“Making Crooked Roads Straight”
Matthew 3:1-12
By: Rev. Ken Sauer, Pastor, Grace United Methodist Church, Soddy Daisy, TN www.graceumcsd.org
“John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
John appeared in the wilderness.
In the minds of the Jews at this time, the wilderness represented a hostile and ominous place.
It is the place of hunger, thirst, death, outlaws, and demons.
It is home for dangerous creatures—scorpions and snakes.
The wilderness was considered an area of primal chaos or as cursed by God.
John the Baptist went into this dark region to do battle with the forces of evil.
Jesus did the same thing after His baptism by John.
Where is the wilderness today?
For some, it may be found in the board rooms of companies where the bottom line is making a profit—no matter the moral or human cost.
For others it is in the hallways of our high schools where kids are under great pressure from other kids to conform and become the kind of people they never thought, nor desired to be.
For some, the wilderness may be found in the media where so many conflicting voices are vying for our hearts, minds and souls.
Others may find the wilderness to be in their own homes—where family squabbles are the norm and chaos runs rampant.
Still others may be lost in the wilderness of materialism where money is KING and Jesus is molded into an image unrecognizable in Scripture-- the Christ of Upper-Middle-Class American Suburbia.
Perhaps others find wilderness to be in the feeding of their lusts and desires…where they find themselves lost and unsatisfied, but so addicted that they crave more and more of the same.
Where is the primary arena where you are having it out with Satan?
Where do you find your relationship with Jesus Christ to be most vulnerable?
When I had my born again experience my freshman year of college…
…due to the fact that my biggest wilderness area was found in heavy metal rock music…
…I found that I had to smash all my many records and tapes and throw them in the garbage!
A friend of mine told me, at the time, “Ken this is like you are slapping your lover in the face!”
And he was right.
My old lover needed to hit the road in order for my new lover to fully come in!
What is it that you need to get rid of in order for Jesus to come completely in and vanquish your wilderness?
In the last analysis, wilderness is a spiritual state—not a geographic area, is it not?
And if wilderness is a state of chaos—without a sign, pathway or marker—the spiritual challenge is to find a way out of the wilderness!
When John the Baptist shows up in the “wilderness of Judea” what the people see is a spitting image of Elijah—the wild hair and the wild robe and the wild words of the greatest prophet who ever lived.
Elijah was the first big voice to name the failures of God’s people.
He was the man who dared to tell the truth—about their greed, about their cold-heartedness, about their wimpiness in the face of evil!
And Elijah was the one who predicted that, because of their spiritual sloth, the people of God would crumble into oblivion—losing their land, losing their way in the seductive wilderness of the world.
And, of course, everything that Elijah predicted came true—the bloody battles, the arrogant arguments, the social decay, the humiliating exile of Israel’s history.
And so, centuries later, when John the Baptist shows up in the shadows of that remnant, he is speaking to a people who have no Holy Spirit, no holy hope, no holy guts.
But, as a mirage from the past, he simply electrifies the crowd!!!
His urgency, his energy, his truth—yes, even his anger—tantalizes their apathy.
And our Gospel Lesson tells us that lots of people came to hear him!
They open themselves to be driven right off the comfortable, boring highways of their lives.
Why?
Why did they come?
Could it be that they knew their relationship with God was in big trouble?
Could it be they were so empty, so desperate for the ONLY solution which is God?
And maybe, just maybe, in the midst of John’s rebuke—they will repent!
Maybe they will be reborn!
Maybe they will remember—remember who God is and remember who they are.
Have you forgotten who you are?
Could it be that you need to repent and remember who God is in order to be saved from your wilderness?
The people came because maybe, just maybe, John’s blunt message would become a bold blessing!!!
Perhaps people came to John the Baptist because they sensed hope when they heard him preach.
He spoke harsh and direct words, but he led them to the door of hope!
“You can repent,” he basically said.
“There is a way out of the wilderness you’re in.”
John offered a baptism signifying repentance as the highway whereby God can enter our lives, as the way out of the wilderness.
And the voice of John the Baptist enters our wilderness right here and now—today saying “REPENT!!!”
“Repent!”
This ancient word echoes awkwardly in our feel-good world.
And yet, my friends, “Repent!” is the only kind of preparation called for in Scripture before Jesus Christ can come in and be born in our hearts.
Repentance comes from the Greek word metanoia which means a decisive turning, change of mind, to change one’s mind completely.
Repentance is like driving down the wrong road, then turning around and going in the opposite direction!
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
“Repent! Come out of the wilderness and allow Christ to be born in you!”
And as with any birth, the old must pass away and the startling, demanding, difficult must come!
But fear not.
God will be our mid-wife—coaching our birth, and easing the radical changes that squirming new life always brings!
Yes, John’s message of “Repent” is a message of hope!
This message tells us that we don’t have to remain like we are!
We don’t have to remain in the scary and lonely wilderness!
We don’t have to be held captive by our failures, our past, our inadequacies, our temptations, our sins, our fears!
We can repent!
We can get rid of all this mess!
We can start over!
Wouldn’t you hate to live in a world where there was no chance to repent?
In a sense, we could define hell as a place where there is no possibility for repentance.
Imagine a place where there is no way out, no opportunity to get rid of the garbage, no chance to start again.
Several years ago, one of our Protestant denominations had a wonderful, but hard-hitting publicity poster.
It was aimed at people who had drifted away from the church.
At the center of the poster was a picture of six men carrying a casket up the stairs into a church for a funeral.
Printed over the picture were these words: “Will it take six strong men to bring you back to church?
The church welcomes you back no matter what condition you are in, but we would prefer to see you breathing.”
Let’s face it, “Repent” is one of the most beautiful words in our language.
I pays us human beings quite a compliment, because it says that we can do something about the road we have taken.
If we were nothing more than poor animals, we’d have to go the way our instincts demand.
But you and I, humans that we are, can repent!
If your road is crooked, it can be made straight.
If we are on the wrong track, we can turn around, or get another train.
We may not be able to change what we’ve already done, and we may not be able to fully escape the consequences of our past choices…
…but we don’t have to continue down the same destructive road.
We can repent and start again!
John offered a baptism signifying repentance as the highway whereby God can enter our lives, as the Way out of the wilderness.
But repentance alone won’t get us out of the wilderness!
That is why John was able to promise the people more than one baptism.
And the people sensed that there must be more than what John was preaching.
Because John was pointing beyond himself.
His goal wasn’t personal advancement or position.
He was the “voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”
John wasn’t a name to be reckoned with, but a voice to be heard.
John wasn’t building a kingdom for himself, but preparing the way for Another.
And when the Other came, John had the ability to slip off center stage gracefully.
The primary key to John’s greatness was his commitment to something and Someone beyond himself.
And this should be the key to our greatness as well!
When our lives point to Jesus Christ, Who is beyond ourselves, then we are not living in the wilderness…but instead in the Kingdom of God where we are truly being the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth!!!!
John’s style doesn’t fit well in our hype and publicity age.
The late Andy Warhol said that we live in a time when everyone will be a celebrity for fifteen minutes.
And when we see how easily the media and the internet makes public figures and how Humpty-Dumpty-like they smash when they are ignored, Warhol’s prediction seems kinda true.
The lifestyle of our times seems to justify self-promotion: “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”
But don’t be deceived.
John’s way is still the key to greatness!
The self-promoters come and go, but they make no lasting impression on human lives.
There was a toughness of spirit in John the Baptist, demonstrated not so much by his wardrobe and diet as by a mind that could say, “I don’t care what happens to me, if only I do the job I was called to do.”
Someone has said that no one can estimate how much good could be done in our world if no one cared who got the credit.
And this is how is should be within our church!
We are not in competition!
We are here to enable God to make crooked roads straight.
John the Baptist had a goal higher than himself.
Do we?
“Christ is coming,” was basically what John had said, “and He brings with Him glory and power such as my ministry cannot even suggest.”
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Repentance alone won’t get us out of the wilderness.
We all need the saving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ!!!
And not just those of us within the Church!
For it is our turn to continue John’s message by paving the way for God’s grand purposes.
These are great days to be alive!
We are needed, my friends; you and I are needed!
Our times need a new introduction to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and I are favorably situated to be the introducers, the way-preparers!
There could hardly be a more favorable and challenging time.
We will not be dressed like John the Baptist nor will we follow his diet—matters for which most of us are probably grateful!
But we can commit ourselves to the same Lord, and with the same greatness of purpose!!!
Let us commit ourselves, like John, to prepare the way of the Lord in our own lives and in the lives of others!!!
Let us pray: Almighty God, we thank you for the message of repentance. We thank you for second chances. We thank you that there is a Way out of the dreadful situations we find ourselves in. Instill within us a repentant heart for opportunities lost. Give us the greatest of convictions that now is the time, here is the place, and opportunity knocks. Thanks be to God for such an opportunity!
In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray. Amen.
