John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. (Luke 3:7-8 NIV)
You brood of vipers! John was not too worried about offending people as he called on them to repent. He was blunt and forceful in his call to repentance. He did not sugarcoat the people’s sin or their need to turn from it. And he made clear to them that they could not depend on their heritage. Instead, they needed to commit to producing fruit in keeping with repentance. Nor did he provide a comfortable or convenient venue for them to hear his message. Instead, he was preaching on a river bank out in the wilderness. And yet the crowds came out to him and were baptized, responding to his message.
A Lesson from John
I wonder if we could learn a lesson from John. Sometimes, we are so afraid of offending people that we offer them a version of the gospel that is watered down and stripped of all that would offend. Too often, instead of a call to repentance, we preach an easy gospel. A gospel that calls for little personal change or commitment.
The gospel is indeed good news: God loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. But the gospel is also a call to self-surrender, to submission to God’s authority in our lives. And it involves deliverance from a terrible fate, punishment, and eternal destruction. Much of that is not a popular message today. Yet it is the message we are called to deliver to a lost world that desperately needs to hear it.
