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.
When Moravian missionaries first arrived in the Arctic, they found no single word in the Inuktitut language for forgiveness. That doesn’t mean the Inuit people didn’t let go of past wrongs, just that they didn’t have a single world for doing so. Since forgiveness is an essential concept in Christianity, the missionaries wanted a single word that captured the kind of forgiveness found in Psalm 103. Using Inuktitut words, they came up issumagijoujungnainermik meaning “not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.” This 24-letter multi-syllable word beautifully describes the God who will “cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” [Micah 7:19], who vows to “forgive their iniquity, and…remember their sin no more,” [Jeremiah 31:34], and who promises to blot out our transgressions and not remember our sins.[Isaiah 43:25]
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).
In 1962, my 2-month-old nephew Johnny and his parents traveled 1,500 miles for his Baptism. Because my mother was hospitalized (and soon would be dead), the sacrament took place at her bedside. This was the only time Johnny and his grandmother met and the last time my sister saw our mother alive.
Back in 1919, pharmacist W.K. Buckley created a concoction to treat coughs, colds, and bronchitis called Buckley’s Original Mixture. Buckley’s elixir was tremendously effective but its flavor was horrid. Nevertheless, their nasty tasting blend of things like menthol, camphor, Canadian balsam, and pine needle oil is still being sold more than 100 years later. The mixture’s longevity is due as much to the company’s straightforward and humorous “awful taste” ad campaign as it is to its reputed efficacy. With the slogan, “It tastes awful. And it works!” Buckley’s is described by consumers as “the worst tasting, foulest smelling, yet most effective cough remedy.” Apparently, it is. Despite ads admitting, “People swear by it. And at it,” consumers continue to endure Buckley’s ghastly flavor. Never having used Buckley’s (and not about to try), this is not an endorsement!
Devotions of the Heart 