“Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”
The Broadway musical, Godspell, opens with a colorfully dressed and eccentric looking John the Baptizer belting these seven words into and over the audience. The first time that I saw the play, a young man—with a much better singing voice than myself—just let loose as his words resonated throughout the church, and God used this simple melody fill the sanctuary and send chills up my spine.
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”
That was a little over ten years ago, and I still cannot think about John the Baptizer without hearing this song play over and over again in my head: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” The neat thing about the opening of this musical is that it is also the opening of the Gospel of Jesus According to Mark. Let us hear together this story of our people…
(Share Mark 1:1-8)
Now, there is at least an 80% chance that John the Baptizer did not actually sing as he proclaimed his message to the crowds that gathered around him, and if he was wearing camel hair and a leather belt, he probably was not as colorfully or brightly dressed as his contemporary counterpart in the musical. There are, admittedly, some differences between the two. Still, I love hearing him sing out in my head as he works to attract a crowd of people at the riverside.
The biggest difference for me, though, between the opening of Godspell and the opening of Mark’s Gospel is the setting. I watched Godspell from a padded pew in the church in which I grew up; it was comfortable to me, familiar. This was not so for the original. It was impossible to encounter John this way, though, for he was “baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” The people came out to him, to a dirty, hot, and uncomfortable wilderness of a place to hear his message and be baptized by him. John’s messages were uncomfortable as well; he not only compelled others to repent from their sinful actions but, as the Gospel of John attests, he actually called certain people out and spoke poignantly and prophetically to them.
John’s work was done in the wilderness. And it’s there that we are called to prepare the way of the Lord.
Now, as you’ve probably guessed by now, this does not mean that we are called to go out into the deserts of the world and build a giant highway for Jesus. God does not need us to pave out a Route 3:16. But there is something very important about the desert or wilderness in this story. I mean, this is a place where no one really wants to be, where individuals and even groups are vulnerable to attack from the elements and enemies, a place people would most likely choose to avoid if they were given the chance. And yet this is the very place that John calls the people to go.
Into the wilderness. To prepare the way of the Lord.
This makes a lot of sense when you place it next to Jesus’ ministry. He spent most of the time working to pull people out of their areas of ease, out of the places and lifestyles and ways of thinking that they knew and with which they were comfortable and moving them into a desert place. Andrew and Peter and the rest of the disciples were compelled to follow Jesus, leaving family and vocation behind to jump into the unknown. Tax collectors like Zacchaeus were challenged to live fairly, even when it meant living with less for themselves. Pharisees and teachers of the Law were invited into a different way of interpreting Scripture. Prostitutes crashed dinner parties. Lepers broke cleanliness codes. Jews ministered to Gentiles and Samaritans.
Jesus’ ministry was about moving people into their wilderness places, and John the Baptizer worked to help people prepare for that.
We have those wilderness places in our lives in our lives, too. Those areas of our past that we don’t let anyone know about. Those scary truths about us that we’re too afraid to let people see. Those instances when we are vulnerable, when our defenses are down. Maybe it’s an addiction you have that you can’t or won’t let go. Maybe it’s a choice you made in your past that you are not proud of and cannot escape. Maybe it’s the pain you still feel from a wound that everyone around you assumed closed years ago.
Jesus ministry is about moving you into your wilderness places, and John the Baptizer works to help prepare you for that.
So why do we need to prepare the wilderness places in our life for Jesus’ coming? Why does Jesus challenge us to move to those places?
Well, let’s go back to the text. Listen to what John the Baptizer says: “After me will come one more powerful than I.” Can you see it? It’s a wonderful thing. We are called to go into those wilderness places in our lives to prepare a place for the Lord because Jesus is coming to those places. It’s not because we need to deal with those places to be able to then go to meet God. It’s not because we have to get rid of the junk in our life before we are allowed to meet the Master. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word-Made-Flesh, has chosen to not only live among us but to join in our wilderness places. Jesus wants to meet us in our lowest places, our darkest secrets, our most vulnerable areas of life.
In the parts of our identity where we do not like to visit or expose for fear that others might see and judge us. That’s where we meet Jesus.
Thank about it. What a wonderful gift this is! Because Jesus Christ, Immanuel, the One who has saved us from our sins and from ourselves, meets us in our desert places, we never have to be alone there again! We never have to be weighed down by the burdens of our past because Christ is there and takes the burden for us! We never have to be ashamed of our sicknesses and addictions because Christ has seen them and loves us in spite and despite of them! We never have to struggle alone through the hardships of this world again, because Christ walks with us every step of the way.
My Aunt Florene passed away this last week. These last few days have been some of the hardest for my mom’s side of the family as everyone gathered by her bed and waited. There was nothing else to do but to sit together around her bed as she slowly came closer and closer to time to go. It has been really hard for me to not be there with them, to not be there for her. For me, this is one of those wilderness places where Jesus meets me. I know that He was crying with me as I wished I could be with her and with the family, and I know that He has been sitting with my loved ones and next to Aunt Florene, holding her hand, feeling her pain, and enduring the heartbreak along with everyone by her side.
My friends, I know that the holiday season, this time that is supposed to be bright and cheery and magical, can hold a lot of pain for many people. Maybe this is the first Christmas you will spend without that certain loved one who is no longer in your life. Maybe the juggling of two Christmases is just another reminder of the divorce that has caused such a rift in your family. Maybe other the skeletons in your closet keep you from getting into the spirit that seems to so easily affect everyone else. Or maybe you force yourself to get lost in that spirit so you don’t have to deal with those hard to overcome obstacles.
Whatever the case, whatever your situation, know that those wilderness places are where Christ has decided to meet you and walk with you. You are not alone in your sufferings, in your struggles, in your fear, and in your pain. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is with you there. He is ready and willing to love you through those places, to sit with you in the ashes, and to show you that there is nothing you have done or endured that is too much for God’s love.
So may we listen to the words of John the Baptizer. May we prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness places of our life. May we remember that Christ has chosen to meet us there, and may we celebrate that our God loves us even in those desert places.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment