Year B

Mark 1:1-8

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Preparing the Highway for the King

In the Middle Eastern desert, where once the Israelite nation wandered forty years, is a highway. It is no superhighway, not wide, very crooked but it seems to be well built. Joshua camped with the Israelites like the Bedouins who camp beside the road there today. Along the highway is Mount Nebo, the place where Moses was said to have first seen the Promised Land and where he was buried. Centuries later a prophet speaks of a highway in the desert. The warfare is over, and the iniquity of those who went after other gods is pardoned. The way commanded is already a way known by God’s people. In the wilderness desert there shall be a highway for God to come again, in strength, but not as a god of battles. This God will come again with love as a shepherd for the flock, for righteousness and peace shall go before this God.

Isaiah’s poem in our text today, ranks with the finest literature ever written. Like the Sermon on the Mount or the love text in 1 Corinthians 13, these words of comfort from Isaiah announce good news about God. God commands the heavenly council to tenderly comfort God’s people with news that their punishment, their life in Babylonian exile is over. In the beginning of the sixth century BCE, Babylon invaded Judah, destroyed much of Jerusalem, interrupted the economy, and deported leading citizens to Babylon for 50 years. The exquisite poetry of Second Isaiah emerges in the decades after the invasion like a healing, life-creating song or balm which brings the people back to life.

They had sinned against God, broken the covenant, and disappointed the One who wanted so much to use them. But now the time of exile is past, it is time for Israel to be free again. God’s forgiveness is given. With pardon comes a plea from God that a way to the future is to be made in the desert. There needs to be preparation for what lies ahead. They need to prepare and be ready now, for the king is coming. Smooth out the highway, flatten the mountains, raise up the valleys, make the way clear for a speedy arrival; the glory of the Lord shall appear to this battered community. To those who thought God had left them, Isaiah announces that the shepherd God approaches on the highway they are preparing, to lead the flock home in peace.

Remembering these words, centuries later another came from the desert to prepare a highway for God. It was a wilderness man named John, who wore camel’s hair and had a leather girdle around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. He came from the desert to the Jordan and in that river preached a baptism, a way for the forgiveness of sins. This good news which begins Mark’s gospel is different from the prologues of the other gospels. Matthew and Luke begin with birth stories. Matthew focuses on the birth of Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One. Luke’s birth story begins with the birth of John the Baptist as the foreshadower of the Christ Child.

The gospel of John, in a sense also begins with a birth narrative. He focuses on the birth of creation and all that exists through the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, the life and light of the world. Then there is Mark who immediately announces that he is taking us to “the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son”. For Mark, this means looking back to the prophets of Israel. He sees them looking forward in anticipation of God’s intervention. Isaiah had prophesied regarding a forerunner who would prepare the way of the Lord, make paths straight and offer comfort and hope to the people. Mark sees John the Baptist in line with the prophets of old. John the Baptist is the messenger prophet in Mark’s gospel who points to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Mark teaches us that to see God we look to Jesus. But to understand Jesus correctly we have to look back to the prophets who point us to the present and to the future making John’s message one of urgent preparation. It’s was time to get ready, to prepare the way, so that when the coming Messiah arrives, he can walk a straight path right into hearts and lives of the people. John the Baptist definitely belongs to the Advent Season because his words are all about getting prepared. We are to make ourselves ready to receive the One worthy of glory and honor. Preparation involves repentance and confession of sins. This text invites us to take a good look at ourselves and admit the truth about our lives.

Martin Luther, the German priest and theologian, offers good advice in one of his sermons on how best to prepare: “To prepare is to clear out of the way whatever will be an obstruction. This preparation is nothing else than humbling ourselves from our arrogance and glory. Those are the chief obstacles for the hypocrites, who walk in human ways and their own presumption and do not accept the grace of Christ. To prepare this way, however, is to walk on it naked, without merits of any kind, in the grace of God alone.” We have to be willing to make the necessary changes in our lives to be able to fully accept what the coming Messiah offers each one of us.  

Prophets tend to plant themselves right in our way so we have to cross to the other side of the highway to avoid them and their message. John set up shop right on the wilderness highway and his message lit a bonfire. People were drawn to him because of what he offered them, a chance to start over, clean; a chance to wash away their sins. He called the people to wake up, to turn around so that they would not miss the new thing God was doing right before their eyes. Only those who were willing to stay on the wilderness highway of baptism got to taste and hear the good news. The news, that because Jesus came as a baby more than two thousand years ago, possibilities and promise are available to all who follow him.

Advent gives us another opportunity to be washed in the water of God’s word and to remember the waters of our baptism and the cleansing, saving grace of God. Advent gives us time to walk the highway of forgiveness toward our God because as John knew and preached, the story is not ended. Jesus came in a manger, and we celebrate his coming each year. We revisit the prophecies of Israel through Isaiah announcing his birth and impact on the world. We go to the fields with the shepherds to rejoice again that our savior has been born. We sing the beautiful music of the season and recall for the world the peace and promise of the new born King. And all of these events point us to the future.  Jesus did not remain a baby in a manger, or a political rebel crucified on a cross.

John the Baptist reminds us that Jesus points us to the coming Holy Spirit to comfort and care for us until his return. The joy of the season is that Jesus is alive and will come back again for his church. We will want to prepare for Christ coming into our lives. Preparation helps keep faith vibrant and alive. As Peter writes today, God waits and waits for all to come to repentance. So Perhaps this Advent season we need to set before ourselves a challenge. To make time to reflect on our relationship with God as Peter reminds us; the greatest gift we give this Christmas is our own repentance and turning to God. And let us also make this time of holiday preparing truly smoothing and making straight the path of God’s coming to those around us. If we do these things, we will find our walking this highway in the desert much more to our liking.