PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD
--Isaiah 40:1-5 and Matthew 3:1-12
Advent is the time of preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ in celebration of His nativity and anticipation of His Return. The message of John the Baptizer, who prepared Judea for the First Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, greatly assists us in our personal preparations for the Coming of Jesus in this Holy Season .
Our text today from Isaiah 40 is the basis for the opening tenor recitative “Comfort Ye My People” and its companion aria “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted in Handel’s MESSIAH.” Isaiah prophesies the ministry of John the Baptizer, the Forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ:
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”
Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in our text from Matthew, chapter three.
Our Old Testament and Gospel Lessons speak to us on two different levels—one literal, the other one spiritual. John the Baptizer conducted most of his ministry in the “Wilderness of Judea.” What is a wilderness? One meaning of the term is “lonesome.” Much of this area is a remote, secluded, forsaken, sequestered place. “The Wilderness of Judea” basically is a wasteland bordering the banks of the Jordan River near its entrance into the Dead Sea and extending several miles inland. It is a desert area which is too dry, rough, and rocky for farming but somewhat suitable for grazing. This is the territory where Jesus was tempted by Satan. “Way” and “paths” are terms describing a public road, a highway.
There was little progress in highway construction until the time of the Roman Empire. In earliest times road work was very simple. Stones were simply removed from the pathway, bumps were leveled, and pot holes were filled. When a dignitary, particularly an emperor or a king, would make a State Visit, it was the custom to “Prepare the Way for the Lord.” This meant major road repairs. All the mountains or the bumps in the roads were made low. The valleys, the ruts, and potholes were exalted to “make way for the Coming of the King” [SOURCE: Ralph Gower, The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times (Chicago: Moody Press, 1987), and 230.].
A herald was a royal officer who proclaimed the king’s messages and decrees to the people. If the king was making a State Visit to one of the cities or provinces in his kingdom, the herald would run ahead of his chariot and announce his coming. This is a perfect, poetic description of the ministry of John, the Forerunner of the Jesus. He prepared God’s people for the coming of their Messiah-King.
We’ve set the background and scene for John’s ministry, but preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ is spiritual in nature, and John’s ministry was on a spiritual level. The blessings of Advent will never be found in the hustle and bustle of shopping for gifts for family and friends, sending Christmas cards, baking candy and cookies, attending Holiday parties, or perhaps not even in the singing of favorite Christmas carols. JESUS CHRIST IS THE REASON FOR CHRISTMAS, and this is where we must place our priority if we are to experience the joy and blessings of the Season. John guides us onto the proper road in preparing for the coming of our Messiah-King.
John was a voice speaking for Jesus Christ. The term voice implies “crying aloud.” He cried aloud as a prophet of God; His voice was a prophet’s voice; therefore, his message was authoritative. The voice of the prophet is accepted as “the voice of the Lord,” and obeying the message of the prophet brings reward to God’s people.
Jesus is God’s Supreme Prophet, His ultimate voice. God proclaimed the prophetic ministry of Jesus through Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18-19, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.” God always blesses the people who obey His message as spoken through all His prophets, especially through His Son Jesus.
The urgency of John’s message becomes crystal clear when we realize his voice was a “crying” voice. This means he “called out loudly in order to get the people’s attention.” Such was the ministry of God’s chosen prophets. The one who cries “declares a prophetic message,” and the specific way the term is used by Isaiah denotes that John shared his prophetic message with “invited guests.”
God’s invitation was extended to everyone who heard John preach; they all were invited to enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Paul reminds us throughout the book of Romans that this same invitation is extended to everyone or to “whosoever will.” Remember Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Today John cries with a loud voice to get our attention as he did to his Judean congregation almost two thousand years ago, “The Holy Spirit invites you to enter the eternal kingdom of heaven.” His invitation is for each one of us, and we either accept or reject as we personally choose.
The climax of John’s cry is: “make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” This is the final phrase of Handle’s opening, tenor recitative in THE MESSIAH, and it shows how we prepare for the Coming of Jesus. John preached in the desert; Jesus was tempted in the desert; but most of all, our human hearts are spiritual deserts. Without Jesus they are spiritually dry and arid, full of rough places, and hard as rocks. The prophet Jeremiah paints a strikingly intense picture of the hardness of our spiritual hearts. Note a couple translations of Jeremiah 17:9. The Complete Jewish Bible reads:
The heart is more deceitful than anything else
And mortally sick. Who can fathom it?
THE New Living Translation expresses it in these words: “The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Jesus gives us the bottom line in Mark 7:20-23: “And He said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’” David knew the Right Person to turn to for help when He cried out in Psalm 51:11:
Make me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Speaking through the prophet Joel, God furthermore assures us in Joel 2:12-13, “Even now, declares the LORD, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.” Our hearts must become a “highway for our God.” The Holy Spirit must enter our hard, dry, calloused, deserted spiritual hearts and change them for eternity. When we allow Him, He makes all the mountains, the bumps low. He repairs all the ruts and potholes, and exalts all the valleys, making our hearts fitting highways for our Lord and King, but we must give Him the leeway to transform us.
With the passing of time and problems of life, perhaps some of us who have already accepted Christ as our personal Saviour and Lord must confess that we lost our relationship with Jesus and hardened our hearts to the Holy Spirit. If we return to Him as David praying, “Make me a clean heart, O God,” He will “renew a right spirit within us.” He will make “the crooked straight and the rough places plain.” Then we will truly be prepared for the Coming of our Messiah- King.
Others of us perhaps need to come to Jesus for the very first time, turn from our sin, and receive Him as our personal Saviour and Lord. Perhaps some here today have been Church members for decades but still are not Christians. To prepare for the Coming of Jesus, you must accept Him as your Lord and Saviour, standing on His promise in Romans 10:13, “For Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
How do you do that? I have a perfect illustration from my favorite book next to the Bible THE JOURNEY HOME by Orthodox Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. I’ve shared excerpts from his book with you in the past. Although it is classified as fiction, it is based on authentic events and a genuine friendship Rabbi Eckstein enjoyed with evangelical, charismatic pastor Jamie Buckingham. Pastor Buckingham went to be with Jesus in 1992 after a courageous battle against cancer. Rabbi Eckstein wrote his book as a tribute to his friend. The fictional character Jamie is a caricature and personification of Pastor Buckingham, a journalist who is going to write a series of articles on Israel. This Jamie is touring Jerusalem with Rabbi Eckstein. The two of them strengthen each other’s faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Jamie confesses in the beginning that He is not really a Christian. He honestly admits, “‘Christianity isn’t something we’re born into like you Jews are born into Judaism.’ He sighed. ‘It’s something we accept. And I never really accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior’ [THE JOURNEY HOME, 5].”
The Holy Spirit begins moving in Jamie’s heart as he and the Rabbi travel through the Holy City. When they visited the Kotel, the Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall, Jamie was deeply touched.
Rabbi Eckstein continues the story: “I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that Jamie was writing a note and placing it in the cracks of the Wall. He, a Christian, was moved as I was by touching the hem of God’s holy earthly garments.
“‘What did you pray for?’ I asked reverently.
“‘I asked that God would restore my faith in Him.’ Jamie looked abashed, humbled” [THE JOURNEY HOME, 8].
On the Via Dolorosa a few days later, Jamie was truly born again. Rabbi Eckstein finishes the testimony:
“‘Don’t you see?’ he said, suddenly sobbing. ‘He died for me, sinner that I am.’ With that, Jamie broke down and cried uncontrollably, ‘O Jesus, sweet Jesus. I’m sorry for my sins. O Jesus, thank you for saving me. O Jesus. . .’
“I stood in awe and silence as I watched his born again transformation and what God was doing to his heart. Jamie could not speak. He just sat down on the ground, clasped his head in his hands, and wept.
“‘Oh Jesus,” he finally said between sobs, ‘I accept you as my personal Lord and Savior. I receive you as my Lord, my Christ, my Friend.
“‘Fill me, Father, with your Holy Spirit, that I may serve You faithfully all the days of my life. You are my Lord, and in the Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Thank You, Father, thank You, Father, thank You. . .’
“Jamie looked at me tearfully, almost oblivious to my presence yet eager to hear my reaction. Frankly, I didn’t know what to say. I had never witnessed anything quite like that before, except on those television evangelist shows . . . . A beautiful peace seemed to come over Jamie, as if the burden of life’s struggles was lifted from him. I envied him that peace” [SOURCE: Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, The Journey Home (Chicago: Shavit House, 2001), 194-5.]
Everyone who longs to be a Christian must come to Jesus in similar fashion as Jamie did. Maybe you are such a person this morning. If so, Jesus is calling you to surrender to Him in the same humble spirit Jamie exhibited. The moment you do, you will begin to experience for all eternity the same joy and “beautiful peace that came over Jamie.” The Holy Spirit will “lift life’s struggles” from your heart, because David assures us in Psalm 51:18:
The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit,
A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
For you too, He will “make the crooked straight and the rough places plain.”
