Prepare the Way: A Meditation on Mark 1

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, 

which shall prepare thy way before thee.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 

Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John did baptize in the wilderness, 

and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, 

and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; 

and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, 

the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

Much of Advent focuses on preparation, as the Church looks forward to the coming of Jesus at Christmas.  Our readings allow us to step back in time with the people of God who waited expectantly for the long prophesied Messiah to come.  Adam and Eve, at the dawn of our human race, looked forward to the One who was promised to come, born of a woman, yet divine so that He might crush the devil who had taken them captive through sin and death.  Abraham, around 2000 BC, looked forward to the fulfilling of his calling that in his descendent all the nations of the earth would be blessed.  Moses, around 1500 BC, foretold of one who would arise like him, though greater than him, who would finally lead the people out of slavery, bondage, and death, as his Exodus from Egypt had prefigured.  King David wrote in his Psalms around 1000 BC, of his faith in the promise of a descendent who was promised to reign forever in perfect righteousness, saving His people from the wrath of their dreaded enemies.  Prophets like Isaiah, writing between 700 and 400 BC, wrote of the promised Messiah, miraculously born of a virgin, who would deliver not only the people of Israel, but restore the whole creation.  For thousands of years before Jesus came on that first Christmas, the people of God were preparing for Him to arrive.  Generation after generation was born, learned the Word of God’s Law and Promises from their previous generations, and handed them on to the next.

Which brings us to the time of John the Baptist, whose birth was only a few months earlier than Jesus’.  He was the one who was foretold who would announce and prepare the way of the Lord even as He was coming, preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins for His sake.  He was rough, likely having grown up in the wilderness surrounding Jerusalem, as some have speculated with the eccentric Essene community (the one’s who likely buried many of the scrolls discovered at Qumran in the last century) due to the extreme age of his parent at his birth.  He wore the clothing of a desert ascetic, foregoing the softer fabrics which most people enjoyed, and wearing instead a rough garb made of camel har.  Rather than enjoying popular or savory food, he chose instead to eat locusts and wild honey.  He was not beholden to either the Pharisees or the Sadducees, not having studied in their respective schools or communities.  He was not a puppet of a political movement, neither aligned with the rebellious Jewish zealots, nor with King Herod and his court.  But what he was, he was called and made to be:  a voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, and make His way straight!

It is Jesus Himself who later tells us that there is no human being who had arisen greater than John the Baptist.  This odd and disturbing fellow, whose story we have only in fragments knit together between the four Gospels, Jesus declares to be greater than every prophet, king, and commander ever born before him, and yet least in the emerging Kingdom of God.  John did not start a political movement or religious sect, he didn’t have prestigious credentials or portraits of famous people hanging on his wall— for all we know, he might not have even had a wall to hang them on, other than the jail cell in which he was later imprisoned and beheaded.  But what John had was what he was given by God, and he faithfully used that gift of God’s prophetic Word to prepare people to meet Jesus.  He called people to repentance and the forgiveness of sins, to baptism, pointing them to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world— the One whom the great John the Baptist was unworthy even to untie His sandals.

And so, John’s message rings in the ears of the Church again this Sunday, as we remember the preparation which the people of God made before meeting Jesus in His Incarnation, and which we still need as we look forward to His second coming at the end of the age.  The call to repentance and the forgiveness of sins, the great herald of God’s eternal Law and Gospel, reminds us that we must meet God on His terms rather than our own.  He is the author of creation, by whose Word we live, and move, and have our being.  It is His Word which gives life, rescues from sin, death, and the devil, and leads His people into everlasting joy.  His Word made flesh in the very Son of God, Jesus Christ, proclaimed down through the ages, calls every soul to make straight the crooked and the perverse, to make level the corrupted and the convoluted, to make bright the dark and the foreboding.  His Word calls everyone to turn from their evil, and by faith to receive His grace of forgiveness which also gives new and everlasting life in Him.

Together as a world, as a nation, as a people, as a congregation, as a family, and as individuals, the Word of the Lord calls again today.  Hear His call to prepare your heart for His arrival in this coming celebration of Christmas, but also as He comes to meet you each dawning day, until that Last Day.  Hear John the Baptist’s call to faith and repentance, that your sins might be forgiven for Jesus’ sake, and that you might meet God as your Savior rather than your Judge.  Hear Him, believe, and live.  Amen.