In Jesus Holy Name December 8, 2024
Luke 3:3-4
“A Voice Crying for Repentance”
Have you ever thought about how roads are cut and planned, all the permits required, they heavy equipped needed, the engineering. Someone once said: “If you can’t go over it, and you can’t go around it, then go through it.” If valleys cannot filled in, and mountains cannot be brought low and leveled then what do you do? You build a tunnel.
Big Walker Mountain Tunnel near Wytheville, Virginia, is only 5,400 feet in length. The Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel is 1.1 mile long and provides direct access for travel between Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, and Zion National Parks.
The Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunner built in 1973 is a1.7-mile-long tunnel located in the Rocky Mountains, about 60 miles west of Denver, Colorado. It's the highest vehicular tunnel in the world, with an average elevation of 11,112 feet. But none of these compare to the tunnel in Portugal.
The Marao Tunnel was cut through the 4,642-foot high Serra de Marao Mountain range allowing a 4 lane highway between Porto, Portugal and Spain. It was built between 2009 and 2016. Prior to the tunnel, traveling the twisted, two lane road, however scenic, was dangerous. Like many mountain roads, fog and winter snow sometimes contributed to the road being closed. The amazing tunnel is the third-longest tunnel in the Iberian Peninsula. It goes on and on and on, for nearly 3.5 miles.
John the Baptist is at work at preparing the way for the Lord. He is not building a tunnel but he is cutting a straight path in the midst of an evil world. John knew Herod was living an evil, immoral life…he called Herod to straighten out his behavior..He is in the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke sets the words, and life of John in history, noting: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea.” John quotes the prophet Isaiah: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” What do these words ( repeat ) of Isaiah and John mean?
Isaiah and John through words of symbolism and imagery are both making the point that the way to prepare people for the coming of their God is to level the mountains of pride among them and raise up those who live in the valley of despair. God hates pride How many times have we heard Jesus say: “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” (Mark 9:35) , the high and mighty will be humbled and the humble lifted up.
Jesus challenged the pride of the Pharisees. He warned about Pharisees who made a show of their religion but cheated and defrauded widows of their homes. (Mark 12 Parable of the Tenants) ( Mark 12:38-40) John, by using the phrase “Make your paths straight means that you must live a morally and righteous lifestyle. If you are not. That calls for repentance
Then, with all the boldness of someone who did not fear for his life, he called crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’
If you’re going to preach like that, you should take the offering before the sermon!
Why such harsh words? Because the theology of Judaism at the time was, “Salvation is based on my family heritage, my blood ties to Abraham. You and I are not saved because my grandmother had faith. We are not saved if our name is on the membership on the rolls of our local church. We are saved by grace through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. John continued: “For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now 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.” It was a warning to Jerusalem and those who held the religious power.
Just a few Sundays ago our gospels lesson told us that Jesus himself came to the temple and kicked out those selling and defrauding the people who came to worship and said: “You have made my house of prayer a den of robbers and thieves. Jesus came to Jerusalem looking for the fruit of justice, and righteousness and did not find it. (Isaiah 5 & Mark 12) Jesus said: Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? No. So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
The brother of Jesus, wrote: “if anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” Do your friends and co workers hear curse words or dirty jokes and yet they know you attend church on Sunday. Then your religion is not winning anyone to Christ.
John warns that the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Axes cut things down. The imagery is terrifying. The judgment of God is waiting for the right time to swing the axe and cut you down if you are trusting in yourself, or your grandmother’s faith. No one knows when that axe will swing. God’s mercy is currently being shown toward those who are opposing Him. But that mercy will be removed, and all of those who are not saved will be cut down and thrown in the fire - meaning the Lake of Fire or Hell when Jesus returns.
John’s baptism for the forgiveness of sins was new. Leon Morris historian, writes that Jews to whom John was preaching were aware of baptism…but only for Gentiles who wanted to adopt the Jewish faith. They were giving up their false worship, thus making their paths straight living a moral life based on the commandments. John is applying baptism to Jews….who need to repent and receive forgiveness.
On our recent trip to Portugal there are hardly any straight highways. Every hill side is steep, terraced in order to fill the hills with grape vines, and olive trees. Through the centuries the Douro river has cut a deep valley through the hills. Between 1963 and 1987 5 locks were built on the raging Douro River, and it became a quiet, smooth river. One of the locks we went through was 5 stories high. That my friends is leveling the mountains and making the rough smooth.
At first glance John’s world and ours look very different. John didn’t have to navigate social media, the internet, or any of the other complexities of modern life. And most of us don’t live in the wilderness, and no one I know lives on locusts and wild honey.
But for all the obvious differences, the human heart has not changed. We have mountains of pride. We often display unrighteous behavior. What does a farmer do? He prepares the soil, plants the seed, pulls out the weeds, and waters the ground. Then he waits. If there is fruit, he harvests it. If there is no fruit, he cuts down the tree and burns it.
What do you call a farmer who doesn’t care about the harvest? You call him broke! Soon you call him bankrupt. A farmer feeds his family from the fruit of the trees he plants.
No fruit, no harvest, no crop, no money, no food.
Israel and Jerusalem were like a barren tree that produced no harvest.
There was no fruit! This is why Jesus cursed the fig tree on his way to the temple after His Palm Sunday victory parade. In Jewish culture the “fig tree” represented peace and security in Jerusalem. There was no fruit! This is why Jesus cleansed the temple They had ritual without hearts of love and law without justice and righteousness.
John reminded the people that God doesn’t accept your birth certificate as the entrance into heaven. “The price of repentance is very, very painful. True repentance is honest before God.” “Be merciful to me a sinner. J. I. Packer says, The problem in our American culture is that “The subject of divine wrath has become taboo in modern society, and Christians by and large have accepted the taboo and conditioned themselves never to raise the matter.” Thus confession and repentance has been removed from many a worship service.
The crowds asked: What shall we do? The answers John gives are very straightforward: “be generous.” To the tax collectors he said, “be honest.” Has God been kind to you? Be kind to others. Has God shown you mercy? Show mercy to others. Has God forgiven you? Forgive others.
We do not repent to prove how good we are. We repent because God has been so good to us Paul wrote: “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4).
The chemo that kills the cancer first brings you to death’s door. So we take it to extend our lives. Repentance…is a humbling and painful experience if we admit we are wrong and have failed. Yet repentance restores friendship with God.
In this culture, in this secular society in which we find ourselves… It is our life that preaches to our unchurched neighbors just as much as our words do.
(read James 2:14-17) Remember the story of Zacchaeus who climbed up a tree, just to Jesus walking by. He was really short. What happened. He met Jesus. The conversation over the dinner table with Jesus did more than reorder his thinking. His heart was changed and his behavior followed. “Unless word gets around about the behavior of the people who verbally claim to believe in Jesus, those who do not believe will have little interest in the claims of the Christians they know.
(Reinventing evangelism Donald Posteriski p. 25)
The stakes are high. If God’s people fail in their kindness, generosity, good deeds, and righteous behavior, then we will not influence our unchurched neighbors who live in a secular culture to seek more information about the Jesus we worship and honor.
