Prepare the way for …

Malachi 3:1

¹ “Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Isaiah 40:3-5

³ Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!
⁴ Fill in the valleys,
and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
and smooth out the rough places.
⁵ Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken!”

Isaiah 43:19

¹⁹ For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry waste land.

Mark 1:1-8

¹ This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began ² just as the prophet Isaiah had written:

“Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
and he will prepare your way.
³ He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
Clear the road for him!’ ”

⁴ This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. ⁵ All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. ⁶ His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷ John announced: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. ⁸ I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”

It’s easy to miss the enormous significance of John and his announcement. Mark makes it clear that John is the messenger that God promised to send to announce that he, God himself, was coming. When the prophets talk about “the Lord”, it’s the name “Yahweh” they are using. Spoiler alert: Jesus is the one who was coming. Right from the beginning, it’s clear that Jesus is God.

People had been looking expectantly for God to return to the temple (Malachi 3:1). The temple in Jerusalem had been under construction for fifty years to be the most magnificent building in the ancient world. Ironically when God, in the person of Jesus, came to the temple, he was rejected.

But God wasn’t just coming to the temple, to live amongst his people like he did with the Tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. He was coming to “do something new” (Isaiah 43:19). He was coming to live amongst his people as one of us, in the person of Jesus. He was coming to live in his people, in the person of the Holy Spirit. The preparation that was needed wasn’t roadworks. We need to prepare our hearts and lives to receive him. That was John’s message to us.

Lord God, I still find it absolutely astonishing that you would want to come to me and live in me. Today, and every day, I give my life to you. Today, and every day, I turn away from everything in my life that denies you. Today, and every day, I turn to you. Holy Spirit, fill my heart and thoughts and words and actions today. Transform the wastelands of my heart into your rivers of living water.

Written by David Cornell