Scripture reading: Malachi 3:1-4.

Sermon text: Luke 3:1-6.

Devotional

We’ve all heard the maxim, “Patience is a virtue.” Unfortunately, patience requires waiting. You cannot acquire patience without waiting for something.

The Jews of Jesus’ day should have ranked as the most patient people in the history of humanity.

Malachi prophesied today’s Scripture reading roughly 100 years after the Jews’ return to Jerusalem. The people had expected God to restore their land and their standing as His people following their time in exile. The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel had all spoken of restoration and exaltation, of nations coming to Jerusalem to worship in a restored and glorious Temple, led by the people of Israel.

Instead, the Jews worshiped in a version of the Temple so small and plain that those who remembered Solomon’s Temple wept at the sight of its foundations. No one came to Jerusalem except for faithful Jews, who continued to worship as commanded and wait for God to fulfill His promises.

450 years later, following Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the Jews were still waiting.

Today, we look back at over 2 millennia of sin, injustice, and catastrophe, and we, too, wonder how long God will wait to right the wrongs of the world and restore righteousness to His creation. We know Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God had begun, and we know that His resurrection signaled its arrival. Still, we wonder when He will return to fulfill the prophecies of a new heaven and new earth, untainted by pride, arrogance, greed, and lust.

Jesus appeared, and the Jews missed it. Will we have the patience to wait for His coming and worship Him as we wait?

Sermon

God never fulfills a prophecy in the way we expect. Just ask the Jews.

Today’s sermon text tells us of a very unlikely beginning to the fulfillment of His greatest prophecy: The coming of a mighty Savior to redeem humanity from sin and death.

Isaiah had prophesied that God would send one “crying in the wilderness” to “prepare the way of the Lord” nearly 800 years before. St. Luke gives us a clear indication of the beginning time for God’s promised fulfillment. Now, according to St. Luke, “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,” God began the fulfillment. We know from history that Tiberius began his reign in c. A.D. 14 after the death of Caesar Augustus.

According to St. Luke, “The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” The appearance of John the Baptist from the wilderness reminded the Jews of another great prophet, the prophet Elijah. Like Elijah, John wore garments of hair and a leather belt (2 Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:4). Like Elijah, John spent much of his time in the wilderness.

Elijah, however, had denounced the idolatry of Ahab and his descendants; John preached to a righteous people in the sense that the Jews of his time never indulged in idolatry. Still, John preached “a baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.” Elijah called people back to the worship of the living God; John called for people to prepare for His coming into the world.

John’s proclamation of repentance and forgiveness rang true with the Jews of his time, and the people eagerly responded. St. Luke records that even tax collectors and Roman soldiers, both among the most despised people in Judea, responded to John’s preaching (Luke 3:12-14). Such a powerful move of the Spirit certainly presaged great events for John’s time.

It’s interesting that St. Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, chose this passage by Isaiah to describe John’s ministry. This passage, from Isaiah 40, had already received one fulfillment; the people saw this passage as a description of the Jews’ return from Babylonian exile in 539 B.C. Now, according to St. Luke, Isaiah’s prophecy had foretold another great redemption by God.

John declared, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” The Hebrew word for “iniquity” implies a twisting of the standard. God has given us the standard of life; He expects us to live rightly before Him. Every human, in some way, twists the way of God to suit himself.  We must seek to follow a straight path in our lives, a path defined by God’s standards, not our own and certainly not those declared by the society in which we live.

Isaiah also prophesied, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.” In our time, humanity has sunk to the lowest depths of depravity. We demean other humans and refuse to treat them as the pinnacle of God’s creation. We have also risen to the highest levels of pride. We proudly declare we have the right to redefine the standards according to our own lusts and desires. David, Israel’s greatest king and poet, wrote in Psalm 51, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). We must humble ourselves before God before we can even recognize our need for His mercy and grace.

Isaiah decreed, “The crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways.” Again, we must live by the straight way of God’s righteousness. As we live by His ways, following His commands, God will smooth the rough ways in our lives and help us bring peace to the lives of others. Peace with others begins when we obtain peace with God.

How can we have this peace? How will our paths straighten, and how will we descend from our pride? Isaiah’s last phrase quoted here gives us the answer: “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

The word “salvation” implies physical deliverance, of course; God had, as He promised, delivered the Jews from exile and restored them to Judea in 539 B.C. The word “salvation” also carries a spiritual meaning as well, and that meaning saw its ultimate fulfillment in the ministry of the One for whom John the Baptist paved the way.

The Jews found themselves wondering whether God would ever complete the prophecies of deliverance and redemption, prophecies foretold by practically every prophet beginning with Moses. Everywhere they looked, the Gentiles dominated the world. The Roman fortress of Antonia towered over the eastern side of the Temple itself, and the Roman governors kept the high priest’s ceremonial garments locked inside. It seemed as if God had brought the Jews back from Babylon and then forgotten to complete the job.

John the Baptist predicated the coming of the Messiah, the One who could alone fulfill the Jewish dreams of redemption and vindication. Many Jews thought John would fill the role, but he flatly denied it: “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16).

Jesus, the divine Son of God, Son of Mary, and (incidentally) John’s cousin, brought salvation to us, both physical and spiritual.

First, Jesus brought spiritual salvation through His death on the cross. Scripture tells us, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). Jesus told His disciples, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:54). By His death, Jesus provided the final sacrifice for all the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Now, everyone who believes in Jesus as Lord will receive salvation from sin itself.

Secondly, Jesus brought physical salvation through His victory over death. Scripture and history record that Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, executed Jesus by crucifixion. Scripture and history also record, and an empty tomb in Jerusalem attests to the fact, that Jesus rose again from death, completing His conquest of sin and death. Forgiveness of sins stands as a good reason to believe in Jesus, but believing in Jesus also assures us of eternal life in a new heaven and new earth. The new creation will never experience the twisted, perverse effects of human pride, greed, and lust. No one will have to straighten the path in the new creation, for it will never go astray in the first place.

John the Baptist could proclaim repentance and forgiveness. It took a mighty Savior to bring forgiveness of sin and victory over death. Jesus alone can claim that role.

Today, we commemorate Advent as a time of waiting, a time of preparation for Jesus’ return to earth. As we wait for our mighty Savior, we must live righteous lives so that others see the results of Jesus’ rule in our lives. We must tell the world that Christ has come, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. While our society lurches toward an uncertain future, Christians confidently proclaim that a mighty Savior has brought salvation to everyone who believes in Him, following His path to eternal life.