Sadducee means ‘the righteous ones.’ Are they accused by John because of their hypocrisy? Because they call themselves holy and righteous, when they, in fact, are merely liars?

The Pharisees were indeed holy, for they set themselves apart from all others by keeping the letter of the law completely. And not only the letter, but the comma, the asterisk, and the foot note. Far from flirting with violating the law of Moses, they kept far from violating what might be seen as approaching a violation of the law of Moses.

And the Sadducees were indeed righteous, insofar as they kept all the ritual commands set down by God in the Torah, and, through every misery, every persecution, kept the worship of the one true God continuing in the Temple.

And even if they failed in their ideals, their duties, if they didn’t keep the law as much as they hoped, or sometimes did not practice what they preached, they, just now, came to be baptized with water unto repentance. 

They wanted to repent. They wanted to do better. They knew they were sinners. And how could they not? They were the ones that daily and more prayed the Psalms, the Psalms which cry out, ‘Against you, O LORD, you only have I sinned.’ ‘Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.’ ‘For my sin is ever before me.’

So why, then, are they accused? It is simple.

They are accused that we all may be accused. If the most holy, the most righteous among us are the children of Satan, a brood of vipers, then O Lord, who can stand? 

We tend to stand in judgment against the Pharisees and Sadducees because Christ did. But remember what Christ said about them, and us, ‘Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.’

We stand against them, because we think that, in doing so, we are standing with Christ. But we are not Christ. We are but fallen men. He judged the best of mankind, and found them wanting. Now how will He judge the worst of mankind, that is, how will He judge us?

‘Even now, the axe is laid to the root.’ Even now, Adam is being judged, the root of the tree of humanity.

Remember, the Son is coming. ‘And the chaff he shall burn with unquenchable fire.’

The fact that the Son is coming is not good news, at least, not of itself. Who knows if the Son is coming in mercy or in vengeance, and who are we to pretend that we know? Have we not all done enough evil to condemn our own lives, and if not just our own, but the lives of the world itself?

Once, God said ‘I repent that I made man.’ Do you think that we have become so much more holy and moral that God would not think the same again?

The Son is coming, and it may be that, far from coming to redeem us, He may come because he repents that he made man.

The Pharisees and Sadducees are right to seek the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance. For there is much to repent of, and much to be afraid of. And if they are afraid, why are you not afraid? Afraid of the wrath to come?

But John does not turn away this brood of vipers. Though he lashes out ‘who warned you,’ yet he says, ‘I baptize with water unto repentance. But He will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit.’ Fire, which overturned Sodom and Gomorrah. The Spirit, which hovered over the waters on the first day.

Does John warn us of the fire to come? Or does He comfort us with the promise of a new birth?

The Christ child will answer these questions. The Christ who now is fed within the womb of Mary, the Mother of God. The virgin, who magnifies the Lord.

Surely, this child ‘shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. And with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.’

But you, who were once a brood of vipers. But you, beloved of God, were once washed in the font of the Church. You were reborn of water and the word. In your baptism, you died to Adam, and the Old Adam died in you. And you were emancipated from your father, the devil, renouncing all of this works, and all of his ways.

You are something different now. You have been seized from a wicked father, and been adopted by the Majesty of God. An adoption, we often say, but an adoption by force, that you might no longer serve an evil father, nor be left as orphans, but might be as sons, and children of the Most High. 

And you, O little children, remember what is written:

‘The child shall play over the den of the cobra, and put his hand into the viper’s nest.’

‘And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: 

and His rest shall be glorious.’

+INJ+

Preached by Pastor Fields

Sermon Texts: Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12.