“POINTING BEYOND OURSELVES”
Mark 1:1-8
Isaiah 40:1-11
By: Rev. Kenneth E. Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
Approximately three-hundred years before John the Baptist came on the scene...
...God had promised through the prophet Isaiah that a person would come and announce the coming of the
Messiah...
...Isaiah said he would be: “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in
the wilderness a highway for our God.”
And John is this man!
John was a man of the wilderness.
Our Gospel lesson tells us that he wore clothing made of camel’s hair...and he ate locusts and wild honey.
Locusts can mean the little bugs or a nut, the carob that poor people often ate.
The honey may have come from wild bees or it may have been a kind of sap from certain trees.
Whatever it was...the point is that John ate the diet of the very poor.
He was a simple prophet who pointed to someone beyond himself!
“And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins...and the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.”
They left the city...and went into the wilderness...they went out to him!
This is interesting because repentance is deeply rooted in the wilderness.
Just think of the Exodus.
In order to prepare the way for Christ’s coming, God had the people go back to their beginnings with
God...He had them return to the wilderness!
Just as Israel had long ago been separated from Egypt...from slavery in Egypt...by a pilgrimage through
the waters of the Red Sea...
...John the Baptist is calling them to once again experience separation...
...this time it is separation from their slavery to sin...
...this is a second exodus for Israel...
...in order for them to be prepared for a new covenant with God.
And their willingness to return to the wilderness reminds us that Israel’s history is one of disobedience
and rebellion...
...and a desire to begin once more.
And John’s proclamation of the forgiveness of sins gives the people and us the assurance that God is still
willing to extend His grace!
We might ask: “Why did God have them return to the wilderness?”
I think it is symbolic...
...in the sense that they were called to return to a place where their dependence was soley on God...
...and in order to truly repent they...
...like all of us...
...had to exchange their pride for humility!
John was “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
And this baptism was the symbol of repentance.
The mood, the spirit, the act of repentance is the main thing!
Repentance is more than ‘penitence’ or ‘godly sorrow for sin.’
The Greek word for Repentance means a complete change of mind, a new direction of the will, and
altered purpose in life....
...it is a turning away from sin...
...and a turning to the Lord!
Repentance is not merely remorse...
...it is not just admitting mistakes...
...it is not just saying to ourselves, “I have been a fool!”
Who hasn’t said these things?
These things are common, easy and obvious.
Repentance is more.
It is even more than being ‘sorry’ for our sins.
A Sunday School teacher asked a class what the word ‘repentance’ means.
A little boy put up his hand and said, “It is being sorry for your sins.”
Then a little girl raised her hand and said, “It is being sorry enough to quit.”
Repentance is a moral and spiritual revolution!
And because of this...
...genuine repentance is one of the hardest things in the world to do...
...and yet it is essential if we are going to be restored to a right relationship with God.
Repentance calls for the complete breakdown of pride...
...of selfishness...
...of the hunger for the prestige which can come from wealth and fame...
...and of the self-will.
A schoolgirl was saved and someone asked her, “What were you before?”
She said, “A sinner.”
Then she was asked, “What are you now?”
She answered, “A sinner.”
They asked, “What’s the difference?”
She answered, “I was a sinner running after sin. But now I’m a sinner running from sin.”
Verse 5 tells us that those who were being baptized confessed their sins.
Sin is an infinitely stronger word than ‘mistake’.
It is also an infiniteley stronger word than the easy, soothing, modern psychological jargon which the
secular world so often substitutes for the Judeo-Christian word--sin.
Confession in the language of psychoanalysis might go something like this: “I have followed too much the
inhibitions and self-expressions of my own complexes.
I have not sublimated my libido, nor have I considered my neurosis.”
These kinds of words never lead to the liberating: “I have sinned against heaven in Your sight Lord
God!”
Nothing short of repentance can lead us out disaster.
Our wills must be set in a new direction...
...we must turn away from the fatal scramble for power, prestige, and advantage.
In the forefront of John’s call for repentance was his knowledge of the coming of the only One Who can
and will forgive anyone who truly repents of their sins....
“And this was his message: ‘After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I
am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”
John’s entire message was about pointing beyond himself to Jesus Christ the Messiah!
And this should be our entire message as well!
As the great evangelist...the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: “When I came to you, brothers, I
did not come to you with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
When we speak to others...
....are we trying to get them to be impressed by us or by Jesus Christ?
When we serve others...
....are we just looking for recognition for ourselves or do we want them to know that it is not I doing this, but
Christ Who lives in me?
“Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
How badly do we want others to come to know the liberating and transforming power of Jesus Christ?
When we point beyond ourselves to Jesus Christ...we are not only freed from the heavy--self-conscious--
burden to impress...
...but our entire lives are turned outward as we are transformed into joyful and expectant disciples of the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords!
And once we have gotten a taste of this kind of living...
...everything else is as bland as cardboard!
Every word and action of John the Baptist pointed toward Jesus Christ.
This is where John found his greatest significance.
When John saw Jesus coming toward him he said: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world!”
“I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
All true greatness consists of pointing to Someone beyond ourselves.
And that Someone is God.
Baron Bunsen said to his wife on her deathbed: “In thy face I have seen the Eternal.”
Her life had a Godward reference.
Do our lives have a Godward reference?
Do our lives carry any strong suggestion of One Who is mightier than us?...
...or are we self-enclosed and self-absorbed?
Do we ever remind people of Jesus Christ?
Are we pointing beyond ourselves?
