Big Idea - We live in a city that knows how to prepare for a royal visitor. If you have lived here long, you know when preparations are being made for a royal visit - flags appear along the highway, roads are repaired, ribbons and banners are carefully hung, and police dressed in their best uniforms are stationed all along the route. The Gospel of Mark begins not with an account of Jesus' birth but with making preparations for His arrival when He will break onto the scene to begin His ministry. John the Baptist is the one given the charge to prepare the way. How does John prepare the way for Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God? Even more importantly, what are we doing to prepare for Jesus to break into our life and our world?
Long before John, God prepared for the coming of Jesus the Messiah through the prophets, like Isaiah, who told of a forerunner who would announce the Messiah. He would be a voice crying in the wilderness. These scriptures build the expectation of a great work of God on the scale of the exodus from Egypt, bringing both salvation and judgment on the Great Day of the Lord. John appeared to fulfill this prophecy by appearing in the wilderness and preparing for the arrival of the Messiah first by preaching a Baptism of repentance. The people were to prepare the way by a change of heart, turning away from their sin and seeking God with all their heart. Baptism pictured washing and making one clean. It was also a rite of passage for a Gentile proselyte. Likewise, this was a step to becoming the new people of God, which the Messiah would bring about through a new saving work, a great second exodus. Thus, the baptism of John did not bring about the forgiveness of sins as much as it anticipated the cross, which would bring true and complete forgiveness and cleansing from all sin. The second way that John prepares the way is by proclaiming the greatness of the one who was coming after him. He would be mightier than John, meaning He would come with even greater spiritual authority than John. He would be much greater than John in honor and glory, John wasn't even worthy to be the slave of His slave! Finally, His ministry would be far more powerful and effective because it would not be with water but with the Holy Spirit. Jesus would accomplish what John's baptism could only picture symbolically. He would bring complete cleansing and would give those who believe the right to be called children of God!
We can take away three ways we can prepare for the coming of Jesus in our own lives. First, we need to take a journey into the wilderness - that is, away from the noise and false hopes of the world to a place where we must depend totally on God alone to save us and to help us. Second, we prepare our hearts for the Gospel and its work in our lives through confession. Jesus made it clear that those who think themselves healthy will never seek the help of the Doctor. Likewise, it is only those who know they are sinful and under the wrath of God who will seek the washing and forgiveness that Jesus made possible by His blood. Finally, we need to trust in Jesus, who wants to baptize us with the Holy Spirit to bring about a new saving work of God, a new birth, and a greater exodus by His death and resurrection. By this work, we are washed clean and have the right to be God's children!
