Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

This says cuttingly that descent from Abraham, that is, belonging to the people Israel, cannot rescue from the approaching judgment. Probably the Baptizer goes much further than that: not only is ethnic membership of no avail, but belonging to Abraham’s faith does not help. Even being part of the history of God with his people will fail to rescue them. The text continues: “Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit [will be] cut down and thrown into the fire” (Luke 3:9). This urgent warning is also directed to Israel, because its background is a familiar comparison in the Old Testament tradition: Israel is “God’s planting,” firmly rooted in the Land. In the Psalms of Solomon, an apocryphal writing from the first century BCE, that line of tradition is drawn out still more: there Israel appears as God’s planting that cannot be rooted out for all eternity.³

And that is precisely what John the Baptizer denies. He turns most sharply against any kind of collective certainty of salvation. Israel has become a collective disaster, and therefore judgment has come on the whole people of God. The axe is already at the root of the trees God has planted, and if Israel does not turn back even the root stock will be dug up. God will place Israel under judgment precisely because it is God’s planting. Every tree in the orchard Israel that bears no fruit will be cut down. And “bearing fruit” is no longer possible without the radical repentance that is offered the people now, with baptism in the Jordan.

Israel needs a new exodus and at the same time a new entry into the Promised Land. Therefore John does not go into the cities and towns, and therefore he does not baptize just anywhere, but where Israel had once crossed the Jordan to enter the Promised Land. The history between God and his people is thus pressing toward a final crisis. Judgment on Israel is about to happen immediately. But that judgment can be transformed into salvation if Israel turns back and bears fruit after all.

Lest there be misunderstanding, let me say here that when I speak again and again of Israel I mean the Israel to which John the Baptizer was then preaching. He was a prophet of Israel—and Israel’s prophets since Amos had all spoken just as severely and without compromise. They had to speak that way. But the Baptizer’s words were received into the New Testament, and therefore they apply also to every Christian and to the church, just as they applied to Israel at that time. If the church does not repent and turn back, the judgment of which the Baptizer once spoke will come on it even today.

John the Baptizer had a multitude of images for God’s hard judgment on his people. One of them is the axe. The judge has already measured for the blow about to fall, and now his arm is swinging back. The axe is about to fall. Another image is winnowing with a shovel, when the cut-up straw and chaff are separated from the wheat. The grain falls directly to the ground while the straw is tossed a little farther away and the chaff is swept away by the wind. The judge already has the full shovel in his hand (Matt 3:12). A third image is that of a firestorm that consumes everything (cf. Luke 3:16). Major fires create storms. All those who experienced the night bombings in World War II know about those. The Baptizer says: Israel will be baptized with “storm and fire,” that is, in a horrible firestorm.⁴

It cannot be clearly determined whether this fiery judgment of which the Baptizer spoke was identified with the general judgment of the world. In any case it is a judgment on Israel. Repentance and baptism in the water of the Jordan were the sealing, the protection, the only rescue from the judgment by fire.

That makes it clear that the judgment announced by the Baptizer is not a pure imposition of punishment that offers no hope. The Baptizer’s concern, in his preaching of judgment, was precisely for the eschatological gathering of Israel, its repentance, its purification and sanctification, that is, its eschatological renewal. Israel is to bring “fruits” worthy of its repentance (Luke 3:8). And while the chaff is carried away by the wind, the wheat that remains will be gathered into a great granary (Luke 3:17).

And when will all that happen? Right away. The fiery judge already has the shovel in his hand, the axe is already laid to the root of the tree. This is about this generation in Israel.