Verse 7: In verse 7, we find representatives of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to John to question him. John did not welcome them, calling them vipers. He also sarcastically asks who warned them about the soon coming of God’s weather, implying that they did now know about it or were not ready for it.
The Pharisees and Sadducees represent both sides of the Jewish religious system. The Pharisees were associated with the synagogue system and the Sadducees the Temple system.
The Sadducees were Jewish aristocrats who ruled the Temple. When the Maccabees succeeded in taking the Temple back from the pagan leader Antiochus Epiphanes and his army (about 190 years earlier than John the Baptist) the Temple leadership structured or occupied by the Levites, the clan which God had ordained to run the Temple. Rather, unauthorized priests (not of the correct priestly lineage) were put in charge, and then later those who became High Priest purchased their way into their prestigious and powerful positions.
To understand what a mockery of the Temple system these Sadducees were, one must try to piece together what it is that they believed and taught. To begin with, the Sadducees were complicit with Rome in their handling of the Jewish people since the only thing which actually mattered to them was holding on to their wealth and authority. They did not believe in resurrection and refused acceptance of any kind of afterlife. They believed not in human freewill or even God’s will, per se, but rather in the Greco-Roman concept of fate. These doctrines would set them on a path of irreconcilable difference with the teachings of Jesus. The Sadducees also denied the authority of the Oral Torah also known as Jewish Law, Tradition, oral tradition and Halakah.
Sometimes it can be difficult to trace why a religious sect believes what they do and denies what they do. But in the case of the Sadducees, denying the authority of the oral tradition is rather obvious. It was a result of their political and religious rivalry with the Pharisees.
The oral tradition was the center and focus of the teachings of the religious and political sect of Pharisees.
Remember from previous discussions, the dual religious system which was in which in the first century A.D. The Pharisees were in charge of the synagogue system. The Sadducees were in charge of the Temple.
The common Jews and many of the the wealthier Jews were attached to one synagogue. This is where they obtained their moral, ethical and religious instruction. Much of their social life revolved around the synagogue.
The Temple system was where the common people went when they needed legal justice. The Sanhedrin was at the Temple. It was the highest court. It is also where they followed God’s laws concerning sacrificing, tithing and observing the ordinances of the appointed times including the biblical feasts. The Temple was where, according to the Bible, the people were to go for direct instruction of the Torah from the Levite priests, but that practice had died out long ago.
John the Baptist knew that nothing he was going to say would change the minds of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He knew they did not come to him to seek truth. Rather, they came to intimidate the people who were flocking to John.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were rivals, but they were not enemies. They were unified in the motive of wanting to guard their religious territory and authority. The growing flocks of people seeking out John sent up a red flag.
John characterizes the two representatives as trying to avoid God’s coming wrath. This once again plays into the Elijah and the End Times scenario because Elijah was believed throughout Judaism to appear shortly before the Day of the LORD when God would pour out His wrath.
The common people thought they were living in the End Times. Without a doubt, the Apostles Paul and Peter believed they were living in the Last Days and taught it to anyone who would listen.
Verse 8: John says to the Pharisees and Sadducees that is they are sincerely coming to confess or repent then they need to bear fruit to prove it. This concept of fruit, meaning works and good deeds, as the necessary proof of one’s faith in the God of Israel is stated several times in various New Testament books. The one statement which is perhaps the best known is in the Book of James.
“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, and someone says to him, ‘Peace! Keep warm and eat hearty!’ without giving him what he needs, what good does it do? Thus faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead. But someone will say that you have faith and I have actions. Show me your faith without actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions!” (James 2:15-18)
Feeling sorry for people in need is not the same thing as taking action to help people in need. Good fruit is not our nice thoughts and well wishes. It is physical, tangible deeds which we do to alleviate the sufferings of other. While James uses this good fruit as proof of our faith, John uses it as proof of our sincerity. John then takes it one step farther by telling these religious authorities that simply being a Hebrew descended from Abraham (the father of all Hebrews) is not good enough to be in good standing with God. That is, being a Jew does not negate the need for personal forgiveness of sins, restoration and redemption, or for performing good deeds.
The takeaway message is that sincere trust in God can only be proven by one’s outward deed and actions. This begins with our obedience to God. One’s affiliation to a group or one’s family heritage does not include or exclude anyone from having peace with God. However, it there is no obedience, and there are no good deeds ad work to go along with a professed faith, then one’s faith is to be doubted. This lack of fruit should be an alarm signal to one’s self that perhaps we have been deceiving ourselves.
Jesus soberly warns us:
“Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire! So you will recognize them by their fruit. Now everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On that Day, many will to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not expel demons in your name? Did we not perform many miracles in your name?’ Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never know you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:19-23)
Verse 10: In verse 10, John tells the Sadducees and Pharisees that they are insincere. He uses the the metaphor of an axe chopping down a tree which does not produce good fruit. It is then destroyed with fire.
The tree represents a person who is a member of God’s covenant community—an Israelite. The fruit is the product of that person’s life, that is his actions and deeds. It is what is seen outwardly that is a window into that person’s character. It reveals what that person is. Bad fruit comes from bad character; good fruit comes from good character.
In the context of Judaism, bad fruit means evil deeds or lack of good deed. Good fruit means doing good deeds and works. Jesus uses a very similar analogy in Matthew 7:16-20:
“You will recognize them by their fruit. Can people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every healthy tree produces good fruit, but a poor tree produces bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire! So you will recognize them by their fruit.”
In the Bible, God uses fire mostly for two purposes: for purification or for destruction. Purification is used to burn off the dross. Dross is the part of silver which has impurities in it. Dross applied to our lives includes our imperfections and sin. When the dross is removed, the pure silver is left behind. Destruction is to take a wicked thing and end its existence.
From John’s message, the leaders and teachers of the Temple and the Synagogue are those ones who are being warned.
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