Luke
3:1-6 Living in Readiness
Anyone working in
advertising knows that people may need telling the same thing several times
before they are likely to do anything about changing their favourite product.
Let me give you a rather sad example that will probably have you weeping for
me.
I have always enjoyed
Rice Krispies for breakfast, with a splash of ice cold milk and a liberal
sprinkling of sugar. I never thought of trying any other cereal. What could
possibly top Rice Krispies? What could possibly be a better breakfast sound
than “Snap, Crackle and Pop”?
But on television, I
kept seeing adverts for Corn Flakes. In the end the message got through that
the best way to start the day was to “Rise and Shine” with Kellogg’s Corn
Flakes. So I tried them. And suddenly a whole new breakfast world opened up:
one day Rice Krispies, the next day Corn Flakes! Breakfast was now filled with
variety and interest. Surely life couldn’t get better than this!
Then the advertisers
kept hammering me with something new. Again and again they told me that there
was a new breakfast experience that must be shared. It would get my
taste buds flickering like nothing else. In fact, it was so good,
I’d want it not just for breakfast, but for lunch, dinner and a late night
snack as well! After much internal debate (after all, it cost more money and
could anything live up to Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes?) I tried
Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes. And I have been living in breakfast paradise ever
since. The advertisers have got their way. Hammer the message home often enough
and there’s always a sucker like me who will fall for it.
Now God, knowing
human nature affectionately and realistically, adopts a similar approach. He
knows that we often fail to get the message first time around. So he sends
messages several times and through a variety of messengers. Today we are going
to consider a key message that God wants to get over to us. First of all, God
entrusted the message to the Foretellers, the prophets of the Old Testament.
Then he used the Forerunner, John the Baptist. Finally, he embodied the message
in the person of his own Son, Jesus Christ.
1)
The
Foretellers
The passage we have
read from the book of the prophet Malachi begins with one of several references
from the prophets to a messenger who will prepare
people for the coming of the Anointed One, the long-awaited Messiah:
“See, I will send my
messenger, who will prepare the way before me.” (Mal 3:1)
Another reference,
from Isaiah, is quoted in our New Testament passage:
“A voice of one calling
in the desert,
“Prepare the way for
the Lord,
make
straight paths for him.”” (Lk 3:4(b))
There is going to be
a messenger who prepares the way for the Messiah, the Christ. Christian
tradition points to the person of John the Baptist as being that messenger.
Back in Malachi, the
prophet then describes the coming of God, of the Lord for whom the way has been
prepared:
** Mal 3:1
(b)**
Again, Christian
tradition points to the person of Jesus as being this Lord and as being the messenger
of the New Covenant - more than that, being the message itself.
The problem that we
have is that when we think of the coming of Jesus, because of our nativity
plays and Christmas card scenes, we think of something “sweet and nice and
comfortable”. But that is not the prophetic image of the coming of Jesus. The
Christ will not be a comfortable person to have around our lives. Jesus the
friend, Jesus the comforter, Jesus the compassionate, Jesus the loving and kind
is only part of the picture. Listen to what the prophet Malachi has to say:
**Mal 3:2**
A refiner’s fire is
hot. It burns away dirt and dross. It purifies and makes clean. It’s not warm
and comforting and nice.
And as for the
launderer’s soap, we can forget the tv pictures of bubbly,
sweet-smelling soap that leaves your skin soft and smooth, like Dove or
Palmolive. Oh no! This stuff will scour your skin.
I remember during my
Gambian stay that my dirty shirts were taken away each day by this young woman,
who would sit over a bowl of water with just such a bar of launderer’s soap and
a piece of wood and she would batter the shirt into submission. The dirt and
grime were sacred stiff. They had to disappear.
That is the essential
work of the Lord, the messenger of the covenant – troubling, disturbing,
challenging and
pointing out the dirt. The result is: people who live in a right
relationship with God because Jesus has done his work in their lives:
**Mal
3:3-4**
So hopefully there
would be those who, having heard the prophecies of the Old Testament from
people like Malachi and Isaiah, will be waiting expectantly for the messenger,
the forerunner, to come, ready to latch on to what he says and to be ready to
respond to him.
2)
The
Forerunner
I am sure we all
remember the Asian Tsunami that affected
I am sure we all
remember the flooding of
That’s the kind of
work John the Baptist was doing. He was warning people to get ready. The
situation was urgent. They had to take drastic action.
So what was going to
happen?
Well, the nation was
in trouble politically. Oppressed by Roman domination, people lived in fear and
any resistance was brutally crushed. And the nation was in trouble in terms of
its religious life too. Religious leaders offered little help and example to
the people. They were more concerned with their own self-interests rather than
the people they served. Religious rules and regulations added to the sense of
oppression rather than brought any freedom.
As we have seen, Jewish
belief was that one day God would come back to his people. There would be a
time of change, freedom and renewal. John was saying, “Get ready. Take drastic
action. It’s about to happen!”
His message was that
of the Forerunner, the messenger preparing the way:
** Lk
3:4-6**
And what was the
action they had to take?
** Lk 3:3
**
John was calling for
repentance, a radical change of heart, not just in Israelite politics and
worship, but in the moral outlook of each and every person. This was not to be
just outward show, but an inner change, and the outward sign would be the
washing of baptism.
So hopefully, there
would be those who, having heard the message of the prophets, and now hearing
John’s urgent message, the Forerunner’s message, would be sorting their lives
out so that when Jesus’ ministry begins, their hearts will already be attuned
to receive what he has to say and eventually to recognise who he is: the Son of
the living God come among us.
So we have had the
Foretellers and the Forerunner: now the message itself comes in the person of
Jesus Christ.
3)
Jesus
Christ – the message
In just over two
weeks’ time we will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in
I remember a few
years ago that a church I was minister of had a garden trail. They wanted to
use the manse garden! I gardened like I have never gardened before! And knowing
we would need to use the garage, I cleared it out. Trips to the tip were
followed by brushing out and tearing down the cobwebs, so that we could be
ready for the local population to inspect.
Last Wednesday
morning, I hosted a house group at our manse here. Viv and I dusted and
vacuumed and cleaned, until we were ready.
If John the Baptist
came down your road, your avenue, your close, with a megaphone, what would he
be saying to you and me? What would he be pointing out that hinders our
obedience to God and that needs to be cleared out ruthlessly?
That’s for each of us
to decide, and in a moment there will be the chance to bring those things
before God. For, like a good advertiser, God has made his
message clear repeatedly. Let us not ignore it. Let’s clear out the
junk-filled rooms of our lives and be ready.
Prayer of confession.