What is striking about John's message is the contrast between the intensity and almost anger and threat in his voice and what he actually demands.

Here he is threatening that the axe is at the root of the tree, that every tree that does not bear good fruit should be cut down and demanding people repent. Yet what he actually asks for is so 'basic'. He demands that soldiers and tax collectors don't exhort and that those with more than they need share. It seems so little.

There is a lot of talk oabout the perfection God demands from us - about the necessity of Christ's sacrifice to pay for even the tiniest sin or thought - that all sin is the same, however small and the demand for perfect obedience is uncompromising by God. Then his prophet demands some basic human respect for each other!

I wonder whether that is the pinnacle of human imagination before Christ? Simply doing the decent thing and keeping the basic laws of society is our target prior to the self-giving love Christ revealing to us a higher way of being. In which case, it is not simply that Christ pays for deliberate sins - h also reveals the new humanity we are being called into - the new creation we are to fulfil ourselves.