Hearts and Lives on Fire
In today’s reading in our Burning Hearts bible reading plan, we meet a John the Baptist who is, well, fiery. He’s paving the way for Jesus the Messiah to come, saying that when he comes, things will be transformed.
That’s what fire does: transforms.
It warms, it illuminates, and it destroys as it paves the way for what is new.
John is fiery, but be even more on the look out for Jesus because, as he says, Jesus will baptize people in fire (and the Holy Spirit). What Jesus will bring is a lot of – total – transformation, and he will be the one transforming us as he sets our hearts on fire.
So in Luke 3, crowds are coming out to John to be baptized, but it seems like they are not serious about transformation. It’s a crowd who want to rest on the fact that they were born into the people of God, and so that’s where they’ll be – whether or not their lives reflect the ‘fruit’ of being God’s people.
That’s where John gets fiery. He is clear:
if you are a part of God’s people, your life must bear good fruit.
Otherwise, trees that don’t bear fruit will get thrown into the fire. Ouch.
So what does the fruit look like then? Well, John tells us pretty clearly.
For anyone who has ‘two coats’, they have to share one with anyone who has none. Same with food. So, for anyone who has an abundance of stuff (clothes, food, money, property, etc.), bearing fruit looks like sharing, being generous, and not hoarding resources for ourselves.
For tax collectors, it looks like only collecting what you should – and not being greedy by taking more than you need to. Bearing fruit looks like being non-greedy, honest, and acting with integrity.
For soldiers, whose primary job was more or less to be a peacekeeping force, it was to not extort money by threat of violence or punishment or by dishonesty. Again, bearing fruit looked like being non-greedy, being honest, and acting with integrity.
When it comes down to it, living lives that are reflective of the coming King and Kingdom – or as John says, bearing good fruit – tends to look like being non-greedy (generous), sharing, dealing honestly with people, and acting out of integrity.
I have to ask myself, when reflecting on this, how am I bearing good fruit? Where can I be less greedy? Where can I share more? Where can I be more honest, more up-front? Where can I act out of more integrity?
It’s very practical, and yet, very challenging. But that’s what bearing good fruit is supposed to be like. It’s supposed to make a real difference in the real world in the real lives of real people.
And it really starts with us. You and me.
Because, as we heard on Sunday, Jesus sets our hearts on fire, and when he does, our lives are meant to bear witness to this King and Kingdom, and reflect it in the very real aspects of our lives. Our lives, if we are a part of God’s people, must bear good fruit.