Preparing the way for the Lamb

  

 The previous post concluded with these questions: What does this passage from Isaiah 40:1 – 5 look like in your life? What does the ministry of John the Baptist in John Chapter One look like in your life?

 

A key element in the ministry of John the Baptist, (not to be confused with the Apostle John who wrote the Gospel of John), is to prepare the way for the Lord, for Jesus the Messiah (let’s remember that the words Messiah and Christ both mean “anointed” – the former is the Hebrew term, the latter the Greek term). Let’s look at a portion of the Isaiah passage again:

 

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…

 

When we see the word LORD in upper case letters that means that the actual Hebrew word is Yahweh, the personal and covenantal name for God, the core Name (if we can use that term) by which God reveals Himself in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (what we call the Old Testament). I point this out so that we can see that when this is fulfilled in John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus Christ that John is preparing the way for Yahweh, for God. The Yahweh who gave the Ten Commandments on Sinai is the same Yahweh who, in His Incarnation, gives the Sermon on the Mount. Let there never be any mistake about this, that Jesus Christ is God (see John 1:1, 14, 18). The Trinitarian mystery unfolds in John’s Gospel, enveloping us in its Presence, and inviting us into the Divine Mystery, making us “partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1:4). As a matter of fact, in some ways the Gospels introduce us to this mystery in baptism of Jesus Christ when the Son is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove, and the Father speaks from heaven.

 

John the Baptist proclaims his message in the wilderness. Is there not a sense in which we all live in a wilderness? No matter how “civilized” a society may be outwardly, inwardly we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone of us has been born spiritually dead. Yes, we all have a measure of light from the Light (John 1:9), but we are also all either enemies of God, or have been enemies of God but are now reconciled to God in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1 – 11; Ephesians 2:1 – 10). We can be seduced by the affluence of society, we can be made drunk by the desire for things and pleasures. It is a grave danger to compare our affluence with the poverty of others and think that we are better off, no man dead in his sins and alienated from the life of God is better off than another man – whether we are rich or poor, without Christ we live in a wilderness.

 

Those of us who, by the grace of God, have come into a relationship with Jesus Christ are called to go back into the wilderness and proclaim Jesus Christ – and make no mistake, wherever we are, no matter how affluent our surroundings may be, we are in a wilderness.

 

Are we sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the wilderness?

 

Are we “making smooth a highway for our God”? Consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:19 – 23:

 

For though I am free from all people, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may gain more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the Law, I became as one under the Law, though not being under the Law myself, so that I might gain those who are under the Law; to those who are without the Law, I became as one without the Law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who are without the Law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

 

Paul learned the art of making a smooth highway in his relationships with others so that he could share Jesus Christ. He worked to bring every mountain down and raise every valley up so that he could communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He became all things to all people so that he might save some of them in the wilderness.

 

Do we place barriers between us and others, and if so, do we reinforce those barriers? Or, do we strive to bring every mountain which might be a barrier down, and do we strive to raise every valley that might be a barrier up – in order to make smooth the way of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I fear that our propensity is to hold on to, and defend, the barriers that stand between us and others.

 

Yesterday I saw a woman wearing a shirt that spoke of Jesus Christ. She also wore a hat with a political message. The hat represented a barrier to the Gospel. I have known professing Christians in the workplace whose work ethic was not good, and whose work product was poor – those were barriers to them sharing the Gospel. I have known professing Christians who were gossips in the workplace, gossip is a barrier to making a smooth highway for the Gospel.

 

Much of the professing church in the United States has become politicized to the point where its politicization is a barrier to a credible Gospel message – instead of making the highway smooth we have strewn it with potholes and treacherous debris.

 

The attitude of John the Baptist that, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30) is essential for us to cultivate and maintain if we are going to prepare the way to share the Gospel with others. When Jesus Christ is our focus, our life, our love; when sharing Him with others is the passion of our soul, then the glory of the LORD will be revealed.

 

Are we living our lives so that Jesus the Messiah will be manifested to others (John 1:31)?

 

What is there in my life that I need to put aside so that it will not be a barrier to sharing Jesus Christ?

 

Are we building and maintaining barriers between us and others, or are we making smooth a highway for our God?