Luke Says We're All Vipers

I never noticed this before, but although both Matthew and Luke speak of people being present while John the Baptist is baptizing people at the Jordan River and both Matthew and Luke have John saying some VERY harsh words to those people ... the people he says those harsh words to in Matthew are very different than the people he says them to in Luke.

Huh?

Yes ...

In Matthew 3:7 John calls an onlooking group of Pharisees a "brood of vipers".

BUT.

In Luke 3:7 John calls the entire crowd that is gathered to be baptized a "brood of vipers".

... You can go look if up if you want because I didn't believe it either, but it's true.  In Matthew John calls a group of Pharisees who are watching him baptize people a "brood of vipers", but in Luke he calls the entire crowd that has come to be baptized a "brood of vipers".

So many thoughts.

For starters, which one is right ... right?  When you are raised in a tradition like I was, this is the most important question - here we have the same story told in 2 very different ways and so we need to either ...

Figure out which one is right.

OR.

Chalk up the difference to a difference in memory or writing style.

OR.

Insist that these are actually 2 DIFFERENT stories or 2 DIFFERENT instances of John baptizing people.

Sigh.

I can't tell you how many hours and how much energy I poured into conversations like this, trying to figure out how to explain away both large and small discrepancies like this one so that the Gospels would feel more "historical" and more "accurate" and more "true to the events as they happened".  

Nowadays, though, my questions have changed from "which one is correct?" or "which one is historically accurate?" and "OMG what do we do with this discrepancy?" to ...

"Oh, this is interesting.  I wonder why Matthew decided to tell the story one way and Luke another?"

"Hm.  I wonder why Matthew focuses on calling out the Pharisees while Luke is calling out everyone ... even the reader?"

"Matthew seems to be pointing the finger at the teachers, but Luke seems to be pointing his finger at ... me.  Why?"

"What is Luke trying to get at?  Why is this story important for who his readers were?"

Yes.

Aren't these questions FAR MORE INTERESTING?  I think so.  This is why I love the Bible and this is why these stories fascinate me so much, because (as Richard Rohr once said) the stories are like a diamond in that every time you turn them even the slightest bit so that they reflect off the light in a slightly different way ... you see something you never saw before.  

Luke, remember, was writing to people who had just been cast out of their tribe.  Right?  If you remember back to other posts, Matthew was writing in roughly 70AD to a group of Jewish Christians who were living in the wake of Rome's destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and Luke was writing about 15 years later to some of those same Jewish Christians who had now been cast out of the tribe altogether as newly appointed Jewish leaders insisted that any Jewish sect who believed the Messiah had already come was no longer welcome within Judaism.

The Jewish Christians, then (who believed that Jesus was the Messiah), were some of the first to go.  

Luke is writing to these people and in his opening chapters instead of having John the Baptist call the Pharisees a "brood of vipers" (the ones who cast Luke's readers out and seemingly DESERVE to be called even worse names!), he calls ALL THE PEOPLE in the crowd a "brood of vipers" ... ALL the people, including Luke's readers.

"Find yourself in the crowd", Luke is saying.  "Just as the crowd was looking on as John baptized people in the Jordan, so you too are looking on as you read the text and imagine yourself in the crowd that day.  Just as John called THEM a brood of vipers, so he's calling YOU the same today."

"Huh?  Me?  What did I do!"

In his book "Radical Transformation" Alexander John Shaia writes a bit about this and says that "Luke means that the message of Jesus The Christ requires that everyone make a genuine correction of their conscious and a change in their behavior, or else they are not genuinely evolving.  Merely asking for forgiveness does not suffice."

Dang.

That hits hard, right?  If I were one of Luke's readers, I'd be ready see Luke having John RAIL against the Pharisees who cast me out of the tribe just like Matthew did in his Gospel.  

"Here we go!  Let them have it, John!"

Instead, though, John turns on the pages of the text and points his finger directly at me, challenging ME to change, challenging ME to evolve out of my anger, challenging ME to grow past my bitterness, challenging ME to step beyond my desire for revenge.  Yes.  Luke wanted his readers to know that although they were hurt and although they were alone and although they were afraid and although they had been humiliated and outcast by those they loved and once called family, although they were no longer welcome in the religion or faith that they once called home ... it was time to move past their anger, past their bitterness, past their desire for revenge and MOVE ON WITH THEIR LIVES.

In Luke's Gospel the crowd then asks John what they should do ... if we're a brood of vipers, "what then should we do?", they ask.  His response is fascinating for rather than give them a list of things to believe or ideologies to align themselves with, he instead tells them to share their clothes and to share their food; he tells tax collectors to stop taking too much from people so that they can line their own pockets; he tells soldiers to stop extorting money from people ... 

Isn't this beautiful?

In his gospel Luke is using John the Baptist to tell his readers that even though they have been cast out of their tribe and kicked out of their family, they need to move on with their lives and continue to live in the way that Christ taught them - continue to share, continue to love, continue to put others before themselves, continue to make sure that the people around them are taken care of.  "This is no time", he was saying, "to get lost in your bitterness and desire for revenge - you have been cast out of your tribe and have now been tasked with carrying this message of Christ forward into the world.  Do it."

How does that speak to you today?

Listen.  You may never reconcile with the tribe you left or the tribe that showed you the door.  There may be people you were once close with and sat in Bible studies with who have made it abundantly clear what they think of you and your newly found faith evolution.

BUT.

You don't have to be bitter anymore.

You don't have to replay it in your mind anymore.

You don't have to wake up every day pissed off.

You don't have to go to be every night mulling it over.

AND.

AT THE SAME TIME.

You don't need to reconcile. 

You don't need to be friends again.

You don't need to take them out for coffee.

You don't need to subject yourself to their abuse.

INSTEAD.

You are free to move on.

You are free to keep evolving.

You are free to hope the best for them.

You are free to close the door.

You are free to direct your energy towards the good that Christ modeled for us.

"Yes", Luke was telling his readers, "you've been hurt and you've been thrown away ... but it's time to move on, to move forward, to shut the door on that part of your life and continue to do the work of Jesus The Christ."

May 2022 be a year of moving on.

Much love.

Glenn Siepert