The Straight Way of the Lord Isa 40:1-11; Ps 85:8-13; 1 Cor 1:1-9; Mark 1:1-8
Video: https://www.stmarksbassendean.church/post/the-straight-way-of-the-lord
Introduction
John the Baptist’s one great mission in life was to prepare his hearers for the coming of the Lord. As many Christians are challenged by the love-teaching of the apostle John or Paul’s exposition of justification so we must be stirred by the life of John laid out in Mark 1.
Exposition
Mark’s commencing words, v.1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” alert us to something greater than the beginning of heaven and earth (Gen 1:1). God the King is coming amongst us. The language of “gospel” in the secular world of Mark’s day was connected to a royal announcement from Caesar’s household, but in the Old Testament it speaks of something far more momentous, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” (Isa 52:7). God is about to rule the world in a new way through the coming of his anointed Son, Jesus Christ, who is both the proclaimer of the gospel of the kingdom of God and its perfect embodiment (autobasileia). It’s relatively inoffensive to talk to people about “God”, but as soon as you start mention “Jesus” expect something to happen.
Mark sets the coming of Jesus within the plan of God prophesied in the Old Testament. 2 “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet”, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” runs together Isaiah 40:3-5, Malachi 3:1 and Exodus 20:23 (Greek translation). A messenger is coming who will prepare the way for the coming of God to judge, to save and to restore (Isa 40:3-5). The magnitude of the call of this messenger must not be reduced to ordinary proportions.
Lots of people still seem a little precious about royalty. For example, I have noticed multiple newspaper articles critical of the historical inaccuracies in the TV series, “The Crown”. None of this however will make any real difference to anyone’s life, but the messenger of God who “prepares the way for me” to quote Malachi 3:1, prepares the way for the coming of the “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). Since this event is all important the word for “crying in the wilderness” represents strong feelings. Like the father who cries out to Jesus to heal his demon possessed son (Luke 9:38). In the gospels such prayers are always answered in the affirmative; I have however noticed many Western Christians are embarrassed by strong emotions. I say “Western Christians” because in many places in the world when people pray in church the whole congregation prays aloud together (cf. Acts 4:24).
I remember praying with a pastor for the first time. After complimenting me on the content of my intercessions he said, repeatedly, “Your prayer was very loud.” As a prophet crying ALOUD in the wilderness the Baptist was definitely not embarrassed by the intensity he projected.
The “wilderness” reminds us of the place the Lord took his people after the exodus from Egypt. It was a place of God’s mighty acts and in the Lord’s mind a honeymoon period “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness…” (Jer 2:2). The Old Testament prophets, of whom John was the last, intensely hoped that in a new wilderness Israel would rediscover her true destiny in God’s warm embrace. As he says in Hosea, “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” (2:14). Through the Spirit the wilderness becomes a place of hope and new beginnings. I acutely remember a wilderness experience in Brisbane after our family were forbidden to keep attending a parish; through prayer and surrender to God it proved to be one of the turning points of our spiritual journey. I love the wilderness because of its undistracted straightforward simplicity where the all-attractive presence of God is infallibly experienced.
“4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”
The advent of John marks a back to front movement in the history of Israel. In the Old Testament Jerusalem represents the hub to which the nations would one day flow (cf. Isa 2:2) but John’s ministry turns this on its head with crowds fleeing from Jerusalem to the Jordan in search of reconciliation with God. The offer of forgiveness that marked John’s message was magnetic to all those labouring to fulfil the law under their own strength (Matt 11:28; 21:32).
With an expectation that divine judgement was near and the End of all things at hand the Lord was calling to himself out of Israel a remnant who were his real people. Submission to baptism was a sign of belonging to the kingdom whose dynamic was repentance. Baptism is a turning away from the things of this world to take God absolutely seriously and unconditionally submit to his will. Any anticipation that you could enter the kingdom of God by simply being a Jew, or an Anglican, was being stripped away. The Lord was laying hold of the whole being of those who were hearing his word (Luke 3:2). His words to Ezekiel were being echoed through the mouth of John. “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek 33:11). John is the climax of the urgent intensity/pathos of the entire Old Testament prophetic tradition because he alone anticipated the immediate and sudden coming of the Lord (Mal 3:1).
When Mark records “6 John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.” This isn’t a note on diet, even though I did once consume some tasty salted grasshoppers in Uganda, or a note on fashion, for readers of the Old Testament would recognise the appearance of Elijah (2 Ki 1:8) whose coming again was prophesied as marking the beginning of the end of all things (Mal 4:5-6).
7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I” In Old Testament prophecies, the one who will follow the prophetic forerunner is God (Isa 40:3-5; Mal 3:1). The coming of a “mightier one” after John would create in the minds of the crowds an expectation of a great divine visitation. The majesty of John’s successor is confirmed when he comments, ’the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” Taking off a master’s sandals was a slave’s role, but even it was considered too lowly for a Hebrew slave and prohibited amongst the duties of a rabbi’s disciple. Jesus would later say of John, “among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Matt 11:11), the sign of John’s true greatness is how low he saw himself compared to Christ.
The introduction of the Gospel comes to a conclusion. 8 “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Water baptism alone remains at the level of ordinary human experience, but to be baptised with the Spirit is the language of an overwhelming torrential downpour from heaven. In the Old Testament it is always God who will pour out the Spirit in the last days (Isa 32:15; 44:3; Ezek 36:26-27; 39:29; Joel 2:28-29). Jesus is the one who will give the Spirit in the power of God (Judges 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Sam 11:6; Isa 31:3; Mic 3:8; Zech 4:6). This makes him limitlessly “mightier” than John.
Application and Conclusion
John’s life pointed straight to Jesus and masses followed his way. But today hostile currents have led hosts of people to veer off “the straight road” (2 Pet 2:15) of the Lord. Every Christian is called to be a forerunner, pointing the straying and the lost to Jesus, calling an idolatrous generation back to a new starting point in the Lord. The key ingredient in being a way-maker back to Christ is to have the Way of the Lord embedded in your life. I received a fascinating insight into this a few days ago this when I received an email from one of our prayer support team. She quoted a line from my prayer letter sent out to explain how the Lord was using an arduous week to show myself and Donna just how weak/sinful we are. This is what I originally wrote; “We have prayed together that he will take all that has happened to us in our lives, sum them up in Christ straighten them out for his glory and through us bring greater glory to his kingdom.” The Lord straightens out our diverse life experiences for his glory in a marvellously uncompromising way (https://thetruthrenaissance.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/poetry-when-god-wants-to-drill-a-man/ ). If, like the Baptist, we are to have in our mouths the prophetic word like a fire it must first be a burning in our bones, if it is to be like a hammer that “breaks the rock in pieces” we must first receive the mighty blows of God hammering upon our own lives to powerfully hurt and convert until we are bent to the Lord for his highest purposes (Jer 20:9; 23:29). The tough and loving dealings of the Lord to prepare us for preparing others to turn to Christ are rarely understood or desired by Australian Christians. This can change if we are willing to count any cost for Jesus.
A family of four were slaughtered by Islamic radicals in Indonesia 10 days ago. It so happened that on Thursday I was on a Zoom meeting with a host of Indonesian prayer leaders and what astonished me was how often their prayers for the evangelising of their nation were seen as a preparation for the Second Coming of Christ. The growth of the Church in Indonesia will continue as long as they understand themselves as located in the space between the urgent message of John the Baptist and the impending hour of the Lord’s Return (Rev 22:20). We too are in this space, the time where the forgiveness of sins is available, and the power of the Spirit is given to all who call upon the name of the Lord (Acts 2:38-39). Whatever the cost may each of us have the Way of the Lord embedded in our lives so that we can call many others back to the straight way of Jesus and to life eternal (Luke 1:16).