In Luke 3, John the Baptist, a prophet preparing the way for the Lord, is brutally honest with crowds who come out to see him. He basically holds up an oversized mirror and says, “Look at yourselves! You look like snakes!” In that moment, something unprecedented and unexpected happens: the crowds draw nearer to him.

Tax collectors, people who were betraying their own people, get baptized by John. They ask John, “What should we do?” Soldiers ask the same.

These crowds find something incredibly life-giving about John’s art of honesty.

Have we lost that art?

Message from Sunday, January 4, 2014.