St. Luke 3:1-14
Dearly beloved,
The picture is set in the gospel. Desert living; life by the Jordan
River; repentance and the bearing of good fruit. One cannot look atop the
mountain of God unless he first passes through the Jordan River in the
valley. John the Baptist is a prominent figure in the Advent season and for
good reason. One must understand the Old Testament to get the full picture,
though.
The Old Testament has several things happening, simultaneously. The
historical picture is one dynamic. Israel is led and directed to freedom in
order to worship Yahweh. Then, Israel follows false gods and is continually
told by prophets to repent. The other picture that is an ongoing dynamic in
the Old Testament is the preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Why
does God make Israel His people, then protect them and continually leave a
remnant of them for the future despite their unfaithfulness?
The reason for God's continued care for Israel is that the seed of
Abraham would come from those people. The seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ.
God made Israel a large and great nation because the Messiah would come from
them. So, while all of this takes place in the Old Testament, we see that
Israel must pass through the Jordan River in order to enter the promised
land. This they do by God having His prophet part the Jordan River, just as
Moses did with the Red Sea.
Living in the promised land as God's people meant several things. They
had to live lives of repentance and they were to bear good fruit. Being
God's children means salvation, but it also means the path that they were to
walk was to be straight. This, of course, brings us to John and the
situation at hand. The image of road building in the book of Isaiah is the
road of faith and repentance. Even in Ezekiel we hear the prophecy
foretelling us of John the Baptist and Jesus. Ezekiel says, "...I will
bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter in
judgment with you face to face"(Ezekiel 20:35).
Ezekiel speaks of John in the wilderness. It is there that God enters
in judgment with all people. This judgment is a reckoning with sin. John
is preparing the road. St. Luke is telling the church that John will preach
a repentance that is to urge people to make the roads straight. Height and
depth are to be leveled; the crooked and rough are to be made smooth and
straight. This would have been striking image for a 1st Century person in
Judea to understand. Travel in Judea was difficult if the roads were bad.
Rocky and bumpy roads created havoc for travelers. They and their animals
risked injury. A straight and smooth path created, both, ease and safety.
This brings us to the dynamic that this brings to your life. Your
baptism was your entrance to the road of Jesus. The baptismal font is your
Jordan River. It is your place of repentance. It is at the baptismal font
that "all flesh shall see the salvation of God"(St. Luke 3:6). This, by the
way, is why we are instructed in the Small Catechism to make the sign of the
cross. In making the sign of the cross, we remember where we are supposed
to be: at the baptismal font living a life of repentance and covered by the
blood of Jesus.
The height and depth and the crooked paths that John says are to be made
straight are the many things that are obstacles to "seeing the salvation of
God." Ironically, the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees are examples of
crooked paths. Unbelief, unwillingness to learn the teachings of Jesus,
unwillingness to conform one's life to that of the Scriptures are all the
ways that the path is not straight.
What does all this Old Testament stuff have to do with you? Well, it
helps you to understand God's economy of salvation. God blesses the
repentant, but the hardened sinners and unbelievers will eventually be
injured on their crooked roads and will left on the side of the road,
vulnerable to the attack of Satan as he encounters them injured on the side
of the road. You are to look at the Old Testament and understand God's
mercy for repentant sinners. You are also to see what your sins can do to
you.
Your sins can upset your life, and even draw you completely off the road
of Jesus. When we look at John's preaching of repentance, we must take note
that John begins a message that continues into the New Testament. The
apostles are continually preaching a message of repentance and faith in
Jesus Christ. It must be noted well, however, that this preaching of
repentance does just what I have been saying: it makes the path straight
because Jesus will be the one leading along the path. In other words,
repenting of sins leads us to see Jesus and this is the sole reason for the
existence of the church and even preaching.
We could beat ourselves up all day long with the law, but it will do us
no good if we cannot understand the most important verse in the gospel
lection for today. St. Luke quotes Isaiah, "Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become
straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall
see the salvation of God." The church exists in order to "see the salvation
of God." But what picture does this conjure into your minds? Isaiah and
Luke do not mean to paint a picture of you looking up to the sky at the
clouds and behold some glowing image.
The picture that Isaiah and Luke have in mind is Jesus standing in the
Jordan River, standing there, a flesh and blood man. God incarnate, God in
the flesh for you. Repentance makes the path straight and smooth so that
you can see Jesus for Who He really is–God Who comes into our world in order
to die on the cross. This is the salvation of God that we are to behold.
This means that there is something to exchange for your sorrow over your
sins.
This means that there is a way out for the people of God....for all
flesh. Jew and Gentile alike are offered the gift. All flesh shall behold
Jesus standing in the desert at the Jordan prepared and ready to begin His
trek to the cross. The whole point of John's preaching is to tell us that
the time has come for God in the flesh. The time has come for the
forgiveness of sins. The time has come to enter a new road that is not
paved with the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices. Jesus shall be the
sacrifice that ends all sacrifices.
So 2000 years later we stand and kneel in the church. We walk up to the
altar and kneel. We look at the baptismal font and realize that this is our
Jordan River, which God parts for us to walk through in order to enter the
promised land. We receive Christ's body and blood in the sacrament,
understanding that this is Jesus' way of telling us that it is finished and
we are holy. Because of suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, we are
not only on a smooth and straight path, but our sins are forgiven.
This Advent season the church gathers around these things, making the
sign of the cross and remembering that it is precisely in our baptism that
we begin to enjoy the benefits and blessings of Jesus, the incarnate One Who
took on flesh to ransom the world from sin. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
www.frchadius.blogspot.com
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
www.trinitylowell.org
