So, are you ready for Christmas yet?
You know, we do so much now to “get
ready” for Christmas—the gifts, the cooking, the getting ready for trips, the
Christmas programs, all that stuff that we do—that it might be good for us to
remember that there was very little “getting ready” for the first
Christmas. For one thing, very few
people even knew about it. Mary and
Joseph did, of course, but they were not really “ready” for Jesus to be
born. They were on the road, and had to
scramble just to find a place out of the cold.
The shepherds did not “get ready” at all. They just went where they were told. The wise men kind of got ready, in a sense. They studied the sky, saw the star, and then
set out to find the one who had been born to be a king.
But that’s about all the people who
knew about the first Christmas.
Everyone else had to wait. But
they were given a chance to get ready.
That was the job of John the Baptizer, also called John the Baptist,
whose story we read today. His job was
to get people ready for when Jesus actually started his ministry.
Now, understand, this John is not
the same as the John who became one of Jesus’ disciples. This is not the John who wrote the gospel of
John or the letters of John. Still,
this John was obviously very important in story of the first Christmas.
We read some of the story of John
this morning. He was obviously special
from the beginning. He was born to a
couple everyone thought was too old to have children. His coming was told to John’s father, Zechariah, by the angel
Gabriel. Gabriel told Zechariah that
John would be great in the sight of God.
Gabriel said John would be filled with the Holy Spirit. Gabriel said John would have the spirit and
power of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets in history. Gabriel said that John would make everyone
ready for the coming of the Lord. When
Zechariah was skeptical, he was not allowed to talk until John was born. We’re told that “Everyone who heard this
wondered about it, asking, ‘What then is this child going to be?’ Because the Lord’s hand was with him.”
We’re not told anything about
John’s childhood or upbringing. The
next time we see him, John is doing exactly the job what Gabriel said he would
do. He’s getting people ready for Jesus
and Jesus’ ministry.
It was a tough job. It took a lot of sacrifices on John’s
part. We did not read the description
of John from the gospel of Mark, but it says that John wore clothing of camel’s
hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild
honey. That’s a tough situation. It’s not one most of us would volunteer for.
John preached a message of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
He baptized lots of people, of course.
That’s why he’s called John the Baptizer or John the Baptist. He traveled all around the area of the
Jordan river, preaching and baptizing.
I wonder, did John know how long he
was going to be out there? Did he know
when the Savior was actually going to begin his ministry?
Maybe. We’re told that Jesus’ mother, Mary, visited John’s mother,
Elizabeth, when both were pregnant.
We’re told that Elizabeth referred to Mary as “the mother of my Lord”. If Elizabeth knew what that meant, we assume
that she surely would’ve told John.
Still, now it was years later.
John was an adult. And there was
no sign that Jesus was doing anything yet.
Did they keep in
touch? Did John know when Jesus was
going to start his ministry? Had John
even met Jesus? In Matthew’s version of
this story, John knows who Jesus is, but we don’t know if that knowledge comes
from a prior relationship or if it was knowledge from the Holy Spirit. In any event, it appears, from that version
of the story, that John did not expect Jesus to come and be baptized and did
not think it was appropriate.
As far as the Bible tells us, the
only thing John knew was that the Savior was coming. He may have known who the Savior was, but he did not know when
the Savior would start his ministry. He
did not even know if it would be in his lifetime. All John could do was do the job God had sent him to do, and wait
to see what happened next.
And he did. John did the job that God had put him on
earth to do. He did what he could to
get people ready for the Savior. He
told them to give and to share. He told
them to treat people fairly. He told
them to be honest. He told them not to
be greedy or selfish. He told them to
repent of their sins and to be baptized, so that their sins could and would be
forgiven.
We don’t know how long he was out
there doing that. It was long enough
that he attracted quite a following.
We’re told there were crowds that came out there to see him and be
baptized. In fact, some of them were so
fired up about John that the wondered if he might actually be the Savior that
they’d been waiting for.
It must have been hard. It must have been hard for him to keep doing
it, to keep going. He must have gotten
discouraged sometimes. There must have
been times when he thought, “How long is this going to go on? How long am I going to have to wait? Am I really accomplishing anything? Is anyone even paying attention to me? Yeah, I’m getting crowds, but is anyone
really changing their life? Is anyone
really repenting? Or are they just here
for the show?”
All these things must have gone
through John’s mind at some point. But
he kept at it. John kept preaching, and
kept baptizing, and kept trying to get people ready for the coming of the
Savior, just as God wanted him to.
Then, the Savior came. And he
came first to John, and was baptized.
John baptized Jesus, and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, and a voice
came from heaven and said that Jesus was the Son of God. The Savior John had been getting people
ready for was now here.
Imagine how John must
have felt. In a sense, his entire life
had been building toward this moment.
He had been working for it. He
had been dreaming of it. He had been
put on this earth by God to get ready for it.
And now, after all his work, all his dreams had come true. The Savior, the divine Son of God, was
finally here. He must have been
overwhelmed. He must have been overcome
with an incredible sense of joy. He had
kept at it, he had stayed faithful despite his doubt and despite the times when
he was discouraged, and in the end, it was all worth it.
So, maybe you’re thinking
“Okay, that’s a good story, and it kind of relates to Christmas, I guess, but
what’s the point?” Well, here’s the
point. Remember how I said that John
was special from the beginning? Well,
so are you. And so am I. Remember how God had a specific job for John
to do? Well, God has a specific job for
you to do, and for me to, too. Remember
how John went through some tough times?
Well, so will we, if we do what God wants us to do. Remember how John did not know how long he
would have to wait, how long he might have to go through what he went through
and do the job God wanted him to do?
Well, neither do we. Remember
how John must have gotten discouraged, and wondered whether what he was doing
was making any difference? Well, you
and I have those times, too.
But remember something
else. The angel, Gabriel, said that
John would be filled with the Holy Spirit.
You and I can be filled with the Holy Spirit, too. All we need to do is open our hearts to
God. Then we will be able to stay
faithful to God, the way John did.
Despite how long he
waited, despite the tough times he went through, and despite his uncertainty,
and despite his doubts and fears, John stayed faithful to God. John did what God had put him on earth to
do. And when John did that, in the end,
it all turned out to be worth it.
Because John eventually came face to face with his Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
And so can we. When we open our hearts to God, we can stay
faithful to God. When we stay faithful
to God, we can do what God has put us on earth to do. When we do what God has put us on earth to do, we will be ready
to come face to face with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That means that we will be ready for
Christmas. And we will know that all
the waiting, all the tough times, all the uncertainty, and all the doubts and
fears we had to go through were worth it.
Because we will feel the incredible joy that comes from being in the
presence of Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment