December 30 - Prepare the Way of the Lord

December 30 - Prepare the Way of the Lord - Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:1-19; John 1:19-28

Jesus has yet to enter into full-time ministry, so the focus today is on preparation for the entrance of the Messiah. I will focus on the Matthew passage, but all four gospels describe John's ministry.

Matthew 3:1. The Desert of Judea or in other translations, the Judean Wilderness, was a barren region just west of the Dead Sea. If you look at Matthew 3:5 you find that people came to him from Jerusalem, Judea and the entire region of the Jordan River. He did not go to them. His ministry was not to a people that were comfortable in their religion, but to those who wish to be separated from the norm and to be saved from their sins.

When the Pharisees and Sadducees came out to see what was going on (Matthew 3:7), he called them out. According to Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, the Pharisees were “a body of Jews with the reputation of excelling the rest of their nation in the observances of religion, and as exact exponents of the laws.” They were middle-class Jews, primarily associated with the synagogue. The Sadducees were the priestly aristocracy associated with the Jewish temple. Unlike the Pharisees, they did not believe in the bodily resurrection, since they did not believe this doctrine was taught in the Mosaic Scriptures. They did not accept anything except the Mosaic Scriptures (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) as authoritative.

(Source: Hughes, Robert B. ; Laney, J. Carl: Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (The Tyndale Reference Library), S. 397)

He preached two things: repentance (Matthew 3:11) and the message that the end was near and the Messiah was coming (Matthew 3:11-12).

The people had been saying for centuries that the Messiah was coming. John was calling out that the time was now, The Messiah was here.

Luke 3:19-20 adds information that John rebuked Herod because of his association with his brother Philip's wife, Herodias. That rebuke earned him a trip to prison.

While John refused to acknowledge that he was Elijah (John 1:21), he did acknowledge that he was the one Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 40:3 (entire passage is Isaiah 40:1-11). He said to the Pharisees and the Sadducees "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the lord.'"

This had to have struck fear into their hearts. John did not speak as a madman. He spoke as a man with the hand of God on his life. He was obviously a Nazarite (look at December 6) by the way he dressed and the food he ate. He had committed his life through a vow made at his birth to God. It was not a temporary commitment, but one that he had spent a lifetime enduring.

The time had come. From the moment that Zechariah stood in the Holy of Holies and heard from Gabriel, the plan that would save the world from it's sin had begun to be set in motion. The final preparations were happening. People were called to repent - to leave their sin behind and commit to a life of holiness because the Son of God, the Messiah, was about to be in their midst.

This Christmas season we are reminded of the birth of the One who will save us from the sins of the world. He not only came over 2000 years ago to begin this process, but He promises to return. How will we prepare the way for His return today?