Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Text: Isaiah 40: 1-11, Matthew 11: 2-11

Theme: Going Out of Your Way for Christmas

[the prophet Isaiah spoke] A voice cries - ‘In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’ (Isaiah 40:3)

[Jesus spoke to the crowd] What did you go out into the wilderness to see? (Matt. 11:7)

As we enter the third week in Advent - a bit of refreshment - you are invited by our lessons to stop what you are doing, but then to go a bit out of your way for Christmas. You are invited to go out of your way and partake of the ministry of Elijah returned; that is, the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist. With the ministry of John, God once again broke his silence and spoke to his people on the plane of human history by a chosen mouth-piece. It was 400 years of silence that the children of Israel endured under conditions of slavery after a Pharaoh arose in Egypt who knew not Joseph. For 400 years, they lived in bondage while God held His tongue. But then, God broke his silence and raising up Moses, He again spoke to His people and delivered them out of bondage. But to prepare them for the promised land, God had his people experience Him and themselves for 40 years in the wilderness. It was wilderness life first, then the promised land. Then again in similar fashion, God fell silent for another 400 year period when the prophetic ministry of Malachi came to an end. And continuing the parallel from its earlier history, a remnant of the children of Israel endured hardship and bondage, this time from several world powers that came on the scene: first, the Ptolemies of Egypt, then the Selucids of Antioch, and finally they fell under the domination of the Rome. Malachi prophesied that God would remain silent until Elijah the prophet returned to his people, and for another 400 years - so He did.

400 years later, John the Baptist began his ministry - and again God broke his silence and spoke to his people, calling them again to the wilderness. John’s ministry was foretold by the prophet Isaiah as we heard in our Old Testament lesson this morning. According to Jesus, John represented Elijah - the returned voice of God to His people. Listen again to the words of Isaiah: A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. (Is. 40:3) John is that voice that cried in the wilderness, but he did so in a double sense. First, people had to go out of their way. They had to interrupt their usual patterns and places of everyday life to hear the voice of God through John. They had to leave their cities or villages and travel to very desolate regions to encounter the ministry of the Baptizer. But then, in a second sense about the wilderness, John’s ministry invited sinners to visit the desolation of their own lives as he preached and administered his baptism of repentance.

John is the voice that cries out to the people: In the wilderness, prepare a highway for your God who is coming. In this sense, the wilderness is not the physical environment that John inhabits, but rather the spiritual condition that sinful people possess. John’s ministry is to prepare a world of sinners for the coming of their Savior - and not just back then . . .in all ages, including for us here this morning. It is in the wilderness of our lives that we can be refreshed . . . for it is in the wilderness where we can find our Savior. Jesus of Nazareth showed up in the wilderness to manifest himself as Immanuel. He did so in the wilderness of the Galilean countryside. In the desolate wilderness, He came to be baptized by John and to identify with the world of sinners He came to save. He revealed Himself to John’s disciples through his miraculous healings and teaching of the Gospel as God’s chosen Anointed. But now also, and especially during this Advent Season, He comes to you in similar fashion. He seeks you out to make contact in the desolate regions of your sinful condition to refresh you with his peace and forgiveness. The ministry of John is the voice of God to you this day to prepare to receive your Savior who has come into the world to save you from your sins. He invites you to inspect the sinful wilderness of your life and there to make an avenue; a point of entry - a highway as it were - to embrace Him again as the promised Messiah of your life.

You need to be clear about the kind of spiritual highway that needs to be made. There has been much misunderstanding about this and about the ministry of the Baptist. Working with the analogy, Isaiah indicated that it is in the wilderness conditions of your life that work needs to be done. The valleys need to be lifted up, the mountains need to be made low - all for the purpose of fashioning a highway, a roadbed for easy travel. The roadbed of the highway needs to be straight and it needs to be level. Notice, the command is to build a highway in the wilderness, it is not a command to remove the wilderness. The highway in our sinful hearts is fashioned by repentance, not reform. It is fashioned by giving your sins and failings over to Him, not seeing that they are all removed. The idea of repentance is to provide the Lord easy access to your sinful wretchedness, where He comes to cover it with His grace and forgiveness. Preparation to receive your Lord is not about cleaning up your act. It is not about removing the wilderness or transforming it into green pastures and still waters. Repentance is an attitude about your sinfulness, it is not a program for its removal. It is a sorrow and regret about your sinful wretched condition and a hunger for your Savior, for his forgiveness and righteousness. It is about fashioning a humble willingness to give them over to Him. Lofty self-righteousness and the great pits of rebellious behavior are obstacles that block repentance and receiving the Savior from sin. Your Savior comes to cover your sins with his righteousness, to bring you God’s favor, not give you a plan and encouragement to work it all out yourself. You repent in the wilderness, you don’t to remove it. He will take care of that removal program in due time. The fruit of repentance follows after faith; it is not its precondition. Right now, He comes to refresh, not reform; to meet wilderness sinners who are seek the refreshment of the Living Water and the satisfaction of the Bread of Life.

John was a voice, crying in the wilderness. You had to go out of your way to encounter his ministry. He was off the beaten path, far away from the town square, from the village marketplace, yes even the synagogues and temple. It is the same today. You have to go out of your way, leaving the usual contexts of everyday life to be in the wilderness. So also you have to leave your preoccupation with the usual cares and concerns of everyday living, yes even the every day preparations for Christmas, to bring yourself into conscious contact with the state of your sinful condition. If Christmas is to be more than the nation’s holiday on December 25th, if it is to be a special, joyous reception of your Savior from sin and the peace that He brings - then you are going to have to go out of your way for Christmas. You are going to have to go off the beaten path, away from the shopping crowds, and head to the wilderness you can find inside your own hearts and minds - there to examine and appreciate anew your need for righteousness and forgiveness. And there through the ministry of the Baptist, through the ministry of repentance, by the leveling work of the Law . . . there a highway for your God will be fashioned - an interstate by which your Savior may come and gift you again with his life-giving grace and peace and love. And from this holy highway cut through the desolation of your sinful condition, He promises to take you on a journey through of the valley of the shadow of death, where you will end up in green pastures beside still waters. Ahhh, refreshment! The highway to your sinful wilderness now under the work of your Savior, will become a highway to paradise. This is the promise . . . and it is worth your going out of your way . . . for Christmas.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.