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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
In today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 40:1-11), God arguably tells the prophet Isaiah to comfort His people weary from a war in part attributable to the people’s sin, and, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah also foretells of another voice that will cry further for people to prepare the Lord’s way. In today’s Gospel Reading, John the Baptizer’s appearance in the wilderness is taken as the fulfillment of God’s prophecy through Isaiah and as the beginning of the Gospel (or “Good News”) about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Indeed, to all of those from the country of Judea and the city of Jerusalem going out to John, John preached about that One coming after him, and those confessing their sins John baptized for the forgiveness of their sins, so comforting them amidst any consequences of their sins. Thus, John the Baptizer himself centered his work, as all those messengers of the Lord sent after John center their work, on “Preparing the Lord’s Way”.
Easy to miss in the English Standard Version of today’s Gospel Reading but obvious in its original Greek is a point that the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark makes that just as it was written so John appeared, speaking some, if not all, of the words foretold by Isaiah. Yet, even with that important connection between the prophecy through Isaiah and its fulfillment in John, John himself is not the center of the account but the Lord Whose way is prepared through John is the center of the account. John the messenger is sent before the Lord, crying in the wilderness about “Preparing the Lord’s Way”.
Today’s Gospel Reading, with its reference to the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, arguably recalls the book of Genesis with its “beginning”. With its reference to the wilderness, the Gospel Reading arguably recalls the people of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness, which wanderings, we remember, were on account of their sin. But, neither that past beginning nor past sins but a new beginning and present sins are the Gospel Reading’s primary focus. Where God through Isaiah had spoken figuratively of preparing the way of the Lord and making straight in the desert (or, “wilderness”) a highway for God—by valleys being lifted up, mountains and hills being made low, uneven ground becoming level, and the rough places becoming a plain—John literally deals with people’s sin as the obstacles to their right relationships with God. God takes the initiative to reestablish such right relationships by sending His messenger calling and so enabling His people to repent, but whether or not such right relationships are reestablished depends on whether or not people refuse to answer that call.
To be sure, as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (2 Peter 3:8-14), the Lord does not wish that any should perish but that all should reach repentance, and so He is patient, but that patience not mean we can delay repenting, for, as God said through Isaiah, the people are like grass that withers. Such grass, Jesus later said Himself, today is alive but tomorrow is thrown into the oven, where it was burned as fuel (Matthew 6:30). On account of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, we all deserve to be cast into the eternal fires of hell (confer Mark 9:43 et alia), and we do not know when the “today” of our day of salvation will end (2 Corinthians 6:2). So, each and every day, we heed God’s enabling call for us to repent: we turn in sorrow from our sin, we trust God to forgive our sin, and we want to do better than to keep sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives all our sin that interferes with our right relationship with Him, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
As today’s Gospel Reading says, the preaching and baptizing of John belong to the beginning of the Gospel (or, “Good News”) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As the only‑begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, the Christ has no beginning, but, as the Son of God incarnate of the Virgin Mary, when the fullness of time had come (Galatians 4:4), the Christ has a beginning. And, that Christ’s public ministry is usually regarded as beginning in connection with the Baptism of John (confer Acts 1:22; 10:37). Broadly speaking, the Gospel that St. Mark says begins then can include John’s and even Jesus’s own preaching of the law that condemns the sin of the world, including our own sin (confer Mark 1:14-15), but more-properly and more-strictly the Gospel is Jesus’s dying on the cross taking away the sin of the world, including our own sin. Thus, the Gospel and Jesus are practically identified in St. Mark’s Gospel account (for example, Mark 8:35). That Gospel is the Gospel that John preached to all of those from the country of Judea and the city of Jerusalem who were going out to him, and that preaching included John’s pointing the people to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (confer Acts 13:24; 2:38; 22:16), or, as the Nicene Creed puts it, one baptism for the remission of sins.
John applied the Gospel to groups by preaching the Word of our God that stands forever, but John also applied the Gospel to individuals, both by hearing them confess their sins and undoubtedly absolving them and by baptizing them. Someone who repents and believes wants to receive forgiveness through the means by which God gives it: by receiving Holy Baptism and individual Absolution, and by partaking of the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are the Body and Blood of Christ given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And, these means are not received virtually but in-person. One does not apply these means by or to oneself, but one receives them from the messenger whom God sends and through whom ultimately God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—works.
Through the pure preaching of His Gospel and the right administration of His Sacraments, God gives the Holy Spirit Who creates faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel. God effects our conversion, and we receive His gifts that themselves prepare the Lord’s way in us. So prepared by God’s love for us, we in return love Him and our neighbors. We do good works in keeping with our vocations, including telling others the difference that our God-given right relationship with God makes in our lives. And, when we fail, as we do and will fail, with repentance and faith, we live each day in God’s forgiveness of sins. We all need the great comfort of the forgiveness of sins, especially with all that we each deal with every day! Repentance is joy and gives joy (Friedrich, TDNT 2:729). Repentance is not only a change of mind but also a change of how we live our lives, the holiness and godliness mentioned in today’s Epistle Reading, and the waiting for and hastening, as it were, of the coming day of God. Thus, we are prepared and so ready for when the Lord comes a final time with great might.
As through John the Baptizer then, so through His sent messengers now, the Lord Himself is “Preparing the Lord’s Way”. Through His under-shepherds, in the words and beloved imagery of today’s Old Testament Reading, the Lord God tends His flock like a shepherd, gathers the lambs in His arms, carries them in His bosom, and gently leads those that are with young. As in the antiphon of today’s Introit (Psalm 80:1, 8a, 9b, 7; antiphon: Psalm 80:3), we pray: Restore us, O God, let Your face shine, that we may be saved!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +