Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 1st Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 1–8:
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’ ”
4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In our modern daily lives we are continually being exposed to an age old technique of delivering a message, it is called ‘Repetition for effect’. Television advertising and political speeches are two prime examples. ‘Repetition for Effect’ is a subtle technique that repeats the same message over and over again using different words with the purpose of implanting that message in our sub conscious thinking. It is not all about cunning manipulation; the very same method has been used positively by famous orators and authors; even the authors of the Holy Bible.
Isaiah used this repetition effect in today’s Old Testament reading: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” “Make straight,” “Lift up the valley,” “lower the mountains and hills,” “Level the uneven ground,” “make the rough places plain,” – how many ways are there to prepare a way? Isaiah really wants us to know that preparing the way for the Lord is vitally important. He used the repetition effect to make his point.
As powerful as ‘Repetition for effect’ is, in our Gospel reading we see Mark taking it one step further. He builds up one idea using the repetition effect method and then simply goes on to say that there is a second idea that is even greater than the first. Today’s Gospel tells us that John is really great, but Jesus is even better.
Mark begins his account of the Gospel by talking about John. He begins to build up John by showing us that here is a prophet who fulfils prophecy. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ” This already makes John important, but Mark isn’t finished describing John yet.
Mark intensified John’s greatness by saying, “All the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” So John is not only the fulfilment of prophecy, but he is also the instrument of the Holy Spirit to bring repentance and baptism to the Jordan River. Mark makes it very clear that John was a key player in God’s plan for salvation.
Then, as we are pretty much convinced that Mark’s account in the Gospel is really about John, we hear John himself say, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” Mark has told us that John is important – that he is great, but even that is not enough to make John worthy to untie the sandal strap of the one who follows him. As great as John is, he is still a sinner. Even as John baptised in the wilderness and proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, he himself needed that forgiveness.
Every time I read this passage from Mark I get a total reality check on the state of my humanity: “If someone as great as John can’t even reach Jesus’ sandal straps, what chance do I have?” Think about it. John is the last of the Old Testament prophets. He is also the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. There are even prophecies written about him. If he is too sinful to even untie the sandals of Jesus, then my guilt is even worse. If John is nothing compared to Jesus, then I haven’t got a chance.
This whole human logic thinking totally emphasises the reason that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is such good news. It tells us that God knows we can’t reach up to Him and therefore, He reaches down to us. We can’t come to Him, so He comes to us.
Yet it is not feasible for God to simply come to us. If He did that, His holiness would destroy our sin and us along with it. God must come to us in a way that takes our sin away from us so that His justice can punish the sin without destroying us. Mark’s Gospel account tells us that Jesus, the Son of God comes in that special way. He comes as the Christ.
Jesus Himself tells us what it means to come as the Christ. He said, [Luke 24:46] “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” When Mark tells us that his writing is “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” he is already telling us that Jesus is the one who will suffer and rise on the third day. In fact, as you hear the Christmas story, you will constantly hear of the Christ who is born of Mary. This is the same as saying that the one who will suffer and rise from the dead who is born of Mary.
God comes to us in a totally unexpected way. Even though we are not worthy to touch His sandal straps, He comes to us in ordinary human flesh. Even though we are not worthy to touch His sandal straps, He walked a lifetime in our sandals and He did it without sin. He comes in this way so that He could take our sin up from us into Himself. He comes in this way so that He could take the punishment for our sin into Himself.
Even though we are not worthy to touch His sandals straps, He allowed mere men to nail Him to a cross. It was from the apparent weakness of that cross that Jesus demonstrated His greatest might. In the apparent defeat of death, Christ conquered death. He became the solution for sin by taking our sin onto Himself and paying the price for it. As He walked in our sandals on the way of death He took away our sin and covered us in His holy righteousness. Now God can come to us without condemnation. Now God can come to us in joy.
John, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets baptised with water. Jesus baptises with the Holy Spirit. By that Holy Spirit we receive the gift of faith in Jesus. It is by that faith that we receive all the gifts that Christ comes to give us. It is through that gift of faith in Jesus that we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation. Through that gift of faith God comes to us in joy.
During Advent we contemplate the ways that God prepares us for His coming and no one was more into that preparation than John the Baptist. John was the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. He is the hinge between the Old Testament and the New Testament. He is so important that God inspired prophets such as Isaiah, Malachi, and others to foretell his coming. The Holy Spirit inspired Mark to quote from Isaiah. John the Baptist is “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord and so forth. Even Jesus had words of praise for John. He said, [Matthew 11:11] “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.”
Never the less, John had to confess that he was not worthy to enter God’s presence. He fully understood that he was a sinner who deserved nothing but punishment from God.
In light of that, we too must confess that we are sinful and unclean, that we have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed. We, like John, deserve nothing but punishment from God.
As a key player in God’s plan for our salvation, John pointed to the one who followed him, Jesus. The Holy Spirit inspired Mark to begin his account of the Gospel with a clear confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. As we learn what it means to be the Christ, we learn that Jesus is the one who lives for us, who suffers for us, who dies for us, and who returns to life for us. (John 10:10) We learn that Jesus is the way that God comes so that we can have life and have it abundantly
In this season of Advent, this season of coming and preparing, God reminds us that it is He who comes and He who prepares. He came once to prepare the way of salvation for all mankind. He still comes to prepare that way in us. He will come to take those whom He has prepared to live with Him forever. Let us all earnestly pray this Advent Season that all would hear God as He comes so that He would prepare them for His Last Coming. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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