John the Baptist as Mr. Rogers

Every year during Advent we get to hear John the Baptist say to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 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.” And, with such exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. …….

This is good news???

A few years ago, I saw a painting of John the Baptist that surprised me. Normally John the Baptist is depicted as a gaunt and grizzled barefoot guy

with really bad hair pointing to Jesus who is nearby on a cross. He looks like the kind of guy who calls people a brood of vipers, which, after Repent! is his best known line.

The painting I saw, though, was so very different from that. This John the Baptist is young, with a glorious cascade of curls and soft facial features. His head is cocked and he looks right at you in gentle greeting. And he points, not to Jesus who is not even in this picture, but up to heaven. 

And he is smiling. Not a toothy grin but more than the Mona Lisa, that enigmatic lady who was created by the same artist, Leonardo da Vinci. This was sort of like John the Baptist as played by Fabio. 

It turns out that there’s been negative commentary on Leonardo’s painting ever since it’s debut in the early 16th century. Critics were affronted by this depiction of John. He’s supposed to be a fiery ascetic, challenging you as you take in the scene. He’s not supposed to be smiling. Some even said that this painting could not really be by the great da Vinci because he would have known better than to paint a good-looking, friendly J the B with no Jesus to baptize or point to. It must have been painted by one of his assistants or students, they said. It’s a terrible painting, they said. This is blasphemous, they said.

But bluntly calling people a brood of vipers, is not all that John is about. He’s not simply a wild-eyed character standing on the street corner shouting at people like a crazy person and holding up a placard that says you’re all going to hell. In fact, once you get past the bombastic opening of his exhortation, he practically sounds like Mr. Rogers. 

When the people, genuinely concerned about his warning, asking him one by one, what shall we do then to bear good fruit? He simply says, share. Share what you have. Be fair in your dealings with others. And don’t use your power to bully.

He doesn’t tell the tax collectors they have to quit their jobs. He doesn’t tell the soldiers they have to become conscientious objectors. He doesn’t tell the poor they have to work harder so they can afford a donation to a charity. They can bear fruit just as they are, just where they are, by sharing what they have, by being honest and fair, by showing mercy. That’s it.

This all sounded so good to the people that they began to wonder if this John could be the Messiah they’ve been waiting for. Yes, he certainly got their attention with some blunt talk, but in essence his message is about kindness and generosity, justice and mercy, about paying attention to and nurturing the common good. 

This is the good news that John preaches to the people.

Perhaps it was this aspect of John’s proclamation that Leonardo was trying to portray in his unorthodox portrait which is believed to be his last painting, 

a man pointing to heaven and issuing a simple and loving invitation to bear fruit, as you are, where you are, in response to God’s mercy and desire for reconciliation, in response to God’s offer of salvation. 

This John is the forerunner of the savior who comes to make the blind see and the lame walk and to set the captives free, a savior who comes to deliver us from being trapped by things that diminish us as children of God:  Things like selfishness and greed, bullying and hate, violence and oppression, like victim blaming and get ahead-ism and, perhaps most deadly and at the root of it all, indifference to suffering.

And so we can see why the sharp warning and call to repentance. We are all implicated in systems we neither made nor can control and subject to fear of those we don’t know or understand. That’s part of the nature of belonging to human society. John asks - ok John demands - that we notice that. 

That we take notice of the poisonous webs of sexism and classism and ageism and racism and any of those -isms of a culture that pits citizen against citizen.He demands that we notice the widening gap between rich and poor, and notice the double standards, the ill treatment of people branded as “not like us”,the lack of empathy for what it is like to be marginalized - and he and says to us, turn away from those things. Reorient yourself toward God and learn God’s justice and righteousness.

Perhaps some of us need to hear that call to repentance in its raw form to wake up from complacency or to jolt us out of the self-protection mode in which we find ourselves hiding from the busy, noisy, demanding, overwhelming world. 

But here is the good news. At its heart, John’s message about bearing good fruit points us to the places where we already are and beckons us to practice honesty, to share, to be satisfied with what we have, to treat others with respect and compassion, to support instead of intimidate, to bridge the gap instead of widening the divide.

 These do not require Herculean efforts, or moving to a third-world country, or special equipment, or advanced degrees, or more money than we already have. John says, in his own special way, that we are to be blessed by the coming of a savior who will take away our blemishes and frailties and failings - the chaff of our lives - and refine us into our pure selves, children of God. 

And in response, since we asked, we are to be a blessing in the world around us. For the Lord rejoices over us with gladness and plans to renew us in his love. Let us indeed repent, then, and turn toward that - to honor God by honoring one another.