A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” [Isaiah 40:30 (ESV)]
Like his cousin Jesus, John’s impending birth was announced by the angel Gabriel, it took God’s intervention to take place, and his name and calling were determined before he was conceived. The angel Gabriel told Zechariah that, “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” John was “to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” When John was circumcised, Zechariah prophesied that John would “go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.”
From the moment of his birth, John knew his purpose and, in his 30th year, he came out of the wilderness to answer God’s call. While preparing the way for the Lord, John warned the people that being a Jew would not save them from judgment; salvation was not inherited. Emphasizing a change of heart and the fruit of a changed life, John told the people to repent—to turn away from their sins and turn to God. Many of those hearing his message took it to heart and John baptized them.
Wanting to know the identity of this strange man who came out of nowhere and started baptizing, the priests and Levites questioned John about his identity. When asked if he was the Messiah, John said he wasn’t. When asked if he was Elijah, John said, “No.”
Curious about an unfulfilled prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15-18 in which God told Moses that He would raise up a prophet like Moses from among their countrymen who would speak God’s very words, they asked if John was that expected prophet, but John’s reply was another no. “Then who are you?” they demanded. Rather than saying who he was, John explained why he came. Quoting from Isaiah 40, he claimed to be the voice in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord.
Completely ignoring John’s claim to be announcing the Lord, the Pharisees got to their main concern. Since he wasn’t the Messiah, Elijah, or the promised Prophet, what gave John the right to baptize? While the Jews believed in ritual cleansing and bathing, baptism was a conversion ritual only used when Gentiles became Jews. The rite was to remove the defilement the convert contracted in the Gentile world before becoming a Jew. That Jews were being baptized shocked and offended the Pharisees because it implied that Jews (even those as meticulous in their obedience to the Law as the Pharisees) were in as much need of purification as were Gentiles.
Ignoring their question about his authority to baptize, John again pointed his questioners to the one they didn’t recognize among them whose ministry would follow. John baptized with water but He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire and John considered himself unworthy of being His slave. But, satisfied with knowing who John wasn’t and disinterested in learning the identity of this person about whom John spoke, they left the Baptizer at the Jordan River.
John’s questioners were priests, Levites, and Pharisees—men who knew the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures and were thought of as “men of God.” Unfortunately, these men were so intent on their agenda that they never truly heard John’s answers. Although he wasn’t “the Prophet” promised in Deuteronomy, John was Isaiah’s voice in the wilderness; that voice was directing them to the ultimate Prophet—Jesus Christ! A prophet unlike any before—one of their countrymen who speaks face-to-face with God and from whose mouth come the words of God! The promised Messiah was in their midst and they ignored His presence. Like the foolish people in Jeremiah’s day, they had eyes that did not see and ears that did not hear!
Are we as guilty? Are we ever so sure of ourselves that we ignore what has been written for us in Scripture? Do we overlook the opportunities right before us because they aren’t what we expected? Do we miss seeing Jesus when He is standing in the crowd with us? Do we miss hearing his voice because we’re not listening? Are we ever as blind and deaf as were they?
Occasionally, I’ll spot a partially open moonflower (Ipomoea alba) during an early morning walk at the park. While the Moonflower’s cousin the Morning Glory opens wide to welcome the sunlight, the Moonflower prefers darkness. It’s only when the sun sets that it opens to a large trumpet-shaped bloom. Rather than competing during the day with brightly colored flowers for pollinators like bees and butterflies, Moonflowers enjoy pollinators like bats and moths at night. As the morning sun rises, the Moonflower again rejects the light and rolls up into itself.
In a book about evangelism, the author wrote of bringing a new believer into his office and the two of them saying the “Sinner’s Prayer.” After the new believer repeated the Pastor’s words, he was pronounced saved. While there is no official version of this “sinner’s” prayer, it probably goes something like this: “God, I know that I am a sinner and that I deserve to go to hell. I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I do now receive Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen.” Many evangelical Christians speak of saying some sort of prayer like this at the moment of conversion. Is a special “Sinner’s Prayer” a requirement for salvation?
In the ruins of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, a scrap of parchment known as P.Oxy. 1786 was discovered in 1918. Only 11-inches long and 2-inches wide, it consists of four lines of text along with musical notations on the back of a grain contract. Found in an ancient garbage dump, it was just one of 500,000 parchments dating from the 1st century BC to the 7th AD. Along with grocery lists, official records, and business contracts, the rubbish heap yielded a play by Sophocles, poetry by Sappho, portions of the Old Testament, fragments of both Matthew’s and Mark’s gospels, and an arrest warrant for a Christian.
The Resurrection story didn’t end on Easter with Jesus’ appearance to ten disciples, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and John, Salome, and Joanna, along with Cleopas and another believer who broke bread with Him in Emmaus. Appearing and disappearing at will, Jesus remained on earth for forty days. While He probably appeared other times, Scripture tells us He later appeared to Thomas and the ten others, to seven of the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee, to His half-brother James, to over 500 believers at one time, and to the disciples on his last day with them.
Earlier this week, I wrote about my nephew Johnny’s baptism in my mother’s hospital room. Because she was at death’s door, my brother took emergency leave and he and I served as the baby’s sponsors in Baptism (or Godparents).
Devotions of the Heart 