Preparing the way for the Lamb

  

All of the Gospel writers emphasize the calling and ministry of John the Baptist. As we might expect, the Gospel of John presents some complementary facets of John’s ministry relative to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. While John begins his Gospel in timeless eternity, he quickly brings us down to earth in 1:6, “There came into being a man sent from God, whose name was John.” Then John the Apostle writes, “He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.”

 

Before John writes the compelling incarnational words of 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” he first writes, “There came a man sent from God whose name was John.”

 

When John is questioned by the religious establishment about who he is and what he is doing, he answers by speaking Isaiah 40:3, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the LORD” (John 1:23). Let’s look at a fuller quotation from Isaiah:

 

“Comfort, O comfort My people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare has been ended, that her iniquity has been removed,  that she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. A voice is calling, Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:1 – 5).

 

May I please ask what you might consider a strange question?

 

What does this passage from Isaiah look like in your life? What does the ministry of John the Baptist in John Chapter One look like in your life?

 

Allow me to point out that Isaiah 42:6 was spoken by the Lord concerning Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13:47, so it isn’t really all that strange when I ask, “What does this passage from Isaiah 40 look like in your life?” Or if I ask, “What does Isaiah 42:6 look like in our lives?” You see, we are called to live in the Word and to submit to the Word living in and through us. It is a grave error to view the Scriptures as a petrified forest, for the Bible is a forest of living trees, from all of which we are to partake. What we read and meditate upon is to be a living reality in our lives – for Christ is in the Bible and the Bible is in Christ. So, what does Isaiah 40 look like in our lives?

 

I’ll leave us to ponder this for now.