John was in the wilderness preaching. As noted last week, he wouldn’t let his people get by on a comfortable sense of entitlement. They’d better repent!
The crowds asked him, “What should we do?” They wanted something a little more specific – understandable. Most of us need something concrete, something comprehensible to start working upon. And John gave them a specific answer. If someone is fortunate enough to have two coats, share one with someone who has none. The same with food.
Tax collectors were among the crowds. They must have felt they were in a special category—and they were set apart in the society. Tax collectors were considered collaborators with the Roman occupying forces. They had tremendous power since they could collect the tax and then collect whatever more they wanted as their pay. This “administrative fee” could be quite exorbitant. The tax collectors were despised by fellow Israelites. If they were to do what John asked, must they give up being tax collectors? Could they earn a living any other way at this point? What should they do? John told them to collect no more than was appointed to them.
Soldiers also came an asked the same specific question: What should they do? Now Jews were generally not conscripted into the Roman army, so it is often assumed that these were not Roman soldiers. It is not impossible that there could have been a few among the soldiers who came to hear John preach. With the missionary thrust of Hellenistic Judaism, there were a number of God-fearers among the Gentiles. God-fearers were Gentiles who were attracted to the spiritual and moral nature of Israel’s God and embraced the worship of Yahweh. But they couldn’t be considered Jewish because they didn’t practice circumcision or practice the ritual laws such as those having to do with food. If there were God-fearers among the Roman soldiers (and we know there were a few—the book of Acts tells us about at least one of them), then an off-duty soldier could have come out to hear John speak. Other than these, there were Israelites who served as soldiers for Herod. There would have been opportunities for pad their incomes through intimidation. All soldiers of faith wanted John to speak to their situation. He told them to rob no one by intimidation or false accusation, and to be content with their wages.
It seems notable that John’s advice is not radical. It may be uncomfortable to those who have something when there are people in the world who have nothing. But it is not new. Teachings throughout Israelite history had spoken of the call to help others as a responsibility of faith. The book of Proverbs even said specifically that one who gives to the poor lends to the Lord. Later, Jesus would personalize this saying that helping someone is the same as doing it for him.
John doesn't tell soldiers and tax collectors to leave their jobs, just do them without graft or violence. Be content with their wages. Don’t take advantage of their positions to take from others. Perhaps this can be expanded upon to anyone with power. The temptations of power are extreme. It’s not for nothing that Jesus turned them down. It could be noted that everyone has some kind of power that can be abused, even if it’s just to step on a harmless bug or be unpleasant to the people around them. Most people have considerably more power than that.
What kind of power do you have in your personal and individual sphere of life?
What do you think John might say to us in our individual situations?
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