Mark begins his account of the life of Jesus with these words: "The beginning of the good news (or the gospel) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." So the question I want to ask today is this: what do you understand by that word Gospel? Is it just the life of Jesus, like a potted history? Or is it something different? When we refer to the Good News what do we mean?
Mark gives us some idea in the way he immediately presents John the Baptist who comes with a message from the Old Testament, a message that we read in our first reading: ’Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ The gospel is an announcement of the coming of someone who was foretold 700 years before by the prophet Isaiah.
What’s more, Mark points out that it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Even that title Christ is a reference to the prophecy of Isaiah. Christ means anointed one. It’s the Greek version of the word Messiah. The Messiah was the one Isaiah promised would come to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.
And now he’s come and his disciples have discovered that he’s far more. He’s in fact the Son of God. Mark takes great pains in the opening chapters of his gospel to show how Jesus came with power and authority that showed him to be more than just a mere mortal; more than just a great teacher or even a great prophet. He teaches with authority, he heals the sick and lame, he drives out evil spirits, he forgives sins and then heals a lame man to show that he has the authority to do it and he even has authority over the physical world as he calms a storm.
But what I want to do today is not in fact to concentrate on Mark’s gospel. Rather I want to look at the prophecy from Isaiah 40 to see how that affects our understanding of what the gospel is all about.
Just to give you some background, this prophecy is addressed to a people who are in exile in Babylon. They’ve been devastated by the destruction of Jerusalem. God appears to have abandoned them and it seems like that they have no future. But God speaks to them through the words of Isaiah and gives them a message of comfort; in fact, great comfort. The word is repeated to give it emphasis: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God." It must have been so encouraging to hear those words at that moment mustn’t it?
Suddenly it becomes clear that God hasn’t abandoned them after all. In fact he’s about to save them. He’s about to bring them back to himself. The guilt they’ve been bearing is gone. Forgiveness is offered. Their time of punishment is over.
You can imagine what Michelle Leslie felt like when she walked out of that Balinese Gaol the other day; when she got off the plane in Sydney the next day . Imagine how David Hicks would feel if he were released from Guantanamo Bay and allowed to come home. That’s the sort of relief, the level of joy these words would have and engendered in the Israelites as they read Isaiah’s words.
And notice the way the message is presented. God says "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem." Speak to her heart. Speak the way a lover would speak to his loved one [or perhaps the way a mother might speak to her new born baby. The way Trudi might speak to Henry when he’s upset]. But in case that doesn’t get through, he’s told to "cry out to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid." The message comes with quiet words of love and a loud shout of proclamation. Whatever it takes to get you to hear the message: "Comfort, Comfort!" and: "You’d better believe it!"
But that wouldn’t be enough if it were just words of consolation. Sometimes we need more than just words, more than just a subjective experience of God’s comfort. Sometimes we need to see that action is going on. And that’s what the message goes on to give us. This isn’t just a subjective message. It’s also a message of an objective reality. God is about to act in history. He’s about to rescue them, to bring them out of captivity and return them to Jerusalem. So he sends out his instructions: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
You might imagine something like the scene on the Eastlink freeway at the moment: heavy earth moving machinery, explosives going off to level whole hillsides, trucks moving the blasted rocks to fill in the valleys so a smooth highway can be prepared.
But notice at the same time, that this doesn’t say prepare the way for the Jewish people returning from exile in Babylon. If you were a nomad out in the desert tending your flock of scrawny looking goats or sheep, and you looked up as this exodus went by, all you’d see would be a great horde of Jews trudging along, looking very tired and thirsty. But what do the eyes of the prophet see? He sees the Lord God coming. God is coming through the desert in all his glory and, as we’ll see in a moment, as he comes he brings his people with him.
[Today we’ve welcomed our newest member into the people of God. But let me ask you,] if you were to look around the church today with ordinary eyes, what would you see? You’d see a fairly motley group of Christians, wouldn’t you? Some old, some young. Some highly intelligent, others fairly average. Some fit as a fiddle, others looking worn out and exhausted. But that would be to miss the main thing. You see when you look at this group of people you see God at work in the world. You see his power for salvation being worked out in our midst. Sometimes it takes the eye of a prophet or the eye of a believer to see God at work. The Jews in exile needed to be reminded that God was still at work. That even if they felt like they couldn’t sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land, that he was still at work, working for and with them.
Can you see that God is at work in our midst? That’s the only basis on which we can feel true comfort in the midst of the struggle and hard work of being God’s people here in Wattle Park isn’t it?
And as we’re thinking about the gospel and the way God brings his purposes to fruition through Jesus’ coming, notice the way seemingly insurmountable barriers are cleared away when God speaks: Mountain ranges are levelled, valleys are filled in, uneven ground made level. The gospel is about God entering the world and removing the obstacles that stand in the way of our salvation.
And not only are the obstacles huge, but those who are called to do God’s will are frail human beings: "All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass." For the Jewish people the task seemed overwhelming. Jerusalem had been destroyed. The Temple had been burnt to the ground. Most of the population had been wiped out. Those who were in Babylon were few and even some of them wouldn’t return, either because they were too frail or because they’d become too comfortable in Babylon. How could they be expected to carry out the rebuilding of Jerusalem that a return would entail?
So too for us. We’re still a small church. We’re stretched to the limits even running a little Family fun day on a Saturday morning. How can we be expected to bring God’s salvation to this part of the world? How can we be expected to change the hearts and minds of all those people living around us who don’t know Jesus Christ?
The answer is in v8: "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever." I wonder do you believe that? Do you believe that "the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; [that] it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb 4:12)? Do you believe that the gospel "is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom 1:16). Do you believe that when God says something, he’ll do it? Or do you hedge your bets. Do you say "well, let’s wait and see."
Listen to what God says in v9: "Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" 10See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him."
How does the Lord come with might? Well, in the immediate situation of Isaiah 40, he comes by sending exiles back to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, then Ezra and finally Nehemiah. Jerusalem and the Temple are rebuilt. But it’s not all that great a victory is it? It happens in dribs and drabs. The temple isn’t a patch on the original. The nation is in disarray. It lasts a few hundred years as an independent entity then the Greeks come in and take it over again. No, there must be more to this prophecy than that mustn’t there? And of course there is.
That’s why Mark begins his gospel with these words: "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ’Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’" 4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
God’s return in glory happens with the appearance of his only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus appears with this message: (Mk 1:15) "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." What time is fulfilled? The time foretold by Isaiah. The time when "the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together."
Jesus comes to prepare a way back to God. He comes to remove the obstacles that separate us from God. That is, he removes the blot of sin from our lives. He takes on himself the punishment that we deserve. He pays the penalty. He sets us free. He brings us back from a self-imposed exile.
And notice the last few lines of our passage from Isaiah, v11: "He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep." It’s not by accident that Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd. He’s the one that God sent to lift us up, to carry us on his shoulders when we become weary, to gently lead those who need his special care. He’s the one who overcomes our human frailty by his own obedience and carries us with him to the Father’s house in heaven.
What’s more, Jesus said he’s the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. The central message of the gospel is that Jesus died on the cross so his people might be set free, might be given new life. When God says "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid," we hear an echo, a prophecy in fact of the work that Jesus would do on the cross.
What is the gospel? It’s the message, the good news, that God’s promise of salvation has been accomplished. It’s the message that those who have been in exile from God’s presence are to be brought back. It’s the message that for those who believe in Jesus Christ, who turn away from their sin to follow him, forgiveness and restoration are offered.
It’s fitting that we think about this on the day of a baptism because what we’re doing in this baptism service is attesting, on Henry’s behalf, to our faith in Jesus Christ and in the cleansing from sin that Jesus has made possible. It’s fitting that we think about this a few weeks before Christmas because Christmas is the time when we remember that Jesus has come to make straight in the desert a highway on which God will carry his people back to himself. Because Christmas is the time when we see how the glory of the Lord has been revealed in the coming of that small child, to be the lord of the whole earth.
"Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins."
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