Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you
from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen
The
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 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.
In the name of Jesus
John was an
eccentric man, in just about every aspect of his life. He was the ultimate wilderness man. He wandered in the desert. His attire was enough to make anyone take a
second look before quickly turning away.
He wore camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. Being a wilderness man meant that he probably
had a pretty tangled, out of control beard.
What he ate was even more unusual.
Locusts and wild honey? How many
of you can we sign up for that diet? As
we hear this description again, many of you might be wondering to yourself,
why? If John the Baptist walked in here
right now, we would most likely turn the other way and hope he didn’t see us. He was not a pretty sight.
Even the
people in that time were skeptical of John.
You can just imagine their conversations when they came across
John. Maybe the most eccentric thing
they found about John was his message and his actions. Here is this crazy lunatic, who lives in the
desert, preaching repentance and baptism, a baptism just like we witnessed this
morning. First of all, the people in the
region of Judea and the city of Jerusalem would have no idea what baptism
is. They are under the Covenant which
God had already made. One that required
circumcision, not this baptism John was talking about.
The
Pharisees and Sadducees come to confront him at the Jordan River, where he was
doing his preaching and baptizing. They
came out to argue with him. If for no
other reason, he was going against the teachings of the church at the
time. Which meant that he would be
worthy of death. Also, he was having
success. People were coming from all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem
were going out to him and were bring baptized by him in the river Jordan, and
were confessing their sins.
What kind of
a reaction do you think someone would get today? If I were to go down the Dodge Center Creek,
or even the Mississippi, dressed in deer skin, a leather belt, eating bugs and
whatever else I could find. And was
walking around the banks of the river preaching the repentance and
forgiveness. Do you think the people
from Dodge Center, Rochester, and all of Southern Minnesota would be coming out
to me? What if I just walked the streets
of town here, do you think I would get serious followers? I think the only people I would attract are
those with badges on their shirts and handcuffs on their belts.
John’s
message and my message are very direct and pointed. Repent!
Make public confession of your sins and receive public absolution,
forgiveness, in the name of the Lord.
For the time is coming, behold is now when the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Yet, it is ignored. It would
not matter the clothing or setting, people would listen for about one minute
and turn the other way saying things like, how dare he tell me I am a
sinner. How dare he tell me the way I am
living is wrong. How dare he tell me I
am going to hell.
The Law is
not a comfortable thing. Confronting our
own sin is not to make us feel good. In
fact it is just the opposite.
Confronting the sin in our life, pulls us down to a point where we are
extremely vulnerable. It is like looking
in a mirror and seeing each and every flaw we have.
This was what John was working to do and was
successfully doing. In fact it was
John’s mission from before his birth.
When the angel of the Lord came to John’s father, Zechariah, he told him
what John’s mission and purpose was to be.
He said to Zechariah, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has
been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his
name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his
birth, for he will be great before the
Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the
Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn
many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before
him in the spirit and
power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient
to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from
the womb, he will be great, he will turn the children of Israel to the Lord
their God. These words were too good to
be true for Zechariah. Yet, this all
came to pass just as it was told.
Zechariah praised God for his faithfulness and sang of his son John, you, child, will
be called the prophet of the Most High; for you
will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from
on high to give light to those
who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Following
this outburst of praise Scripture records that the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the
wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The beginning of the euangelion, the good
news, the fulfillment of God’s promises, life death and resurrection of our
Lord. And it all beings in Mark’s Gospel
with the radical man in the wilderness.
The man who made all realize and repent of their sins and turn to the
Lord their God. The man whose message
you hear today from this pulpit, repent!
Repent for the forgiveness of sins.
God remained faithful to his promise made many years before the
announcement of the birth of John the Baptist, which we heard in our Gospel and
in our Old Testament reading, because John is the voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.
He was entrusted with the proclamation of the Gospel. Of the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness through the washing of
rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
And it was not HIS baptism. It
was Jesus’. He was only the forerunner
for the Christ. 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 baptized you with water, but he will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit. John is the humble servant who is not even worthy to do the
lowliest of tasks, untie the Lord’s sandals.
But the baptisms are the same.
Through John’s baptism with water, through our baptism with water, we
are given the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We are shown the everlasting light in while we were in darkness. The Christ who was to come, and did come, won
salvation for us.
Forgiveness is ours. As we prepare for Christ’s birth and
ultimately his second coming, we are made clean in the blood of the lamb. Amazing isn’t it? Come
now, let us reason together, says
the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red
like crimson, they shall become like wool. We have such a great visual of this as we look around us
today. For what is covering the
seemingly dead ground, dead grass, bare and lifeless fields, fresh clean snow. Snow that will rejuvenate the ground so that
it will spring to life again.
That is what repentance and forgiveness does for
us. It cleanses us and brings new life
to us. By daily contrition and repentance the Old Adam in us should be drowned
and die, Luther says in his explanation of baptism, with all sin and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge
and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
God grant this to us for the sake of his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, so that we may be found
by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
Amen.
+SDG+
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