Luke 3:10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
We are familiar with the text where John the Baptist is baptizing many in the water for repentance. From this passage we receive some reasons of John’s work in the wilderness. The gospel of John envisions a future Messiah who is to come. The gospels Matthew and Mark see John the baptist as someone who is preaching the end of the world. But Luke encapsulates the two, envisioning a Messiah that is to come with the coming wrath, and something else that is quite revolutionary.
Verse 10: What then should we do?
This is a popular question. We ask this question quite often. What should I do? What decisions do I make?
It is an important question. We want to be sure that we are making decisions that will lead us on the right course, decisions that will serve us and others for the better. Our goal is to be on the right track with the experience we receive daily. But in particular, the experience we have found in Christ, in the prayer of salvation, in the baptism in water, in the feeling of God’s presence, calls us to ask the question, what should we now do? How, now that I can be called a christian should live?
In fact, that is the question being asked by those who were being baptized. What should we do? We have been baptized, we have repented of our sins. But what now? Do we wait? Do we run for the hills? What do we do?
This is what is interesting in this text in Luke. There is a future: a future messiah, and a wrath that everyone is trying to escape. However, John the Baptist in Luke says something different, something radical. It is not a hoarding of items, but a giving, not a collection of money, but a standard, a way of dealing fairly. John the Baptist was saying, now that you are baptized, live differently, that is what you should do!
But how are we supposed to do that if the world is coming to an end? Alfred North Whitehead wrote in his book, Religion in the Making, that the universe “is passing with a slowness, inconceivable in our measures of time, to new creative conditions” (RITM, 160) He was a christian mathematician and philosopher. What he meant by this was that this universe does pass slowly. We think we are always late and out of time, and that things need to be done quickly. However, if you carefully look at it, it passes slowly. And because of this, new creative conditions are possible. We live everyday as if it is our last, but also live in such a way so as to develop a future. The “what do we do now?” question can get an answer that now seems adequate. Until the kingdom comes, we are called to live lives of difference, to make new conditions in the here and now. We live as if kingdom is coming, but we also live as if we have time. Not time to rest and do nothing, but to create a new way of doing things for ourselves. If we have made mistakes, there is time to work on changing it; if we did wrong, we have a chance to make it right.
When we look at the texts that follow we see how this quote is important. John the Baptist responds to the question of the people. He says, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” (v11) The first thing he said to do was not to look at abundance for the self, but use it for others. The word sharing becomes priority. The need to amass is no longer important for us, whether we have the latest cell phone, or the latest clothes. There are commercials, for example Walmart, who are looking at how much we spend on groceries that are wasted every year. Food that goes to waste staying in the freezer, or our cupboard. Bread that rots for not using it in time.
Rather than wasting, what are we doing with food, or clothing, or other items that we no longer need, or have an abundance of? But rather, what are you doing with the clothes you used to have? Are you giving it to those in need so they have? How about food? Are we using food wisely? Are we consuming too much? I have been these past two months. I need to go back on a diet! But there is a need to share our food. On thanksgiving many of us had the opportunity to serve in the catholic church on Kennedy Blvd. We saw the need of the homeless. They came and ate, and we sat and spoke with them. We had an opportunity to share a meal with them. Sharing food and sharing a meal are the same. We should think about how we eat, and look to see if others are in need. This makes a difference, it shows how we are unique, when we look to the needs of others over ourselves.
In verse 12, the tax collectors came to him asking the same question. His reply was “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.”(v13) This task was simple. When you work, only collect what should be given to you for the work that you do.
The problem with tax collectors was not that they collected tax. This is a normal thing. We must contribute to the city. Everyone must contribute. The issue, however was if they dealt with it fairly or not. The common practice for tax collectors was to adjust the value of items of farmers, and those passing by and selling. He would tax high amounts, or would make it so that he would win a lot of money for his services. This is why the people despised tax collectors. They were taking so much money away from them. If they refused to give to the tax collector, he could use soldiers to exert money from them. That is where verse 14 comes in, “do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” Soldiers were being used to force money away from the people, using unfair tactics that pushed them to pay. They would even take from the people something extra, for their services.
What John the Baptist was saying was quite simple, yet deeply life changing: be fair, be just, be honest. Don’t take more than what is necessary, and be content with what you have, and where you are at. This is a hard move for both the tax collector and the soldier. The tax collector would no longer find worth in doing his/her task, because their is no value in it. Yet he/she would have to continue and be satisfied. That was probably not much. It would be even harder for the soldier. To extort and to threat are violent actions against the person. John the Baptist was saying, stop acting against the other using violence. However, a soldier resorts to force to control. How could he continue? His role would change from the one who forces to the one who protects.
These are radical changes not only for the regular person, but for all of us, those with higher paying positions, positions of influence, positions of power. And yet, when we experience God, we must change. This change happens in the now at every moment. We remember that the Messiah will come again. But in the meantime, in “the slow passing of the universe,” we can make “new creative conditions” that will provoke others to consider Christ. For when we are doing this, we will get a response from those around us. When we consider others over ourselves, when we our content with our jobs, when we act fairly in our jobs, not robbing people, but only taking what is necessary, when even as we may take a role as a soldier, we can make a difference not by following standards of cheating, robbing, extorting, using force, but looking to the needs of others, tending to the needs, taking only what is necessary, and helping those in need, and protecting them. This will call the attention of those around us, asking, “What should we do? Seek God?”