Matthew 3:1-12

1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'" 4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Isaiah 11:1-10

1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 4 but with righteousness, he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Shel Silverstein’s book, The Giving Tree[1], tells the story of an apple tree who gives all that she has to a boy who seems (there is no evidence to the contrary) quite comfortable taking. Leaves, apples, branches, even her trunk.

With each gift, the boy goes away, returning only when he wants something.

The final time the boy returns to the tree there is nothing there for him to take. Nothing he can use. Nothing she can do for him. The tree is now a stump.  The words of the story:

And after a long time, the boy came back again.

"I am sorry, Boy," said the tree," but I have nothing left to give you…. My apples are gone…. My branches are gone…. My trunk is gone…. " I am sorry," sighed the tree. "I wish that I could give you something.... but I have nothing left. I am just an old stump. I am sorry...."

The people of Israel, Isaiah tells us, are a stump. “A terminated place from which nothing can grow.”

My friend and fellow Presbyterian Preacher, Pen Peery, provides the context[2]:

It is First Isaiah and judgment is close at hand. The crisis is clear from the beginning of Isaiah’s prophesy….

The people are estranged from their God. They are heavily engaged in Torah disobedience. Instead of advocating for the widows, the oppressed, and the orphans, God’s people have turned aside and made the needy their spoils (10:2). Yahweh is disgusted with the greedy accumulation of house and field at the expense of neighbor (5:8), and further enraged by Judah’s attempt to glaze their choices in the drippings of piety (1:12-16). 

Judgment is Yahweh’s answer to such transgression; judgment at the hands of the Assyrians. God will “remove the hedge” so that Jerusalem will be devoured. The Holy City will be laid to waste (5:5-6).

They are, they will be a stump. 

But, there is more. Even in this early stage of the prophesy, this stage of proclaiming judgment, Isaiah includes a word of hope. Israel’s reality, their immediate future may be as a stump, but their future holds a shoot which will arise out of it. A signal. A banner. A sign. And it will be born of the Spirit of God.

Not because they deserve or are ready for it, but because with God, all things are possible. Life growing, meaning there is more to come. A shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse. A king.   The Davidic monarchy shall be restored. 

And while we, Christians, set our eyes on Bethlehem, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, Isaiah had something closer in mind.

This text is not just a Christian text, it is a Hebrew, a Jewish text, and complete. And as difficult as it is to fathom in 2022, these are things we need to remember and say out loud.

Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig preaches (and reminds):

You see, to Jews, Isaiah's promise of redemption speaks not only of the advent of the Messiah at the end of time but also of our recurring experience of redemption through time. We believe that Isaiah's promise has already been fulfilled time and again whenever our people have been felled and new shoots have miraculously appeared.

At the time of Cyrus, our exiles were restored to Jerusalem (as Isaiah prophesied). After the Romans exiled us from Jerusalem once again seeds of Jewish life were carried by the wind and academies of Jewish learning sprouted in new towns. After our equally devastating expulsion from Spain in 1492, 150,000 Jews planted new roots in Amsterdam, Constantinople Cairo, and the Americas.

And today, but 50 years after Hitler attempted to make all of Europe Judenrein [remove all of the Jewish people from Europe], tiny shoots of European Jewish life push through the rubble towards the sun.[3]

These words of Isaiah mean something apart from Jesus, but for us, Christians, they also point us to Jesus.[4] Seven hundred years after the time of Isaiah, the people are, once again, in stump land.  Conquered. Lost. Defeated. Ruled by Romans. And they aren’t sure if they have been forgotten by God or not. These people turn to the words of Isaiah. Words written in a time, but not bound by time. 

Matthew knew that these prophecies of Isaiah were written for a particular context when he attached them to Jesus, starting with a genealogy for Jesus establishing him within the house of Jesse in Chapter 1 and bringing to us John the Baptist in chapter 3 quoting Isaiah. Matthew didn’t remove their meaning, he added to it. For a time in which people needed to know that God can work, even with a stump.  God could send a shoot, a son, The Christ, to a place that felt devastated.

Even people that needed to repent. Even those who bear no fruit and should be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

Even them. Even to them, Jesus would come.

Were they ready? Were they worthy? John the Baptist, a truth-teller among truth-tellers, calls them a brood of vipers.

Even them. Even to them Jesus would come and stand as a signal.

Of God’s love, persistence, and grace.

In the words of Madeline L’Engle.[5]

That was no time for a child to be born,

In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;

Honour & truth were trampled by scorn—

Yet here did the Savior make his home

And I find great comfort in these words this day, in this season.

For all who feel like they are a stump- have nothing left to give, nothing worthy of giving, Isaiah reminds us, God is not done with us. That even in empty places good things can grow.

For those who grieve or struggle with the images of pregnant women everywhere. For those who are tired and worried or feel lost. Isaiah has a word for you. And it’s not something you have to do. It’s something God is doing. And you can give God the wheel. You are okay.

And even John the Baptist. For all of his “Brood of Vipers.” Do you know what John did with those Vipers? He baptized them. He told them that they needed to get ready, and yet he didn’t wait for them to finish their work before baptizing them.

Jesus, too. Jesus didn’t wait until we were ready.

A friend of mine on Facebook, a mom, posted this just a few days ago: “I am already feeling beaten down by the demands of the month of December on me and my family, and it's only the first day.”[6]

Here’s the good news. Jesus is coming, and while we need to get ready, he’s not going to be checking your to-do list, he’s coming to renew your heart and deepen your faith.

So let’s hear the good news for today.

The story of faith and how the love of God has been woven betwixt and between us before, now, and continues in time to come. This word is for us, too.

A shoot can come from a stump.

The waters of baptism don’t have anything to do with productivity.

You aren’t getting graded on your Christmas cards or your Christmas cookies or even your cheeriness.

So let’s embrace some grace today.

Maybe it’s okay to say that you are sad. That you struggle.

It will not all get done. Jesus will come again. 

If your list is long and you are weary. Take something off the list. Maybe take several things off of it. Jesus will come again.

Be silent. Pray. Watch, for those sprigs of hope. They grow where we least expect them- a sign of God’s continued love.

Madeline L’Engle again:

When is the time for love to be born?

The inn is full on planet earth…

Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.

Love still takes the risk of birth. 3,000 years ago. 2,000 years ago. Today. Tomorrow. 

Thanks be to God.

Jesus will come again.

Amen. 

[1] Published by Harper Collins, October 7, 1964.

[2] Presented in a Paper to The Well, a lectionary study group, in May of 2010 in Davidson, North Carolina.

[3] From a sermon aired on “30 Good Minutes,” Program #4220, aired February 21, 1999. http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/wenig_4220.htm  , accessed December 4, 2010.

[4] The structure of preaching in terms of what the text meant in Isaiah’s time, Jesus’ time, and today came from “The One Who Will Be Born: Preaching Isaiah’s Promises in a Harry Potter Culture,” Karl N. Jacobson and Rolf A. Jacobson in World & World, Volume 27, Number 4, Fall 2007.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=107&sid=46e7584a-1093-432b-9d1c-97cc31f1dbaf%40sessionmgr114 ,accessed December 4, 2010.

^[5] Madeline L’Engle, “Risk of Birth, Christmas 1973,” in The ordering of love: the new and collected poems of Madeleine L'Engle, Random House, Inc., 2005.