Worldwide Christmas December 12, 2025 Devotional

MATTHEW 3:7-9 | ⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, ⁹ and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

The great passage that John quotes from Isaiah 40:3-5 was a promise that there would be a highway across the desert to carry the exiled people of God home from Jerusalem. God would build it. John hears in this ancient poem an opportunity for Israel in the present. If they are willing to stop hiding behind their official ethnic connection to God and repent and be baptized, then they will be ready spiritually for the greatest of God's acts—the coming of the Messiah. Baptism in Jesus day was a way for Gentiles to convert to Judaism and was seen to be unnecessary and redundant for those already born Jews. Like the prophets before him, John insists that belonging to the people of God without behaving as a person of God is perilous. No ceremony, no certificate, no nominal attendance will suffice. If leaders become like serpents, if the poor are trampled, if there is dishonesty and abuse, then there will be judgment (see Micah 6:6-13).

Repentance is both individual and social. Can you think of an American social practice that is immoral?

Have you ever prayed that an unjust law might be changed or protested one?

Gracious God,

May our repentance, as individuals and as a society be genuine. Show us how, when, and where we have gone wrong.

Amen.