Homily Two for the Sunday Before Theophany
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
And he (John) preached, saying, "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:7-8)
With the New Year of the Lord’s goodness I greet all of you and sincerely wish everyone renewal in spirit, in faith, in hope, in love, in one’s whole life, so that all may become a new creation, according to the Apostle: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). The bright feast of the Nativity of Christ has passed; another bright feast is approaching — the Feast of Lights, the Baptism of Christ — which took place thirty years after the Nativity of Christ. From that time it was fitting for Jesus Christ to enter upon His open and glorious ministry for the salvation of the human race.
In order to prepare people to receive so glorious a King of heaven and earth, the Creator of the ages, the Only-begotten, co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit — the Son of God — there was sent the great herald and prophet, the Forerunner of the Lord and Baptizer John, a man of life of the utmost strictness, righteousness, and holiness. He was commanded by God, in the wilderness where he lived, to go to the banks of the Jordan and there to preach to the gathering people the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Concerning this great Forerunner and angel in the flesh it had been foretold by the Prophet Malachi, whose memory was commemorated three days ago: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me” (Mal. 3:1). And so John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. "And all the country of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins" (Mark 1:4–5).
Sinful people, like ourselves, were baptized by John; but why, you may ask, was the sinless, most holy Lord baptized by John? So that, my brethren, He might sanctify the waters for us by His baptism and establish and authorize for us the Mystery of Holy Baptism, through which we are all cleansed from the defilement of sin and reborn into a new spiritual life of grace — sanctified and made children of God, a holy people, a royal priesthood, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. See how many and how great gifts we become partakers of through Baptism! Remember this and cherish — cherish firmly — that you are a baptized people, God’s people and Christ’s, and conduct yourselves worthily of the high calling of the Christian life, living in virtue and avoiding every sin.
Thus, this is why the sinless Christ Jesus was baptized by John; this is what a great gift has been granted to us all by God in Baptism, and how we must value it and how worthy of it we must be!
John the Baptist preached to the people who came to him a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and the people confessed their sins to him. From this, brethren, our own penitential confession takes its beginning. John was commanded by God to receive the confession of sinners. To priests also, from the Lord Jesus Christ, authority has been given to hear confession and to absolve repentant sinners, or to bind them.
The Holy Evangelist Luke relates that John the Forerunner spoke sternly, powerfully, reproachfully, and sharply to the people coming to be baptized by him: “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. And already the axe (that is, the axe of death) lies at the root of the trees (by the root of the tree is meant a person’s life); every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt. 3:7–10).
Why did John the Forerunner reprove the people so strictly and sharply, though with great love, and compel them to repentance? First, because he himself was a most righteous man, who deeply loved God and God’s truth and hated unrighteousness, being zealous for righteousness; and second, because the people, in their profound moral corruption, in their extreme injustice and lawlessness, were in need of a strict and sharp word, just as those infected with gangrene require cauterization and cutting or incision.
It should also be noted that John was a seer and saw the depths of the hearts of the people who came to him — the whole repulsive injustice and deceit within them; therefore he could not speak to the unrighteous except sternly, in order to frighten them and correct them by fear. For this reason he did not value their descent from Abraham, saying that the all-powerful God can even from stones raise up children for Abraham; and he reminded them of the axe of death, ready to cut short the days of life, just as barren trees are cut down.
Now I ask myself and those like me this question: why are we, preachers of repentance, weak and exceedingly indulgent toward repentant sinners, almost to the point of condoning every sin? Because we ourselves are sinners and have not loved righteousness with all our hearts, nor hated unrighteousness, and we do not possess divine zeal for truth. We quickly lay our hand upon the heads of sinners with the grace of absolution and forgiveness, and often become partakers of others’ sins, contrary to the apostolic instruction: “Do not lay hands hastily on anyone” (1 Tim. 5:22).
My brethren, you yourselves be strict with yourselves, with your weaknesses and sins; examine yourselves more strictly and precisely, and demand for yourselves a strict confession, so that you may correct yourselves more quickly, and so that we may not, because of lax confession, be condemned by God as negligent in repentance.
How, then, did the preaching of the exalted preacher John the Baptist affect the people? It acted in a most saving way: the people came to themselves, awakened from sinful slumber, and asked him, “What then shall we do?” John pointed them to works of love and mercy, which serve as the best fruits of repentance: “Whoever has two tunics,” he says, “let him share with him who has none, and whoever has food, let him do likewise” (Luke 3:11).
To the tax collectors, extortioners, and soldiers, who also asked him for guidance in deeds of repentance, he replied to the former: “Collect no more than what is appointed for you,” and to the latter: “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages” (Luke 3:13–14).
Thus, John demanded fruits of repentance from everyone; and calling the truly repentant the wheat of God, and the unrepentant straw or chaff on God’s universal threshing floor, he threatened the latter with unquenchable fire, while of the former he said that the Lord would gather them into His eternal granary after His universal and dread judgment, which he figuratively likens to the winnowing of grain on the threshing floor.
In this way John prepared the people to receive the universal Redeemer, Jesus Christ. For us, Jesus Christ has already come long ago, and we only yearly commemorate His wondrous, saving manifestation and the marvelous, saving events of His life. But, brethren, from us — who have tasted the ineffable blessings of Christ, who have been baptized in the holy font and have become children of God — fruits of repentance, fruits of love and mercy toward one another are all the more required. The Spirit of Christ’s grace is mutual love: “These things I command you, that you love one another” (John 15:17). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.