A message on Matthew 3:1-12 for Advent 2, Series A

This is the story of Timmy and Tommy. They were twin boys, about nine years old. And, from time to time, they would get into it.

It was at one of those times that our story takes place. The boys were yelling and screaming. Pushing occurred — although each said the other pushed first. That’s what life was like with Timmy and Tommy.

This time, however, Mother—at the end of her rope—had had enough. So she sat Timmy and Tommy down on “time out” chairs — she hadn’t done that in some time and the boys were quite unhappy about that, too. They sat on two, hard, wooden chairs ten feet apart, facing in opposite directions.

If they’d turn Mother would say firmly, “Enough. Turn around.” If Timmy or Tommy began to speak, Mother would say, “Enough. Be quiet.” They did not like sitting still. They did not like being quiet. They did not like doing “nothing.” They were nine-year-old boys—twins—after all.

After some time—the boys remembered it as “forever”—it was really a mere nine minutes, one for every year of life—Mother said to her sons, “Okay, boys, turn your chairs to face one another.” Tommy began, “It’s about…” “Enough, be quiet,” Mother said, firmly.

“You’ve both been very, very bad toward one another. That’s not how brothers are to act. I want you to apologize to each other.”

Timmy looked at Tommy. Tommy looked at Timmy. Tommy shook his head “no” first. Timmy started to shake his head “no,” too, not wanting to be left behind but upset that he hadn’t thought of it first!

Mother looked unhappy. “Boys, you’ll stay sitting there until you say you’re sorry to your brother.” Two heads shook no yet again. This time Timmy got his in first.

“Fine, then you can sit there until your Father gets home!”

At that the boys looked at each other with that “bling” look; you know the one. The light bulbs went off in each boy’s brain at about the same time—they are twins, after all.

Tommy said, “I’m sorry.” He gave a little snicker after he’d said that. Timmy looked at him with disgust. “I’m sorry, too,” he said, in that “I’m-saying-the-words-but-don’t-really-mean-them” voice. Both smiled a sickingly-sweet smile and looked up at Mother. Mother sighed and gave up. She knew they weren’t really sorry. They’d just said the words to be able to get out of “time out.” She shook her head and said, “I’ve had enough. Now get out of here!”

And with that they did. She heard an “Ouch!” from Tommy as the boys ran down the hall toward their room. “Timmy, stop hitting me,” he yelled.

There was no “fruit” in either Timmy or Tommy’s life. You see, they pulled the “let’s get out of trouble by saying we’re sorry without really being sorry” caper that every kid tries at least once or twice in life—and think they pull the wool over their parents’ or teachers’ or whomever else’s eyes when they do so.

If you’re truly sorry there will be fruit. No, not bananas or oranges or grapes or even strawberries; you can throw strawberries, after all. It’s like John the Baptizer told the Pharisees and Sadducees. In a way they were like Timmy and Tommy. They wanted John to baptize them, too, just like he was baptizing everyone else. After all, he was the latest in a long line of prophets sent from God.

Except the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to skip a necessary part of what John was selling. They didn’t want to confess their sins. Remember, that’s what everybody else was doing. That’s the right attitude that was needed. Matthew wrote,

“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” (3:5-6).

No confessing, no baptism, John said. Actually it went much deeper. You couldn’t get away with the Timmy and Tommy “confession”—you know, the king’s X, fingers crossed behind your back, wink, wink, “confession”—just something you do without meaning it to get something else you want.

Not this time, John said, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance…” (vv.7b-8).

No, if you confess your sins there should be results visible after you’ve done so. Fruit. Not as in Timmy and Tommy’s case, where they went right back to roughhousing and punching one another after they’d “said” they were sorry. No, a change of who you are and what you do.

In New Testament Greek repent literally means “to reconsider,” and refers to a profound change of mind, to a transformation of thinking patterns and value systems. With a change of mind comes a change of heart and, ultimately, a change of direction. We start going God’s direction, not our own. We start following God’s will, not our own.

Did you catch that? I mean, really catch that? It means a transformation. It’s as if you empty out your mind and fill up it up with Christ’s will and calling for you instead. If we empty out ourselves we empty out our sin and sinfulness—the desire to do the very things God tells us not to do and not do the things He calls us to do. We then fill ourselves with “Christ’s mind.” As we do that, we learn what God wants us to do—and then do that—and learn what we’re not to do—and then don’t do those things.

You see, repentance causes a total transformation within us. It changes us. It changes what we’ll then do as a result of that inner change. It’s now reflected on who we are, what we do, and what we seek to become.

That’s really the “fruit” that John the Baptizer is talking about! No, not bananas or oranges or grapes or even strawberries. But the living, visible results of true repentance and contrition. The type where we fall down on our knees in sorrow. The type where we cry our eyes out over who we’ve become as the sinners we are. The type that causes that “double-look.”

You know the one. You see an acquaintance you haven’t seen in years. A quick glance. That person looks familiar. You turn back again and stare. They’ve changed, dramatically.

But the “double-look” we’re looking for here isn’t the one that focuses in on you. It’s not the “Wow, you look great after you lost that twenty pounds” or the “You look twenty years younger!” No, it’s the one that points people to the reason you were able to change, to be transformed. It’s the one that points to Jesus Christ as the Savior who came to take our sin upon Himself and pay for it all on the cross. It’s the one that points people to Jesus as “…the way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through…” Him.

It’s time for fruit. For fruit to be so visible in your life that people will do that “double-take.” That’s what happens when true repentance occurs. Change happens. Visible change happens. People see. And they wonder what happened.

It can even give you the opportunity to say that, for you, it all happened through a faith relationship with Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. And that’s changed you for life, for true life now and life for all eternity.

If you see Timmy and Tommy, you might share a little bit of what you learned today. Actually, if you see your own Timmy or Tommy here today, someone with whom you’ve said “Sorry” with your fingers figuratively crossed behind your back, maybe you should go up to them and repent—and mean it this time. If you do maybe the Pharisees and Sadducees of our day and age will take note and think about confessing their own sins.

Wouldn’t that be a miracle! Yet isn’t that what Christmas is all about? It’s about the miracle of true, eternal forgiveness that comes through the life and death of the Baby who will grow up to be the world’s Savior.

“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (3:8). “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (3:2). I think Timmy and Tommy finally got it this time. Did you?

Regards, in Christ,
PJKreft