Advent 2 06 C

As a Sunday School Teacher was teaching her 3 and 4 yr.-olds the story of John the Baptist, she pointed to a picture of John the Baptist wearing clothes made of animal skins.
She pointed out that John the Baptist's clothes were different from his friends in the picture and asked them if they knew where John the Baptist got his clothes, anticipating they would answer “from animal skins.”
Heather immediately raised her hand. The teacher acknowledged her by saying, "Good Heather, where did John the Baptist get his clothes?"
Heather immediately answered, “At the Goodwill?”

John the Baptist seemed a strange character with his clothing of camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey as Matthew’s gospel tells us. He hardly seemed to be the one who would be the messenger to introduce to the world the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

John the Baptist quoted a prophecy spoken hundreds of years earlier from Isaiah 40:3-5 when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.”

John the Baptist was a unique person in human history. Someone asked one time, “What do Winnie the Pooh and John the Baptist have in common?” The answer? The have the same middle name (THE).

I want to start out today by giving you a little history lesson. Luke, the writer of our gospel lesson today, sees the emergence of John, as one of the hinges on which history turned. So much so is that the case that he dates it no fewer than six different ways. For example, Tiberius was the successor of Augustus and therefore the second of the Roman Emperors. As early as A.D. 11 or 12 Augustus had made him his colleague in the imperial power but he did not become sole emperor until A.D. 14. The fifteenth year of his reign would therefore be A.D. 28-29. Luke begins by setting the emergence of John against a world background, the background of the Roman Empire.

Another way Luke dates the appearance of John the Baptist is seen in the next three dates Luke gives. These dates are connected with the political organization of Palestine. The title tetrarch literally means governor of a fourth part. In such provinces of Thessaly and Galatia, which were divided into four sections or areas, the governor of each part was known as a tetrarch; but later the word widened to mean a governor of any part. Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. after a reign of about forty years. He divided his kingdom between three of his sons and in the first instance the Romans approved the decision.

To Herod Antipas were left Galilee and Peraea. He reigned from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39 and therefore Jesus’ life was lived in Herod’s reign and very largely in Herod’s dominions in Galilee.

To Herod’s brother Philip were left Iturea and Trachonitis. He reigned from 4 B.C. to A. D. 33. Caesarea Philippi was named after him and was actually built by him.

To Archelaus, who is mentioned in Matthew’s gospel, were left Judea, Samaria and Edom. He was a thoroughly bad king. The Jews in the end actually petitioned Rome for his removal; and Rome, impatient of the continual troubles in Judea, installed a procurator or governor. That is how the Romans came directly to rule in Judaea. At this time Pontius Pilate, in power from A.D. 25 until A.D. 37, was the Roman governor.

Luke mentions Lysanias, the tetrarch of Abilene. Although archeologists have uncovered references to Lysanias, and the Jewish historian Josephus refers to him, we know next to nothing about Lysanias.

Having dealt with the world situation and the Palestinian political situation, Luke now turns to the religious situation and dates John’s emergence as being in the priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. There had never been a time when two men were high priests at the same time. What then does Luke mean by giving these two names? The high priest was at one and the same time the civil and the religious head of the community. In the old days the office of high priest had been hereditary and for life. But with the coming of the Romans the office was the object of all kinds of intrigue. The result was that between 37 B.C. and A.D. 26 there was no fewer than twenty-eight different high priests. Now Annas was actually high priest from A.D. 7 through A.D. 14.

He was therefore at this time out of office; but he was succeeded by no fewer than four of his sons and Caiaphas was his son-in-law. Although Caiaphas was the reigning high priest, Annas was the power behind the throne. That is in fact why Jesus was brought first to him after his arrest although at this time Annas was not in office. Luke associates his name with Caiaphas because, although Caiaphas was the actual high priest, Annas was still the most influential priestly figure in the land.

It is in this context that John was called by God to go out and be this voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Messiah to come.

When a king proposed to tour a part of his dominions in the east, he sent a courier before him to tell the people to prepare the roads - smooth them out, clear the rocks, fill in the potholes. So John is regarded as the courier of the King of Kings.

John also, according to Jesus later on, represented Elijah who, the Jews believed, was supposed to come back to life before the Messiah would come. In Matt. 17:11 Jesus talked about Elijah when he said, “To be sure Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then, we are told, the disciples understood that Jesus was talking to them about John the Baptist. According to Jesus, John the Baptist was the Elijah the Jews were looking for.

While John as a forerunner was important, Jesus says this about him: “I tell you the truth, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Jesus was affirming both the greatness of John the Baptist and the greater privileges kingdom citizens enjoy. Great as he was, John served only as a forerunner who announced that the kingdom was near. Under Christ’s new covenant, we enjoy the fuller benefits of kingdom life.

John’s greatness was in his preaching. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. However, John’s baptism was a mere shadow of true baptism. That baptism is an outward sign of something God does in the heart of a person. John’s baptism was more something that the person being baptized did rather than what God does within.

John’s message, as a forerunner, is as relevant today as it was in Jesus’ day. John’s message calls us to prepare the way for Jesus to have a more complete role in our lives.

We are to prepare the roads of our hearts for Jesus. The Lord needs those who, in their spirit and in their lives, are road makers. There is a wonderful old English word which expresses this role perfectly. It is the word PAVIOR. A pavior was one who paved a road, who “prepared the way” and made paths straight. The world needs a Savior, and it needs paviors who will make it possible for people to come to Jesus.

We become paviors, preparing the way of the Lord in a number of ways.

1. We prepare the way of Christ when we prepare our hearts, when we give Christ leverage in our lives. We can’t hope to prepare the way for others if we have not prepared the way for Christ to come into our hearts. A receptive mind is an excellent road building tool. How receptive are you to Jesus Christ? Have you put up any speed bumps, curbs, or potholes in your life that would block the path of Jesus to the throne of your heart?

2. We prepare the way for Christ when we become a voice crying in the wilderness of unbelief which surrounds us on every side. Are you always speaking unbelief or are you speaking faith? When you are around your unchurched or unbelieving friends or co-workers do you speak up for the truth? Do you offer an alternative to the world’s perspective on life? Do you hide your faith or let is shine forth in a confident but gentle way? Are you able to give a three minute testimony which would describe your relationship with Christ and His Church? Do you stand for truth even when it is not popular? What kind of voice are you in the wilderness of the world?

3. We prepare the way of Christ by hard Spirit-directed work, sacrifice and prayer. I suspect God is looking for people who are not satisfied with just getting by with a few pieces of gravel to pave a road, but rather are satisfied with something that will last. We often hear about the importance of having a work ethic. What is your Christian work ethic?

We may understand that we need to work hard for the kingdom of God, but after understanding must come decision. Author Dallas Willard said one time, "In the last analysis, we fail to be disciples only because we do not decide to be."

The reason we decide not to be disciples, not to work hard for the kingdom of God is sin. Sin to Willard is not some dark force that controls us or some overpowering evil within us: "The patterns of wrongdoing that govern human life outside the kingdom are usually quite weak, even ridiculous. They are simply our habits [author's emphasis], our largely automatic responses of thought, feeling, and action. It is rare that what we do wrong is the result of careful deliberation." In other words, we can just get in the habit of not being disciples.

Willard believes grace and the Holy Spirit have too often been used to excuse spiritual sloth. In this regard, Willard downplays grace and the Holy Spirit because he believes they've far too often been used to excuse spiritual laziness.

"The effects of training in any area," he says, "cannot be transferred into us from another person, and rarely, if ever, will it be injected [author's emphasis] by divine grace." Furthermore, "The importance of the work of the Holy Spirit cannot be overemphasized. But today our practice in Christian circles is, in general, to place almost total emphasis on the work of the Spirit of God for or on the individual."

Instead he argues, "We become a life student of Jesus by deciding." Each day we can make a decision to follow Jesus and work hard for His kingdom as he leads us by His Spirit.

4. We prepare the way of Christ by taking risks, by trying new things, by going out where the roads need to be built. It is easy for us to confine our faith to this building and never take a chance on our faith out in the world.

Someone said one time (obviously before December 7, 1941), “A ship in a harbor is safe but that is not what ships were built for.” So we, too, who are on the road-crew for Jesus cannot keep our road building equipment here in the church, we must get it out where the roads are needed.

I am grateful for John the Baptist. From him I have learned the importance of making sure the path to my heart is prepared each day for Jesus to rule and reign in my life. I have learned that I need to be aware of ways that God might be calling me to prepare the way for others to come to Christ by being a person who has made a decision every day to work hard for Jesus and his kingdom. This means sometimes taking chances to be a pavior for the savior so that he can change the behavior of the wayward.