December 10, 2023 Text: Mark 1:1-8
Dear Friends in Christ,
Just over a century ago, in 1919, a young lieutenant colonel and two hundred and fifty soldiers made the first road trip across the United States. The caravan traversed 3,242 miles through eleven states in sixty-two days, and average of fifty-two miles a day. Poor roads, rough pavement, winding routes – the message was clear: for our nation’s security, to move forces and equipment in case of attack, to say nothing of ease and comfort, there needed to be a better way. The young lieutenant colonel was Dwight Eisenhower. Forty years later as president, Eisenhower instituted the Interstate Highway System that allows us to make the same trip in well under a week.
John the Baptist entered a world where the way for the Lord’s arrival was as rough and winding as that first American road trip. John is the advance man who comes to prepare, to make straight, the way for the greater One following. As he proclaims a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, the way is opened and prepared to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist is . . .
“A ONE-MAN ADVANCE TEAM”
This one-man advance team is foretold by Isaiah. He is the last prophet of the Old Testament. He lives in the wilderness with camel hair clothing and has a diet of locusts and wild honey. John’s message was urgent and unmistakable. The long-expected Messiah is coming. Now is the time to prepare.
This wilderness/desert locale is an appropriate place to begin his work. In the desert the Lord had molded His people into a nation once they left Egypt. It was in the wilderness that God comforted Elijah from the fury of Ahab and Jezebel. The harsh reality of the land stands in contrast to the lush paradise of Eden. It is a picture of sinful degradation of God’s once perfect creation.
John the Baptist, this one-man advance team, had to let people know that he was not the Messiah. He deflects attention from himself and directs it all to Jesus. He is humble. Jesus is the center and focus of this advance man. John prepared for Jesus by pointing away from himself to Christ.
That works for us too. John prepares for Jesus by turning us from our sins to Christ. John could have reveled in the attention – what a great preacher he was, and how about his faithfulness to God’s calling – after all, he was the one spoken of centuries before as the guy who would be a special messenger for God. Pretty seductive. Maybe the advance man wanted to become the star attraction.
We can relate. We think we are the show. We walk out of Meijer and we don’t just throw a few pennies in the kettle, we fold up a bill and push it downward…what a good boy I am! After a little office party imbibing, your co-workers come up to you and tell you that you are the one in the office they have always admired, and you believe it. People are gracious to complement us on a sermon and we think we are John the Baptist. Everyone gushes over your Christmas sugar cookies, and you are the next Betty Crocker ready to hand out your recipe with a wink and a smile. John comes preaching a message of repentance and we think we would have done a good job with that.
None of us though can properly prepare ourselves to meet Jesus. It is the Lord that graciously calls and comes to us. No sinner can stand in God’s presence with his own strength or character. Look at Moses when he saw God, or Peter, James, and John on the mountain with the Lord. They were overshadowed with His being.
This one-man advance team boldly proclaims a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” This is a gift of God. Many of us can misunderstand and think that repentance is our own doing. John’s baptism is unique. One must first be washed to be able to repent and be forgiven.
People from all over came out to John. They were baptized in the Jordan, confessing their sins. They were told to turn from those sins and cling to the one that John was proclaiming. Though they didn’t know His identity yet, they were trusting that their sins were being forgiven by the Christ, the Messiah. And they were. Our sins are being forgiven because Jesus took them from his own Baptism by John in the Jordan to the cross. Our sins of pride are washed away as we trust the Christ and Him crucified.
The focus today of the Christian Church should always be on the One this advance man proclaimed. John’s work was completed, and he is numbered with the martyrs who gave their life in service to the Savior. He enjoys the eternal life that we are looking forward to.
The advance man did his job . . . here comes the King!
Amen.