SERMON 12-04-11

Isaiah 40:1-8 Mark 1:1-8

“Preparing the Way”

Do you know that, “to this day, the Jews are still waiting for the Messiah. There was not just one idea of the Messiah. Some people expected one who would bring peace over all the earth. Some expected one who would bring in the reign of righteousness. Most expected one who would be a great national champion to lead the armies of the Jews as conquerors over all the world. Some expected a super natural figure straight from God. Still more expected a prince to rise from David’s line.”

(William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, pg. 77)

PRAYER

When John the Baptist appears as the messenger preparing the Way of the Lord, what we find is “an unusual character… He is a rugged, ascetic nonconformist, whose diet consists of grasshoppers and wild honey, and who carries on his crusades outside the cities in the wilderness… He seems like a cartoon figure in the New Yorker who walks Park Avenue in a dirty robe, carrying a sign that reads, “Prepare to meet your God!”

But John plays a critical role in the Gospel narrative. He is identified, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, as the voice calling for the preparation of the Lord’s way.” (Walter Brueggemann, Texts for Preaching, Year A, pg. 16-17)

Why did the Pharisees and Sadducees come to hear John?

The Pharisees and Sadducees were responsible to identify false prophets. “First, there was no doubt that John was a prophet, a priest and a descendant of Aaron, he was the son of the priest Zachariah. Secondly, John had many followers and believers, another sign of a real prophet. Thirdly, he was under that suspicion, John did not conform to the normal idea of a priest or a preacher, (judging by his appearance). Anything different than the orthodoxy was suspicious of anything unusual.” (Reason why they went and checked on him and his message), “it was natural to ask John if he claimed to be the Messiah. John completely rejected that claim… They asked him if he was Elijah. It was the Jewish belief that before the Messiah came, Elijah would return to herald his coming and to prepare the world to receive him.

They asked him if he was the expected and promised prophet. It was sometimes believed that Isaiah and, especially Jeremiah would return at the coming of the Messiah… they waited and longed for the emergence of the prophet who would be the greatest of all prophets… But John denied that this honor was his. So they asked him who he was… to which and he quotes Isaiah 40:3. ‘I am nobody; I am only a voice telling you to get ready for the coming of the Lord, he is on the way.’

John was what every true preacher and teacher ought to be – only a voice, a pointer to the (Lordship of Christ). The last thing that John wanted people to do was to look at him; he wanted them to forget him and to see only the (One coming after him).” (Barclay, ibid, 77-79)

“Why did the Pharisees and Sadducees come to hear John and to be baptized? What were they doing among the crowd? Could they have been serious seekers? Are we serious seekers today?

Perhaps they wanted a little bit of his message but not too much – enough to clear their conscience and remove the guilt, enough so that they need no longer be haunted by the past, enough to feel good again. John challenges the privileged position claimed by the Pharisees and Sadducees from being Abraham’s descendants, and declares that from ordinary stones in the wilderness God is able to fashion the children of Abraham. Crowds from Jerusalem and the surrounding districts flock to hear John and apparently find in his preaching a message worth hearing.

He preaches a message of repentance linked to the confession of sins (wrong doings) and practices baptism as a sign of that repentance, (change of way) Repentance has to do not only with remorse over past failures, but also with a new heart and a changed life.” (Brueggemann, Year A, idem,17-18)

“Why do the crowds flock to hear John? Perhaps they were weary of the way their lives are being lived and welcome the call for a change. Perhaps they are glad to know that there really is a God who holds them accountable for their conduct. Perhaps they find reassurance from John that the world in which they live is not amoral after all, that morality is not reduced to a single command – ‘You shall not get caught.’ John, declares a God who cares and demands accountability. To be confronted by such a holy God and to discover who one really is, as painful as that may be, brings relief. It is especially good news to those threatened by what seems like a meaningless world, who fear that there is no resolution or justice (to come).

But John does not stop with a call for true repentance; he also points beyond himself to the one stronger than he, who baptizes with the Spirit and who separates the wheat from the chaff. John’s role is a preparatory one, both in warning people about the coming wrath and in announcing the ministry of the Messiah. The Holy Spirit, who characterizes Jesus’ baptism, signifies the new age, the new kingdom of heaven which is near.” What John gives to the listener are “glimpses of the presence and character of the kingdom of heaven in the words and deeds of Jesus, (who is coming).

John’s preaching needs to be understood in the light of the tensions of the community and the synagogue of the time when (Luke) is writing the gospel.

The Pharisees and Sadducees mirror the leaders of the synagogue…, who ignored the wrath that is to come by rejecting the gospel. The children of Abraham whom God has raised from stones turn out to be the Gentiles who have entered the Christian church and who now claim their Abrahamic descendance. The challenge is aimed at the Jewish authorities, who are called to repent and to embrace changed lives befitting true repentance.”

For us today John’s preached message still invites us “to hear and sense the urgency of repentance. (of changing our ways). (Ibid, 18)

“The church always runs the danger of condemning a new way just because it is new. In one sense there is hardly any institution in the world which resents change so much as the church does. It has often rejected a great teacher and often refused some great adventure simply because it suspected all things new.” (Barclay, ibid, pg.77)

Perhaps the church needs to see itself just like John. “John’s function was to be only the preparer of the way. Any greatness he had came from the greatness of the one who was coming after him…

(May) “God give us grace to forget ourselves and to remember only Christ!”

(Ibid, pg.80)

The one who is coming again! Amen!