The Christmas season is upon us. Stores have been selling Christmas items for weeks and weeks already by now. Everyone is making preparations for the holiday. Without such preparations the holiday would not be as special or memorable to us. Just about everyone is preparing in one way or another.
But do as many people think to make spiritual preparations for Christmas? We all know Christmas has become a commercial holiday in many ways. Parents who think little of the spiritual meaning of Christmas talk about giving each child their Christmas- which means one thing, a big haul of presents. Jesus is left out entirely in such family Christmas settings. There is no thought of giving children the gift of Jesus.
For this reason, John the Baptist’s message in our gospel lesson is of great importance for our society today. John comes to prepare the way of the Lord. Our gospel lesson gives the specific details of history in which John was born, the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
In a specific time and place in history God sent a great prophet to prepare for the coming Messiah. The promise of the Savior which began just before Adam and Eve were sent outside the gates of Eden, that promise is now coming to the people of Israel in the first century, during the reign of Tiberius Caesar.
John has been called the last Old Testament prophet. His message fits in line with all of the Old Testament prophets with their message of preparation for the coming Messiah and their message of repentance and turning from false idols.
And in fact even the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah predicted the coming of John: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight..” Many of the prophets of old received the Word of the Lord in the wilderness. The wilderness is apart from the comforts of society, stark, desolate, without distraction.
The last book in the Old Testament is from the Prophet Malachi. As we heard from Malachi chapter 3 the coming of John the Baptist is the start of the coming of the Messiah. “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
John is a Herald preparing for the New Covenant and he was sent to prepare us for the coming of Jesus. Because of this privileged role Jesus calls John the greatest of the prophets.
“Behold the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent.” In the gospel of Matthew John says this, and then one chapter later Jesus says this. At the moment when Jesus is about to begin his ministry John refines us with this message of repentance. The prophet Malachi described this function of refining that John played. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
John directed the people’s attention to one who is more powerful than Him, the one who is to come. John baptizes with water, but Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Advent is a time for wonder at the Old Testament prophecies coming to fruition. The years of history coming together all toward one great purpose of the birth of Jesus. What all of the messages of the prophets throughout the ages has in common is the good news that salvation is found in Christ.
As the last of the great prophets John allows us to prepare and be prepared for the way of the Lord. We are first prepared through repentance. Many self righteous people listening to John believed that they were saved because they were children of Abraham. They saw their salvation as a birthright and so thought repentance was beneath them.
Yet John made clear that judgement awaits the unrepentant. The axe is already at the root of the tree, and those who do not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. We prepare, as we talked about in the children’s message, through repentance. Through turning back from our wayward path of sin and destruction and seeking the Lord’s guidance in all things.
But it is not just repentance that prepares us for Christmas, even more so we are prepared through forgiveness. While John’s baptism was for repentance, in our own baptism we receive the benefits of Christ’s victory on the cross. These are the glad tiding John brings to us, the good news of the kingdom. If Jesus calls John the greatest of prophets, it is not soley because of his call to repentance, what we call in catechism class the preaching of the Law. John is the greatest because he is delivering the message of good news, Your Savior is here!
The Christian celebration of Christmas is less something that we prepare for and more something that God prepares us for. He prepares us for Christmas with his boundless mercy and love for us. As we come to realize that the Savior who was promised from of old is born unto us, we respond in thanksgiving.
As we hear the good news of the gospel through the season of Advent we can respond with fruits in keeping with repentance. True repentance and forgiveness always leads to concrete actions of love toward others. John gave the crowd examples of how good fruits look for those who are tax collectors and those who are soldiers. It is always the case that those who are truly repentant receive God’s forgiveness in full, and this forgiveness produces much fruit.
Consider Zacchaeus, the short dishonest rich tax collector who climbed up in a tree to see Jesus passing by. Surprisingly Jesus did not pass him by. He called Zacchaeus by name, visited with him in his home. Zacchaeus, moved to repentance by Jesus’ mercy and love cried out, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.”
Later on in history there was a man named Martin of Tours. Martin was born to a pagan family, and he later became a Christian and became a soldier in the Roman army. One afternoon, approaching the gate of the city, Martin encountered a beggar, cold and half naked. Martin drew his sword and cut his heavy soldier’s cloak in half, wrapping it around the shivering man.
These are two examples of reactions to Jesus’ mercy. What fruits of repentance will Jesus; mercy bring forth in your life? Perhaps selfless care for someone else in your life? Perhaps the gift that sustained dedication and focus on a goal can bring to the church and bring to society.
Baptism and forgiveness of sins empowers us to do great things in God’s kingdom and in the world. Are you prepared? Are you bearing fruits of repentance? Christmas is just a few weeks away. Use the time wisely to prepare your hearts for the coming of Christ this Christmas: Confessing your sins, meditating on His Word, receiving the sacrament, singing his praises. He will make the holiday everything you desire and more!