Second Sunday in Advent December 6-7, 2025
“A Time for Change” Matthew 3:1-12
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
I need a change. A big change. I think I say that, or think that, every day. I need a change in how I think. In what I say, or don’t say. My attitude. My weaknesses. My habits, oh, my darn habits. My sins. When I start being honest with myself I am not satisfied with what I have become.
If you have some of those same thoughts, no, not about me – but about yourself – then you have come to the right place today.
If that is not you, nor your heart, you can skip what I’m going to say, and I’ll wake you up in about 15 minutes. Set your alarm.
Repentance is change. John the Baptist was a preacher of repentance. Repentance is more than changing your mind. Repentance is changing your life. It is that honest assessment that we have stayed far too long in the wrong place. Sinful habits. Poor attitudes. Self-centered ways. And these wrong places that we get stuck in can get way too comfortable. Pretty soon we can grow to love our sin. We can be very comfortable with what we have become. We can say to others, “That is just how I am.” “You knew how I was before we got together – you had better get used to it.” Really? That is how we are going to live life? We are going to settle? We aren’t going to let God challenge us and change us?
You don’t have to wait until January 1 to begin change in your life. John didn’t wait. It is John who gets the attention in the first chapter in Mark’s biography about Jesus. “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mark 1:4) Our reading in Matthew 3 says, “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’” (Matthew 3:1-2)
Repent. Change. Change is primarily seen in how we treat others. Are we arrogant? Do we judge others quickly and harshly? Jesus said, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34) St. John also speaks this way, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (I John 4:20-21)
Repentance, change, is for the worst sinners. Jesus invited prostitutes, those who sold their bodies to others, to change. He called for tax collectors, who sold their soul for more money, to change. Jesus called for people who lived in violence to others to set aside such cruelty. Change is for all who live in lust and greed of another’s intelligence, money, wife, husband – anyone who has it better than us. Change is the requirement for the worst.
And change is also for the “pious” sinner. Pious like you and me. John wanted results from people who came to him to be baptized. He said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Luke 3:8) People wanted to know how repentance would be shown by their life. What change would be evident? “The crowd asked, ‘what should we do then?’ John answered, ‘The man with two coats should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.’ Tax collectors also came to be baptized. ‘Teacher’, they asked, ‘what should we do?’ ‘Don’t collect any more than you are required to,’ he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, ‘And what should we do?’ He replied, ‘Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.’” (Luke 3:10-14)
Change is so earthly, so common, so practical. It is time for change. But some resist the change that God wants to bring to life. John’s opponents, the Pharisees and Sadducees, had a false hope about how they would stand before the righteous demands of God. But John tore down their flimsy foundation. He said to them, “Do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:9-10)
False hopes and flimsy foundations must change. The Pharisees couldn’t just hold to Abraham. Repentance was necessary for them – as religious and holy as they thought they were. “We have Abraham as our father – just look at us!” They had theirs; we have ours. Listen to some that won’t hold up:
I’m a Lutheran. And not just any Lutheran. I’m the blue blood one – I’m a Missouri-Synod Lutheran!!
I go to church. I sing in the choir. I’m a pastor. Look at me!!
Change is not just what you forsake, what you leave behind, it is where you go, it is what you seek. John wanted his followers to know that his words were not the final words. His call for repentance was not the final action. His baptism was not the final cleansing. John told them, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11)
I had mentioned earlier that repentance grows to distain that we have been too long in the wrong place. That realization requires change, a turning. But you just can’t turn away from something, you must turn toward someone. Who do we turn to? I’ll give you a guess. You’d better get it right. We turn to Jesus.
In Acts 2, 43 days after the crucifixion of the Messiah, 40 days after the resurrection of Jesus, on the day of the Ascension, Peter points the finger and tells the crowd, “You crucified the Christ, the Lord of Glory.” And that message cut deep into their heart. “What shall we do?” Peter says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of the Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)
The best change that God brings is new life. This change cannot be just sorrow and brokenness. This change cannot just be our grief over sinful choices; it must be completed by God’s baptism of grace. There is true grief when we realize that we have stayed far too long in the wrong places of life. But there is joy when we go to the right place where we are graced by God and we connect with others.
Years ago, when there was a Rocky Mountain News in Denver, I remember seeing an ordination picture of a Roman Catholic Priest. He had beautiful vestments on. But I had no idea what he looked like. The picture in the News was this priest laying prone before the altar in his church. He was giving himself fully to God. He emptied himself and looked only to God to provide for his needs. That must be us, too.
John baptizes with water for repentance. He insists on change. And many people, I think it says, “The whole Judean countyside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.” (Mark 1:5) They came in droves because they wanted life to be better.
Come to Jesus. Why? We want life to be better. The Bible says that in Baptism the greatest change comes to us. We go from death to life, from old man to new man. In Baptism, an immersion, we are fully connected to Jesus and He to us. The brutal death and the glorious resurrection of Jesus come to us in our Baptism. About this change Paul would say, “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:3-4)
Time for a change? Sure. Let God do it. He can do it. He will do it. Amen!!
