“Toxic Or Tonic?”
Matthew 3:1-12
12-7-2025
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Some time back I read an interesting article about an herb called Saint John’s Wort. Are you familiar with this plant? It grows wild in meadows and has a pretty yellow flower. Traditionally it’s harvested on June 24th which is the day the church recognizes as John the Baptist’s birthday. That’s how this flower got its name. In ancient times people picked it as protection against evil spirits. But in more modern times it was discovered that it has some medicinal value. It can be used as a natural antidepressant. However, it has the opposite effect in animals. It can make them seriously sick and even kill them if they eat it. So, depending on whether you are an animal or a human, Saint John’s Wort can either be Toxic or a Tonic.
Now I didn’t share that just to give you information for the next time you play Trivial Pursuit. Rather, it’s a timely illustration of what we see in our Gospel reading for today. It may sound odd, but John the Baptizer’s message is either Toxic or Tonic. It can be bad news or good news depending on the condition of the hearer’s heart. That can be seen very clearly in the two types of people in the crowd who came out to listen to him.
St. Matthew tells us that John was preaching out in the wilderness, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Considering his odd clothing and his weird diet it’s amazing that anyone came out to hear him. But what’s even more amazing is people came despite John’s unpleasant message. To put it bluntly, us sinful humans don’t like being told to “Repent.” You know why? Because it means that we’ve sinned; we’ve blown it and we’re in deep trouble with God. We shrink from the idea of repentance because it means that we have to confess our sins, admit our guilt, and beg God for forgiveness. That’s humiliating and we don’t like it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. It’s toxic to our old sinful nature. And yet, the text says that large crowds flocked to John from the whole region to confess their sins and be Baptized by him. Why? Why would all those people go out to John in the wilderness in order to hear something so toxic and poisonous to their sinful nature? The answer can be found in our opening illustration about that herb, Saint John’s Wort. Rather than being toxic, the message of John was a healing tonic to those people. How come? Well, they were truly repentant and humble. They recognized they were sinners in need of God’s gracious forgiveness. That’s what made the difference in their reception of John’s message.
Along with repentance, John was Baptizing people. We need to understand that the idea of a ritual washing like this was not new to these folks. Going all the way back to the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, God had instructed His people to cleanse themselves before He would come into their presence. Even the priests who served in the Temple were supposed to take a ritual bath before entering into the holy places to offer up prayers and sacrifices. Don’t think for a minute that this was just because God didn’t want to spend time with a bunch of dirty, stinky people who needed a bath. No, this outward cleansing was directly connected to the cleansing of their sinful hearts. As they washed themselves and their clothes, it reminded them of the need to have their souls cleansed of sin by God in order to be truly prepared to meet with the Lord. That inner cleansing is what was important.
And so, these people who came out to John willingly submitted themselves to Baptism and confessed their sins. They wanted to be clean in their souls so that they’d be prepared to meet with... Who? The Lord, right? Sort of. They were waiting for and expecting the Messiah, the Savior sent by God. Whether they had a proper understanding of what the Messiah would do isn’t really the issue here. They had been correctly taught that their hearts had to be right with God in order to be prepared to meet the Messiah. When John the Baptist showed up calling them to be washed both inside and out, they saw him as the promised messenger of God whom the prophets Malachi and Isaiah had said would come. This messenger would prepare them for the arrival of the Savior.
Okay, so that’s the one group who came out to John. And his message was a healing tonic to them for the reasons just stated. The other group was made up of the Pharisees and Sadducees. I don’t need to rehearse for you all the pompous, self-righteousness of these two religious parties. Suffice it to say they saw themselves as better than everyone else because they figured they had nearly perfected the outward keeping of the Commandments. Therefore, they felt that of all people, they were prepared and deserving to meet the Messiah. In their eyes, at least, they were right with God. The problem is that they weren’t. Even though they lined up for the outward ritual washing, they were not sincerely humble and repentant of their sins. And that, right there, is the reason why John’s message was toxic to them. It was poison to their unrepentant hearts. John saw right through their hypocrisy, and he called a spade a spade. He laid into them for thinking they could just go through the motions without truly being sorry for their sins. These pious hypocrites were banking on the fact that they were descendants of Abraham to get them into the good graces of God. But rather than calling them offspring of the respected patriarch of their religion, John calls them offspring of vipers! That’s because they were spewing the same venomous lies that they had learned from the great serpent, Satan.
That may sound harsh. It may sound like John was serving them a huge helping of toxic words intended to kill them. But in reality, he was offering them the very words that could save them from a horrible fate. John said that the Messiah they were unprepared to meet now, would return on Judgment Day. And He would separate them from the truly righteous like a farmer separating the wheat from the chaff. Just like the tree that didn’t produce the fruit of repentance, this worthless chaff would also be burned. John was referring to the fires of hell which await all hypocritical, unrepentant sinners. His message may have sounded harsh and toxic but he was trying to rescue them from this eternal misery.
John’s message of repentance is still being preached today. The ministers of Christ who are aren’t afraid or shy to say it, are still calling God’s people to repent. I pray that I have been faithful in doing that as your Pastor. So, let me ask you then: Is John’s message Toxic or Tonic to you? Before you answer that, remember that the determining factor here is having a truly humble and repentant heart. Oh, I know, you think to yourself, “Yeah, of course I have a repentant heart. I just confessed my sins about 15 minutes ago. You heard it, Pastor. You yourself even said my sins were all forgiven.” And my response to that thinking is: “You didn’t answer the question.” Going through the outward motions of confession is not the same as true repentance. Only you and God know if you are truly repentant in your heart. That’s what I’m asking you to ask of yourself. Did you sincerely repent, or did you half-heartedly go through the motions? Depending on how you answer will determine if the message of repentance is Toxic or Tonic to you.
If your repentance is simply a passing regret for having disobeyed God, if it’s a half-hearted apology or sorrow for having been caught, if your repentance is just a temporary commitment to turn from your evil ways, or if you’re holding out on God and refusing to confess all your sins to Him, then your confession was merely an outward show. And all I can say to you is the words of John the Baptist: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” You may turn up your nose at those harsh words. But they are only toxic if your heart remains unrepentant. Those harsh words are a plea for you to turn from your sinful hypocrisy and to instead, turn to the Lord who wishes to save you from the eternal fires of hell. Let Him cleanse your sin with the blood of Christ so that you may be truly clean—truly forgiven—and prepared to stand in the presence of God, both now and on Judgment Day.
If, on the other hand, you sincerely do come before God with a repentant heart, if you lay open your heart and ask Him to remove all your sins for Jesus’ sake, if you trust in Him and Him alone to make your heart right, if you willingly submit your whole life to His corrective love, then the call to repentance is a healing tonic to you. Since you’ve already been Baptized you need not repeat that outward cleansing. But you can return to those promises of God’s grace from your Baptism and be cleansed again and again inwardly. As you sincerely repent and confess all your sins, the promise of forgiveness is the healing tonic for your sin-sick soul.
My prayer is that this Advent Season would be a time of true repentance for us, so that our hearts are prepared to meet our Savior as He comes to be with us in His Word and Sacrament. And I pray that we will then be prepared to meet Him when He returns on Judgment Day. With our hearts cleansed by God we can be assured that we truly are prepared. That is the healing tonic of God’s grace that we all need to hear for our souls. And so, we join together now in our praise and thanks to God the Father for giving us the precious good news of Jesus Christ His Son. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!