A Tentative Strategy
Some in the crowd come out to see what is going on, not to believe, but to plot.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." - Matt. 3:7-12
John the Baptist is angry.
He can't believe the leaders of the Jewish faith have come to be baptized. They have to have something up their sleeve.
In this case, the doubt works in reverse. John doubts the sincerity of the leaders because he knows how strongly they believe what they believe.
But what if they were coming to see John for their own benefit?
What if they wanted to believe?
Because he didn't trust them, he wasn't going to give them a chance to get the upper hand against him. He would rather toss them aside and lose possible converts rather than risk destroying his whole ministry.
In many ways, we are all like John.
We may be strong in our beliefs, but tentative when it comes to others who are known to have opposing views who come to see what we have to say.
Like a brood of vipers, they become untrustworthy, a danger.
If we fail to open our hearts to those who could hurt us, we will forever remain on opposite sides of the fence.
That is the strategy we have been following throughout history.
How is that working for us?
More to come...