Gospel for December 17, 2023

“John the Baptist”
photographed by Romana Klee.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 1:6-8, 19-28
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Prologue to the Gospel of John, which comprises John 1:1-18, is one of the more majestic passages in all of Scripture.  But in this selection the Gospel writer is seeking to clarify the relationship of John the Baptist with the Messiah.

There are many who believe that John’s followers formed an early rivalry with the disciples who followed Jesus.  This is understandable.  John was a dynamic, charismatic and prophetic fellow who spoke truth to power and summoned a spiritually hungry people to renewal.

However, as the Gospel of John makes clear, and then John the Baptist himself insists, he is not the Messiah.

As the Prologue makes clear, John the Baptist is not the light but only bears witness to the light.  The identity of the light has already been revealed as the preexistent Christ, who was present at the beginning and through whom and for whom creation was made:  

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it (John 1:4-5).

John the Baptist himself insists that he is not the Christ.  Interestingly, verses 19-28 introduce the dialogue form that is so common in the Gospel of John.  There is in these dialogues a sense of debate — a conflict is introduced and then resolved.

In this case, Jewish leaders in Jerusalem have become aware of John’s ministry, and so they send a “Committee on Investigation” to ask him some questions.  Their first question is insinuating and indirect:

Who are you?

John’s response is direct — he tells them he is not the Messiah, nor even a prophet.  So then, they want to know, just who do you think you are?  And John answers with the prophetic text from Isaiah 40:3:

I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.

This is the text cited by the other three Gospel writers as well in reference to John’s unique relationship to Jesus.

John clearly sees his role as preparing the way for the Messiah by calling the people to repentance.

When asked then why he baptizes, he answers with a cryptic response. He doesn’t answer their question directly.  Instead, John tells them that the Messiah is already among them, and they don’t realize it.

The “Committee on Investigation” may have asked this question because baptism was certainly not unknown to the Jewish religion.  A Gentile who converted to Judaism not only had to be circumcised but also baptized as a sign that he was “born anew.”  And of course the Essene Community at Qumran by the Dead Sea practiced ritual washing.

But John was baptizing those who were already Jews!  They were already part of the covenant!  What authority did he have to do such a thing?  Again, John is making clear that his ministry is a preparation for the ministry of the Messiah. Therefore he doesn’t seem to find it necessary to explain himself to the priests and Levites.

APPLY:  

Perhaps the greatest service we can provide is to be a little like John the Baptist.  I don’t mean that we should wear camel’s hair and eat locusts and wild honey, or even that we should go around baptizing people willy-nilly.

No, perhaps one of the greatest services we can provide is to prepare others for the coming of Christ into their lives.  We can tell others that Christ is already among us — they need only turn to him in faith.  We, like John, can bear witness to the light that has come into the world.

What a difference it might make if each Christian made an effort to point others to Christ, and to say “I am not the focus here, Christ is!”

I recall years ago going into a restaurant and seeing on the menu words to this effect: “If you meet me and forget me, you have lost nothing. But if you meet Jesus Christ and forget Him you have lost everything.”  It was signed by the late owner of the restaurant, who was still making a witness by that aphorism long after his own death!

RESPOND: 

I must remember that the goal of my life is to bear witness not to myself or my meager accomplishments, but to point only toward Christ as the meaning and purpose of life.

Our Lord, empower me to be a witness to your coming into the world.  I don’t need to argue with other people about my authority, or who I am.  I just need to direct their attention to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“john the baptist” by romana klee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
 

Gospel for December 10, 2023

John the Baptist prepares the highway of our hearts to receive the King of kings.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 1:1-8
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Mark begins, to our modern minds, in the middle of things rather than with the birth stories of Jesus. This is unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and even John, which begins with the very beginning of time.

The beginning in Mark starts with the ministry of John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Messiah.  But the Gospel of Mark makes it very clear that the central focus of the book is:

The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

John is identified in the Gospels by Jesus as the figure of Elijah, who was prophesied to come at the end of the age.  Here, we see John as the figure who is fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. He is “preparing the way” for Jesus.

One clever way of understanding this is that Jesus is the Savior, John is the Paviour.  Paviour is an archaic Middle English word that means a road maker, a paver.

As mentioned in the SOAR Lectionary Bible study on Isaiah 40:1-11 (click here to go to that post), kings in the ancient world often required roads to be built to facilitate their visits to different provinces of their kingdom.  John is the contractor for the highway of the Lord.

John’s ministry is a proclamation of the coming of the kingdom, with the demand for repentance.  His baptism was a powerful symbol of cleansing — but he makes it clear that the Messiah who comes after him will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit — signifying an intense, purgative and infilling power.

John is an eccentric figure with unusual clothing that was typical of some Old Testament prophets, and a strange wilderness diet.  Some scholars are of the opinion that his baptismal practices and his habitation in the desert may suggest some association with the ascetical Essene sect that lived in a kind of monastic setting near the Dead Sea.

Some scholars also suggest that because of John’s charismatic and dynamic ministry, he gathered a following that may have been seen as a rivalry early on between the followers of John and the followers of Jesus.  All of the Gospel writers are careful to emphasize John’s powerful message of repentance, but they also stress his humility — he is very conscious that the one who is to follow him surpasses him.  The ministry of John marks a transition to the ministry of Jesus.

APPLY:  

How are we to prepare in the season of Advent for the coming of our Lord?  Is it Christmas trees and Christmas shopping and overeating at Christmas parties?

It may come as a surprise that the original purpose of Advent in the church wasn’t as an early extension of the Christmas season.  It wasn’t intended to add to the shopping days!

Instead, the season of Advent was to be like Lent, a season of self-examination, self-denial, and repentance.  In that sense the message of John is well suited to the season.

If we are to be truly prepared for the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, we need to ask for the interior of our hearts to be thoroughly cleansed.  This is to be no superficial change of habit, but a deep and inner change.  This is a change only the Holy Spirit can bring.

RESPOND: 

I like the feasting and the celebration of Christmas, but in order to be ready to receive my King I need to prepare my heart with repentance of sin.  Thankfully, Jesus has come to bring pardon from my sin, but also power over sin in my life.

Our Lord, I know that a mere ritual, external cleansing is not enough to prepare me for your coming.  May your cleansing fire and Holy Spirit cleanse me from within and prepare me for you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Relax” by Martha Soukup is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for December 10, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 40:1-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage is a good example of what I call “prophetic double vision.”  Here’s what I mean by that — when the prophet declared this oracle, it is very likely that it was addressed to a particular historical context in his own time.  But as the early church read these texts in the light of the coming of Jesus, the vision of the original oracle was in some sense “refracted,” in much the way that light is refracted when it passes through water.

In other words, the text means what it means for Isaiah’s time, but it also shimmers with profound truth for the Christian church.

In its original context, Isaiah is speaking a word of comfort to the people of Israel. Probably written around 540 B.C., this oracle is written after the conquest of Judah, the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, and the deportation of the Jews to Babylon.  Therefore, we can surely understand the need for comfort.

Here is the comforting word — the prophet assures Jerusalem (i.e., the Jews who are in exile) that they have “paid their debt” and their sins have been expiated by their suffering. If you take the time to read 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, and some of the other prophets writing at the same time as Isaiah, you will certainly understand what their sins included.  Idolatry, oppression of the poor, social injustice of all kinds, sexual immorality, even human sacrifice were included in the catalogue of their sins!  (Some of the other prophets who provide background, in addition to Isaiah, include Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.  A veritable Who’s Who among the Hebrew prophets!)

But now, a voice calls for a highway to be built in the wilderness for the coming of God.  This is very likely an allusion to the practice in the Middle East of building a highway in preparation for the coming of the king when he visited one of his provinces.  In this case, there is possibly a double meaning — the highway may also be prepared for the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem!  In any event, construction requires the demolition of mountains and filling in the valleys so that the road will be smooth and easy.

The prophet then changes direction abruptly, and uses the imagery of withering flowers to illustrate the faithlessness and frailty of human beings.  Human beings wither and die — but the word of God, that is, his prophetic promises, endure forever.

The scene then shifts again to the heralds who climb to the top of the mountain, the way a messenger would when preparing the way for the coming of the king.  Their task is to announce that the king is on his way — make ready!

Finally, God is compared to the shepherd who will tenderly care for his flock, the strays who have been exiled to a far country and now will return home.

All of these images would have been readily accessible to the Jew reading the text in exile in 540 B.C. And he would have seen in this passage a word of promise and hope that they would be returned to their land, which indeed began to happen in 538 B.C. through the edict of King Cyrus of the Persian empire.

However, when the Christian puts on her “Gospel Spectacles,” what she sees is the rugged prophet John the Baptist, some 540 years after this oracle was delivered.  These are the very words that are applied to him as he begins his ministry as the herald of Jesus:

The voice of one who calls out,
“Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!
Make a level highway in the desert for our God.”

John’s is the voice that calls; his is the voice of the herald who goes up to the high mountain to proclaim the good news:

Behold, your God!

The good news is that the Shepherd has come and is coming for his flock.

APPLY:  

In a sense, we’ve already made an application of this text to our lives — the prophet’s words are comforting not only to the exiles who languished in Persia, but also to those of us who are exiled from God by our sins.

He has built a highway to our hearts through Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.  And the shepherd has come to gather us together and care for us.

Although we fade like flowers, and our word withers like grass, God’s promises to us are rock solid.  That is where we take our stand!

RESPOND: 

Although I cannot fully identify with the exile and the despair of the Jews in Persia, I do know what it’s like to feel like an exile from the comfort and power of God.  Like Israel, I exiled myself from God through my sin.  And I too require a highway for our God to come into my life.  Jesus is that highway — he is the mediator who brings me to God, and God to me!

Our Lord, thank you for taking the initiative in my life to bring me back to you.  Thank you for ending my exile by coming to me in the Person of Jesus.  May I in turn be the herald, shouting from the mountaintop, “Behold, your God!”  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Isaiah 40 8” by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for December 11, 2022

Hope for the future….
‘For the waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and stream in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.’  Isaiah 35:6a-7
[by Knight Lightness]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 35:1-10
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Isaiah’s oracle is a word of hope for Israel.  Once again, there are debates about the time and context of this prophecy.  For traditional interpreters, Isaiah is a unified work, written by one man who began to prophesy in the mid-8th century in Judah.  If some of his prophecies seem to relate to events that are many years later than his likely lifespan, this is to be explained as the product of divine inspiration.

On the other hand, interpreters who accept the historical-critical method believe that there are three Isaiahs:

• The Isaiah whose ministry began in 742 B.C. and continued through 689 B.C. at the very latest. According to this theory, his work was comprised of Isaiah 1-23 and 28-33. He prophesied during a time when Assyria threatened Israel and Judah, and eventually conquered Israel (721 B. C). Although Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was invaded in 701 B.C., it retained its political integrity and autonomy.
• Second Isaiah, an anonymous prophet, is credited with the oracles included in chapters 34-35 and 40-55, dating from around 540 B. C. after the Babylonian conquest of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. These oracles provide hope that God hasn’t forgotten his people, and will bring them back from exile.
• Third Isaiah, these interpreters would say, includes chapters 24-27 and 56-66, dating from after 537 B .C., and the beginning of the return of the exiles to Judah.

Each reader of Scripture must determine for him/herself what they believe concerning these contending theories.  What ultimately matters is that the church has declared that the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, and that they convey God’s truth to us.

Isaiah paints a picture in this oracle of a highway that passes through an arid desert.  Other than the references to Lebanon, Carmel and Sharon, which are used merely to describe the beauty of a blossoming land, there are no geographical points. We don’t know exactly where this highway might be, except that it leads back from exile.  (As we consider this description of return from exile, we are reminded that there were several deportations in the history of Israel and Judah. There were those that occurred when Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. There were also two major deportations by the Babylonians — one when they conquered Jerusalem in 598 B.C., and the other after Jerusalem is utterly destroyed in 587 B.C.)

What Isaiah wishes to depict is that:

The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
It will blossom abundantly,
and rejoice even with joy and singing.
Lebanon’s glory will be given to it,
the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.

The wilderness, which was so forbidding to the exiles, will become like a garden for those who return.

Therefore Isaiah urges the exiles to:  

Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong.
Don’t be afraid.”

Isaiah’s metaphor of the highway is a kind of two-way street. On the one hand, God is coming to vindicate his people:

Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution.
He will come and save you.

On the other hand, it seems that God’s coming will truly prepare his people for a journey that lies ahead of them.  Those who are infirm will be healed, and there will be water for the thirsty travelers:

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
Then the lame man will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing;
for waters will break out in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.

The prophet then describes the highway itself, and gives it a name:

A highway will be there, a road,
and it will be called The Holy Way.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
but it will be for those who walk in the Way.

And he further declares that there will be no obstruction or threat from Wicked fools or lion or ravenous animal on this road, but that those who have been bought back from their exile will travel safely.  He says:

The redeemed will walk there.
The Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return,
and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

APPLY:  

The imagery of exile can apply to our lives at many levels.  When we have turned away from God, or when we feel distant from God because of tragedy or other circumstances, we can feel that we are in exile.

Isaiah 35 suggests hope for all who have ever felt exiled from God, from home, from hope.  God is the one who builds a highway through the deserts of our lives so that we may return to him.  The blind, the lame, the mute, those with feeble knees will be enabled to walk this highway called the Holy Way. 

What makes this description of the highway more poignant is Jesus’ description of himself in John 14:

 I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

And the language Isaiah uses describing the exiles as redeemed and ransomed reminds us of the language of the New Testament concerning the redemption of sinners from bondage to sin:

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,  that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children (Galatians 4:4-5).

Jesus himself speaks of his own ministry as the act of purchasing the freedom of those who are in bondage:

the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

RESPOND: 

When I was in a church young-adult group in college, there was one guy who always requested the same old song during our sing-along time:

You gotta walk that lonesome valley
And you gotta walk, walk it by yourself
Nobody else can walk it for you
You gotta walk, walk it by yourself.

That was the only refrain that seemed to stick with me, and it seemed pretty discouraging.  The guy who requested the song had experienced some tough knocks in his life. He lived in a tiny room in a boarding house, and was often seen at the church’s food pantry.

I wonder if he heard any hope in the second stanza of the song:

Jesus walked this lonesome valley
And he had to walk it by Himself
Nobody else could walk it for Him
He had to walk, walk it by Himself.

Still, even that stanza seems to be rather hopeless, unless we recognize that Jesus walked this lonesome valley for us!   When Isaiah describes The Holy Way, it is full of hope for the hopeless — the feeble knees, the blind, the lame, the mute.  And all of us who have experienced exile from God have been redeemed and ransomed:

Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return,
and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Our Lord, thank you that you have prepared the Holy Way for us that we might return to you, and that You are the way the truth and the life! Lead us back to you with singing and joy. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Hope for the future….” by Knight Lightness is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for December 13, 2020

“John the Baptist”
photographed by Romana Klee.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 1:6-8, 19-28
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Prologue to the Gospel of John, which comprises John 1:1-18, is one of the more majestic passages in all of Scripture.  But in this selection the Gospel writer is seeking to clarify the relationship of John the Baptist with the Messiah.

There are many who believe that John’s followers formed an early rivalry with the disciples who followed Jesus.  This is understandable.  John was a dynamic, charismatic and prophetic fellow who spoke truth to power and summoned a spiritually hungry people to renewal.

However, as the Gospel of John makes clear, and then John the Baptist himself insists, he is not the Messiah.

As the Prologue makes clear, John the Baptist is not the light but only bears witness to the light.  The identity of the light has already been revealed as the preexistent Christ, who was present at the beginning and through whom and for whom creation was made:  

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it (John 1:4-5).

John the Baptist himself insists that he is not the Christ.  Interestingly, verses 19-28 introduce the dialogue form that is so common in the Gospel of John.  There is in these dialogues a sense of debate — a conflict is introduced and then resolved.

In this case, Jewish leaders in Jerusalem have become aware of John’s ministry, and so they send a “Committee on Investigation” to ask him some questions.  Their first question is insinuating and indirect:

Who are you?

John’s response is direct — he tells them he is not the Messiah, nor even a prophet.  So then, they want to know, just who do you think you are?  And John answers with the prophetic text from Isaiah 40:3:

I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.

This is the text cited by the other three Gospel writers as well in reference to John’s unique relationship to Jesus.

John clearly sees his role as preparing the way for the Messiah by calling the people to repentance.

When asked then why he baptizes, he answers with a cryptic response. He doesn’t answer their question directly.  Instead, John tells them that the Messiah is already among them, and they don’t realize it.

The “Committee on Investigation” may have asked this question because baptism was certainly not unknown to the Jewish religion.  A Gentile who converted to Judaism not only had to be circumcised but also baptized as a sign that he was “born anew.”  And of course the Essene Community at Qumran by the Dead Sea practiced ritual washing.

But John was baptizing those who were already Jews!  They were already part of the covenant!  What authority did he have to do such a thing?  Again, John is making clear that his ministry is a preparation for the ministry of the Messiah. Therefore he doesn’t seem to find it necessary to explain himself to the priests and Levites.

APPLY:  

Perhaps the greatest service we can provide is to be a little like John the Baptist.  I don’t mean that we should wear camel’s hair and eat locusts and wild honey, or even that we should go around baptizing people willy-nilly.

No, perhaps one of the greatest services we can provide is to prepare others for the coming of Christ into their lives.  We can tell others that Christ is already among us — they need only turn to him in faith.  We, like John, can bear witness to the light that has come into the world.

What a difference it might make if each Christian made an effort to point others to Christ, and to say “I am not the focus here, Christ is!”

I recall years ago going into a restaurant and seeing on the menu words to this effect:  “If you meet me and forget me, you have lost nothing. But if you meet Jesus Christ and forget Him you have lost everything.”  It was signed by the late owner of the restaurant, who was still making a witness by that aphorism long after his own death!

RESPOND: 

I must remember that the goal of my life is to bear witness not to myself or my meager accomplishments, but to point only toward Christ as the meaning and purpose of life.

Our Lord, empower me to be a witness to your coming into the world.  I don’t need to argue with other people about my authority, or who I am.  I just need to direct their attention to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“john the baptist” by romana klee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
 

Gospel for December 6, 2020

John the Baptist prepares the highway of our hearts to receive the King of kings.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 1:1-8
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Mark begins, to our modern minds, in the middle of things rather than with the birth stories of Jesus. This is unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and even John, which begins with the very beginning of time.

The beginning in Mark starts with the ministry of John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Messiah.  But the Gospel of Mark makes it very clear that the central focus of the book is:

The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

John is identified in the Gospels by Jesus as the figure of Elijah, who was prophesied to come at the end of the age.  Here, we see John as the figure who is fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. He is “preparing the way” for Jesus.

One clever way of understanding this is that Jesus is the Savior, John is the Paviour.  Paviour is an archaic Middle English word that means a road maker, a paver.

As mentioned in the SOAR Lectionary Bible study on Isaiah 40:1-11 (click here to go to that post), kings in the ancient world often required roads to be built to facilitate their visits to different provinces of their kingdom.  John is the contractor for the highway of the Lord.

John’s ministry is a proclamation of the coming of the kingdom, with the demand for repentance.  His baptism was a powerful symbol of cleansing —  but he makes it clear that the Messiah who comes after him will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit — signifying an intense, purgative and infilling power.

John is an eccentric figure with unusual clothing that was typical of some Old Testament prophets, and a strange wilderness diet.  Some scholars are of the opinion that his baptismal practices and his habitation in the desert may suggest some association with the ascetical Essene sect that lived in a kind of monastic setting near the Dead Sea.

Some scholars also suggest that because of John’s charismatic and dynamic ministry, he gathered a following that may have been seen as a rivalry early on between the followers of John and the followers of Jesus.  All of the Gospel writers are careful to emphasize John’s powerful message of repentance, but they also stress his humility — he is very conscious that the one who is to follow him surpasses him.  The ministry of John marks a transition to the ministry of Jesus.

APPLY:  

How are we to prepare in the season of Advent for the coming of our Lord?  Is it Christmas trees and Christmas shopping and overeating at Christmas parties?

It may come as a surprise that the original purpose of Advent in the church wasn’t as an early extension of the Christmas season.  It wasn’t intended to add to the shopping days!

Instead, the season of Advent was to be like Lent, a season of self-examination, self-denial, and repentance.  In that sense the message of John is well suited to the season.

If we are to be truly prepared for the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, we need to ask for the interior of our hearts to be thoroughly cleansed.  This is to be no superficial change of habit, but a deep and inner change.  This is a change only the Holy Spirit can bring.

RESPOND: 

I like the feasting and the celebration of Christmas, but in order to be ready to receive my King I need to prepare my heart with repentance of sin.  Thankfully, Jesus has come to bring pardon from my sin, but also power over sin in my life.

Our Lord, I know that a mere ritual, external cleansing is not enough to prepare me for your coming.  May your cleansing fire and Holy Spirit cleanse me from within and prepare me for you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Relax” by Martha Soukup is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for December 6, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 40:1-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage is a good example of what I call “prophetic double vision.”  Here’s what I mean by that — when the prophet declared this oracle, it is very likely that it was addressed to a particular historical context in his own time.  But as the early church read these texts in the light of the coming of Jesus, the vision of the original oracle was in some sense “refracted,” in much the way that light is refracted when it passes through water.

In other words, the text means what it means for Isaiah’s time, but it also shimmers with profound truth for the Christian church.

In its original context, Isaiah is speaking a word of comfort to the people of Israel. Probably written around 540 B.C., this oracle is written after the conquest of Judah, the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, and the deportation of the Jews to Babylon.  Therefore, we can surely understand the need for comfort.

Here is the comforting word — the prophet assures Jerusalem (i.e., the Jews who are in exile) that they have “paid their debt” and their sins have been expiated by their suffering. If you take the time to read 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, and some of the other prophets writing at the same time as Isaiah, you will certainly understand what their sins included.  Idolatry, oppression of the poor, social injustice of all kinds, sexual immorality, even human sacrifice were included in the catalogue of their sins!  (Some of the other prophets who provide background, in addition to Isaiah, include Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk,  Jeremiah, Ezekiel.  A veritable Who’s Who among the Hebrew prophets!)

But now, a voice calls for a highway to be built in the wilderness for the coming of God.  This is very likely an allusion to the practice in the Middle East of building a highway in preparation for the coming of the king when he visited one of his provinces.  In this case, there is possibly a double meaning — the highway may also be prepared for the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem!  In any event, construction requires the demolition of mountains and filling in the valleys so that the road will be smooth and easy.

The prophet then changes direction abruptly, and uses the imagery of withering flowers to illustrate the faithlessness and frailty of human beings.  Human beings wither and die — but the word of God, that is, his prophetic promises, endure forever.

The scene then shifts again to the heralds who climb to the top of the mountain, the way a messenger would when preparing the way for the coming of the king.  Their task is to announce that the king is on his way — make ready!

Finally, God is compared to the shepherd who will tenderly care for his flock, the strays who have been exiled to a far country and now will return home.

All of these images would have been readily accessible to the Jew reading the text in exile in 540 B.C. And he would have seen in this passage a word of promise and hope that they would be returned to their land, which indeed began to happen in 538 B.C. through the edict of King Cyrus of the Persian empire.

However, when the Christian puts on her “Gospel Spectacles,” what she sees is the rugged prophet John the Baptist, some 540 years after this oracle was delivered.  These are the very words that are applied to him as he begins his ministry as the herald of Jesus:

The voice of one who calls out,
“Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!
Make a level highway in the desert for our God.”

John’s is the voice that calls; his is the voice of the herald who goes up to the high mountain to proclaim the good news:

Behold, your God!

The good news is that the Shepherd has come and is coming for his flock.

APPLY:  

In a sense, we’ve already made an application of this text to our lives — the prophet’s words are comforting not only to the exiles who languished in Persia, but also to those of us who are exiled from God by our sins.

He has built a highway to our hearts through Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.  And the shepherd has come to gather us together and care for us.

Although we fade like flowers, and our word withers like grass, God’s promises to us are rock solid.  That is where we take our stand!

RESPOND: 

Although I cannot fully identify with the exile and the despair of the Jews in Persia, I do know what it’s like to feel like an exile from the comfort and power of God.  Like Israel, I exiled myself from God through my sin.  And I too require a highway for our God to come into my life.  Jesus is that highway — he is the mediator who brings me to God, and God to me!

Our Lord, thank you for taking the initiative in my life to bring me back to you.  Thank you for ending my exile by coming to me in the Person of Jesus.  May I in turn be the herald, shouting from the mountaintop, “Behold, your God!”  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Isaiah 40 8” by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for December 15, 2019

Hope for the future….
‘For the waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and stream in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.’  Isaiah 35:6a-7
[by Knight Lightness]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 35:1-10
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Isaiah’s oracle is a word of hope for Israel.  Once again, there are debates about the time and context of this prophecy.  For traditional interpreters, Isaiah is a unified work, written by one man who began to prophesy in the mid-8th century in Judah.  If some of his prophecies seem to relate to events that are many years later than his likely lifespan, this is to be explained as the product of divine inspiration.

On the other hand, interpreters who accept the historical-critical method believe that there are three Isaiahs:

• The Isaiah whose ministry began in 742 B.C. and continued through 689 B.C. at the very latest. According to this theory, his work was comprised of Isaiah 1-23 and 28-33. He prophesied during a time when Assyria threatened Israel and Judah, and eventually conquered Israel (721 B. C). Although Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was invaded in 701 B.C., it retained its political integrity and autonomy.
• Second Isaiah, an anonymous prophet, is credited with the oracles included in chapters 34-35 and 40-55, dating from around 540 B. C. after the Babylonian conquest of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. These oracles provide hope that God hasn’t forgotten his people, and will bring them back from exile.
• Third Isaiah, these interpreters would say, includes chapters 24-27 and 56-66, dating from after 537 B .C., and the beginning of the return of the exiles to Judah.

Each reader of Scripture must determine for him/herself what they believe concerning these contending theories.  What ultimately matters is that the church has declared that the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, and that they convey God’s truth to us.

Isaiah paints a picture in this oracle of a highway that passes through an arid desert.  Other than the references to Lebanon, Carmel and Sharon, which are used merely to describe the beauty of a blossoming land,  there are no geographical points. We don’t know exactly where this highway might be, except that it leads back from exile.  (As we consider this description of return from exile, we are reminded that there were several  deportations in the history of Israel and Judah. There were those that occurred when Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. There were also two major deportations by the Babylonians — one when they conquered Jerusalem in 598 B.C., and the other after Jerusalem is utterly destroyed in 587 B.C.)

What Isaiah wishes to depict is that:

The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
It will blossom abundantly,
and rejoice even with joy and singing.
Lebanon’s glory will be given to it,
the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.

The wilderness, which was so forbidding to the exiles, will become like a garden for those who return.

Therefore Isaiah urges the exiles to:  

Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong.
Don’t be afraid.”

Isaiah’s metaphor of the highway is a kind of two-way street. On the one hand, God is coming to vindicate his people:

Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution.
He will come and save you.

On the other hand, it seems that God’s coming will truly prepare his people for a journey that lies ahead of them.  Those who are infirm will be healed, and there will be water for the thirsty travelers:

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
Then the lame man will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing;
for waters will break out in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.

The prophet then describes the highway itself, and gives it a name:

A highway will be there, a road,
and it will be called The Holy Way.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
but it will be for those who walk in the Way.

And he further declares that there will be no obstruction or threat from Wicked fools or lion or ravenous animal on this road, but that those who have been bought back  from their exile will travel safely.  He says:

The redeemed will walk there.
The Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return,
and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

APPLY:  

The imagery of exile can apply to our lives at many levels.  When we have turned away from God, or when we feel distant from God because of tragedy or other circumstances, we can feel that we are in exile.

Isaiah 35 suggests hope for all who have ever felt exiled from God, from home, from hope.  God is the one who builds a highway through the deserts of our lives so that we may return to him.  The blind, the lame, the mute, those with feeble knees will be enabled to walk this highway called the Holy Way. 

What makes this description of the highway more poignant is Jesus’ description of himself in John 14:

 I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

And the language Isaiah uses describing the exiles as redeemed and ransomed reminds us of the language of the New Testament concerning the redemption of sinners from bondage to sin:

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,  that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children (Galatians 4:4-5).

Jesus himself speaks of his own ministry as the act of purchasing the freedom of those who are in bondage:

the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

RESPOND: 

When I was in a church young-adult group in college, there was one guy who always requested the same old song during our sing-along time:

You gotta walk that lonesome valley
And you gotta walk, walk it by yourself
Nobody else can walk it for you
You gotta walk, walk it by yourself.

That was the only refrain that seemed to stick with me, and it seemed pretty discouraging.  The guy who requested the song had experienced some tough knocks in his life. He lived in a tiny room in a boarding house, and was often seen at the church’s food pantry.

I wonder if he heard any hope in the second stanza of the song:

Jesus walked this lonesome valley
And he had to walk it by Himself
Nobody else could walk it for Him
He had to walk, walk it by Himself.

Still, even that stanza seems to be rather hopeless, unless we recognize that Jesus walked this lonesome valley for us!   When Isaiah describes  The Holy Way, it is full of hope for the hopeless — the feeble knees, the blind, the lame, the mute.   And all of us who have experienced exile from God have been redeemed and ransomed:

Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return,
and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Our Lord, thank you that you have prepared the Holy Way for us that we might return to you, and that You are the way the truth and the life! Lead us back to you with singing and joy. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Hope for the future….” by Knight Lightness is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for December 17, 2017

“John the Baptist”
photographed by Romana Klee.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 1:6-8, 19-28
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Prologue to the Gospel of John, which comprises John 1:1-18, is one of the more majestic passages in all of Scripture.  But in this selection the Gospel writer is seeking to clarify the relationship of John the Baptist with the Messiah.

There are many who believe that John’s followers formed an early rivalry with the disciples who followed Jesus.  This is understandable.  John was a dynamic, charismatic and prophetic fellow who spoke truth to power and summoned a spiritually hungry people to renewal.

However, as the Gospel of John makes clear, and then John the Baptist himself insists, he is not the Messiah.

As the Prologue makes clear, John the Baptist is not the light but only bears witness to the light.  The identity of the light has already been revealed as the preexistent Christ, who was present at the beginning and through whom and for whom creation was made:  

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it(John 1:4-5).

John the Baptist himself insists that he is not the Christ.  Interestingly, verses 19-28 introduce the dialogue form that is so common in the Gospel of John.  There is in these dialogues a sense of debate — a conflict is introduced and then resolved.

In this case, Jewish leaders in Jerusalem have become aware of John’s ministry, and so they send a “Committee on Investigation” to ask him some questions.  Their first question is insinuating and indirect:

Who are you?

John’s response is direct — he tells them he is not the Messiah, nor even a prophet.  So then, they want to know, just who do you think you are?  And John answers with the prophetic text from Isaiah 40:3:

I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.

This is the text cited by the other three Gospel writers as well in reference to John’s unique relationship to Jesus.

John clearly sees his role as preparing the way for the Messiah by calling the people to repentance.

When asked then why he baptizes, he answers with a cryptic response. He doesn’t answer their question directly.  Instead, John tells them that the Messiah is already among them, and they don’t realize it.

The “Committee on Investigation” may have asked this question because baptism was certainly not unknown to the Jewish religion.  A Gentile who converted to Judaism not only had to be circumcised but also baptized as a sign that he was “born anew.”  And of course the Essene Community at Qumran by the Dead Sea practiced ritual washing.

But John was baptizing those who were already Jews!  They were already part of the covenant!  What authority did he have to do such a thing?  Again, John is making clear that his ministry is a preparation for the ministry of the Messiah. Therefore he doesn’t seem to find it necessary to explain himself to the priests and Levites.

APPLY:  

Perhaps the greatest service we can provide is to be a little like John the Baptist.  I don’t mean that we should wear camel’s hair and eat locusts and wild honey, or even that we should go around baptizing people willy-nilly.

No, perhaps one of the greatest services we can provide is to prepare others for the coming of Christ into their lives.  We can tell others that Christ is already among us — they need only turn to him in faith.  We, like John, can bear witness to the light that has come into the world.

What a difference it might make if each Christian made an effort to point others to Christ, and to say “I am not the focus here, Christ is!”

I recall years ago going into a restaurant and seeing on the menu words to this effect:  “If you meet me and forget me, you have lost nothing. But if you meet Jesus Christ and forget Him you have lost everything.”  It was signed by the late owner of the restaurant, who was still making a witness by that aphorism long after his own death!

RESPOND: 

I must remember that the goal of my life is to bear witness not to myself or my meager accomplishments, but to point only toward Christ as the meaning and purpose of life.

Our Lord, empower me to be a witness to your coming into the world.  I don’t need to argue with other people about my authority, or who I am.  I just need to direct their attention to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“john the baptist” by romana klee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
 

Gospel for December 10, 2017

John the Baptist prepares the highway of our hearts to receive the King of kings.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 1:1-8
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Mark begins, to our modern minds, in the middle of things rather than with the birth stories of Jesus. This is unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and even John, which begins with the very beginning of time.

The beginning in Mark starts with the ministry of John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Messiah.  But the Gospel of Mark makes it  very clear that the central focus of the book is:

The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

John is identified in the Gospels by Jesus as the figure of Elijah, who was prophesied to come at the end of the age.  Here, we see John as the figure who is fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. He is “preparing the way” for Jesus.

One clever way of understanding this is that Jesus is the Savior, John is the Paviour.  Paviour is an archaic Middle English word that means a road maker, a paver.

As mentioned in the SOAR Lectionary Bible study on Isaiah 40:1-11 (click here to go to that post), kings in the ancient world often required roads to be built to facilitate their visits to different provinces of their kingdom.  John is the contractor for the highway of the Lord.

John’s ministry is a proclamation of the coming of the kingdom, with the demand for repentance.  His baptism was a powerful symbol of cleansing – but he makes it clear that the Messiah who comes after him will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit – signifying an intense, purgative and infilling power.

John is an eccentric figure with unusual clothing that was typical of some Old Testament prophets, and a strange wilderness diet.  Some scholars are of the opinion that his baptismal practices and his habitation in the desert may suggest some association with the ascetical Essene sect that lived in a kind of monastic setting near the Dead Sea.

Some scholars also suggest that because of John’s charismatic and dynamic ministry, he gathered a following that may have been seen as a rivalry early on between the followers of John and the followers of Jesus.  All of the Gospel writers are careful to emphasize John’s powerful message of repentance, but they also stress his humility – he is very conscious that the one who is to follow him surpasses him.  The ministry of John marks a transition to the ministry of Jesus.

APPLY:  

How are we to prepare in the season of Advent for the coming of our Lord?  Is it Christmas trees and Christmas shopping and overeating at Christmas parties?

It may come as a surprise that the original purpose of Advent in the church wasn’t as an early extension of the Christmas season.  It wasn’t intended to add to the shopping days!

Instead, the season of Advent was to be like Lent, a season of self-examination, self-denial, and repentance.  In that sense the message of John is well suited to the season.

If we are to be truly prepared for the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, we need to ask for the interior of our hearts to be thoroughly cleansed.  This is to be no superficial change of habit, but a deep and inner change.  This is a change only the Holy Spirit can bring.

RESPOND: 

I like the feasting and the celebration of Christmas, but in order to be ready to receive my King I need to prepare my heart with repentance of sin.  Thankfully, Jesus has come to bring pardon from my sin, but also power over sin in my life.

Our Lord, I know that a mere ritual, external cleansing is not enough to prepare me for your coming.  May your cleansing fire and Holy Spirit cleanse me from within and prepare me for you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Relax” by Martha Soukup is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.