Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday in Advent

James Tissot, “St. John the Baptist and the Pharisees”

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’” Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt 3:1–12)

It is in such clothing that John preaches and publicly identifies the Pharisees and Sadducees who were coming for baptism as a race of vipers. He warns them to bear fruit which is worthy of repentance and not to gloat over having Abraham as a father since God is capable of raising up sons of Abraham out of stones. What John seeks is not a carnal succession but the heredity of faith. Worthiness of origin consists in the examples of one’s deeds, and the glory of one’s race is preserved by the imitation of faith. The devil is without faith; Abraham has faith. As the former was a betrayer of man into transgression, so the latter was justified by faith. The characteristics and manner of life of each one are acquired by a proximity of resemblance; that is, those who have faith are the descendants of Abraham because of their faith, whereas those who have no faith are transformed by their lack of faith into the offspring of the devil. When the Pharisees are scorned as a race of vipers, and their gloating of a holy parentage is checked, it is out of rocks and boulders that sons of Abraham are raised up. The Pharisees are then urged to produce fruit worthy of repentance. They who began with the devil as a father, along with those who are raised up from stones, can become sons of Abraham through faith once more.

That the axe is now placed at the root of the trees testifies to the prerogative of holy power that is present in Christ which indicates that, by the cutting down and burning of unfruitful trees, the destruction of an unfruitful faithlessness is being prepared for the conflagration of judgment. And because the work of the Law was ineffective for salvation, John had appeared as a messenger for the baptizing of those who repent. It was the duty of the prophets to recall the people from their sins, whereas it now belongs to Christ to save those who believe, John says that he baptizes for repentance. Yet, he says, there will come one greater whose shoes he is unworthy to carry in the fulfillment of his ministry, surrendering to the apostles the glory of preaching everywhere, to whose “beautiful feet” it was assigned to proclaim the peace of God. He points to the time of our salvation and judgment when he says of the Lord: He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and by fire. It remains only for those baptized in the Holy Spirit to be brought to perfection by the fire of judgment: his winnowing fork is in his hand, he will clean his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. The job of the winnowing fork is to separate that which is fruitful from the unfruitful. That fork which is in the Lord’s hand indicates the resolve of his power for storing up the wheat into his barns, that is, the perfected fruit of believers. But the chaff of those who are unprofitable as well as the uselessness of those who are unfruitful are for the fire of burning judgment.

Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew 3:3–4