Posted on 12/08/2007 7:34:41 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
“To Fulfill What Was Spoken by the Prophet: ‘The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness’” (Matthew 3:1-12)
Last week we entered what I called, “The Year of St. Matthew,” a new church year in which most all of the Sunday Gospel readings will come from the holy evangelist Matthew. We said that one of the characteristics of Matthew’s account is his frequent use of introducing quotations from the Old Testament with a “fulfillment” formula, something like, “This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. . . .” Something like that. In fact, today is the second of six straight Sundays in which the reading from Matthew has one of these quotation or fulfillment formulas. And so today, like we did last week, we will basically be asking three questions of the text: 1) How does this fulfill what was spoken by the Old Testament prophet? 2) What does this have to do with Advent? And 3) What does all this have to do with us?
Today’s quotation formula and the Old Testament passage quoted go like this: “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”’”
“For this is he.” For this is who? Who is being referred to here? It’s John the Baptist. John is identified with “the voice of the one crying” from the prophet Isaiah. So, applying our first question, how does John the Baptist fulfill what Isaiah wrote?
To answer this question, we need to go back to the situation that Isaiah was dealing with. Isaiah envisions, in the first place, the time when Judah and Jerusalem would be off in exile in the land of Babylon--the Babylonian Captivity, we call it, five, six centuries before Christ. This was a difficult, depressing time for God’s people. The nation’s sins had cost them their place in the Promised Land, and they had been deported as captives to a far-off pagan land. “By the waters of Babylon” the people sat and wept, longing for a return to their homeland--to go back home to Zion, to be back in the presence of the Lord.
It is to that historical situation that Isaiah speaks, speaks a word of comfort in chapter 40 of his book. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” The time has come for the captivity to be ended. Jerusalem’s iniquity is pardoned, her sins are amply forgiven, more than enough. These are tender, comforting words the prophet speaks.
And the voice crying out announces the same. Isaiah writes: “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” This is the announcing, the heralding, of the Lord coming to deliver his people! The Lord is coming straightaway to save his captive people! Picture in your minds a map of the ancient Near East. Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, is over here in the west, hugging the Mediterranean Sea. Babylon is hundreds of miles east of there, along the Tigris and Euphrates--in Mesopotamia, kind of around modern-day Iraq. In between Judah and Babylon, if you draw a line between them, is a vast expanse of desert, the Arabian Desert. Normally you wouldn’t travel that direct route, because it was such a huge desert. Normally you would go up and around what is called the Fertile Crescent, following where there was water and vegetation. But when Isaiah says that the Lord is coming to his exiled people by way of the wilderness, on a highway through the desert, he is picturing very vividly the immediacy, the directness, of the Lord coming to deliver his people. Help is on the way! It’s almost here! The Lord God is coming so directly, he’s even taking the shortcut through the desert!
Here are words of comfort for people distressed by their sins and the sad situation they find themselves in as a result. The Lord is coming to save you! He’s on his way! He’s taking the highway, the express lane even! And this is how the words of Isaiah the prophet come to pass in the person of John the Baptist. For the return from exile, from Babylon back to Judah--while that deliverance did take place, it was not enough to exhaust the glorious salvation spoken of in Isaiah’s prophecy. There would be more, much more. And this is where John the Baptist comes in, when and where and why he comes on the scene. John is the voice announcing an even greater deliverance. He is the herald going ahead of the king, telling the people to get ready for the king’s arrival. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” John announces. “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
Appropriately, John the Baptist does this announcing in the wilderness. The wilderness of Judea, along the Jordan, was where John announced the coming of the king and called the people to get ready for his arrival. Now in Isaiah, it seems that “in the wilderness” refers to where the way-preparing was to take place. In Matthew, the “in the wilderness” is attached more to where the voice is crying. But either way, it comes out the same. John was the voice crying in the wilderness, and the way-preparing he was calling for--repentance--also was taking place in that same wilderness.
“Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” In the ancient Near East, when a king was about to visit his people, his “advance men,” if you will, would go ahead of him to get things ready. Part of the preparation was to get the roads ready for the royal arrival. You didn’t want the king traveling on bumpy, pot-holed roads in a state of disrepair. No, the king should travel on first-rate roads, smooth and straight. The terms “Kingshighway” and “El Camino Real” reflect this widespread practice, in many cultures, that royal highways should be in excellent condition.
Now think of the king that John was the “advance man” for. Who was the Lord whose way John was preparing? John calls him “one coming after me who is mightier than I.” This is the king, this is the Lord, who would bring in the kingdom of heaven! And that kingdom was right at hand. We know of course that this king is none other than Jesus, who would be coming through that same wilderness very shortly, to be baptized by John and to begin his public ministry. The Lord is on his way! He is coming speedily to deliver his people! Salvation is on the way! He is coming through this wilderness; I can see him coming! So get ready! Prepare for his arrival! Let’s get the roads in shape for our soon-coming king! “Make his paths straight.”
This is repentance John is calling for, calling us to. Repentance is not just patching a crack here or there, to make a rotting road look respectable. No, repentance is total highway renovation. It’s like the I-64/Highway 40 project on steroids! Let’s put it less poetically and more plainly: The repentance that John is calling God’s people to is a total giving up on our own righteousness and a turning completely to God for his mercy and his renewing Spirit. Nothing less will do. That is the only highway fit for our Lord. A holding on to our own goodness, as though that could somehow be good enough please God--that is like a huge boulder blocking the road. It has to be removed. The devious ways, the crooked ways in our life--these are detours down dangerous misdirections. They need to be made straight. Repentance is giving up on being our own god and realizing the death and lostness that that wrongheadedness brings us. Repentance is giving up on yourself. Then the path is cleared for the king to come in. God must work this repentance in us. It comes through that voice preaching to us, calling us home, calling us to confess our sins and to look for the Lord’s deliverance.
This is Advent, then. This is our second and third question: What does this have to do with Advent, and what does this have to do with us? Advent is a time of preparation for our coming king. Penitential preparation. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The king is coming at Christmas, the Son of God coming in the flesh to be our Savior. The king is coming again at the Last Day, to gather his wheat into the barn and to cast the chaff into unquenchable fire--end-time judgment and salvation. Christ is coming, our king is coming, and this calls for Advent preparation--more than the trimming of trees, rather, the repentance of hearts, highways fit for a king.
“Prepare the way of the Lord.” Luther says of this preparing: “Such preparation is spiritual; it consists in the deep conviction and confession that you are unfit, a sinner, poor, damned, and miserable with all the works you are able to do. Where this conviction is wrought, the heart will be opened for the Lord’s entrance with his forgiveness and gifts.”
And so here comes our Lord, coming with all his gifts! The king is on his way! He it is, Jesus, who is the source of all our comfort. He it is, Jesus, who pardons our iniquity, by virtue of his paying for all our sins with his death on the cross. The Son of God shed his holy blood as the perfect sacrifice for you and for all people. As John said when he pointed to him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Yes, Jesus Christ is the glory of the Lord revealed, for the Lord shows his glory chiefly in showing mercy.
John the Baptist fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy because it is really not about John himself. The voice just directs our attention to the coming king, the one mightier than John. The king is coming, bringing salvation and deliverance. We were in captivity in the Babylon our sins deserve, and yet, even now, the Lord is on his way to set us free. The king is coming, speedily, on the express route, straight across the desert.
And so John the voice calls us out into that wilderness to get things ready. Confess your sins, people of God! What is the uneven ground that needs to become level? What are the rough places in your life that need to be smoothed into a plain? Confess your sins and receive God’s forgiveness, for Christ’s sake. You have been baptized into that life of daily repentance and forgiveness. This is Advent preparation.
“In the wilderness” the voice is crying, preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins. “In the wilderness” the way-preparing is taking place, as God’s people confess their sins and receive that forgiveness. “In the wilderness” the Lord is coming on his royal highway, coming straightaway to deliver us and set us free. Comfort and pardon, the glory of the Lord and the kingdom of heaven--all right at hand!
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”
Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Isaiah 40:1-5 (ESV)
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
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.”
Ping.
Thank you, Pastor Charles!
Always good to hear the Word of God....
Thanks for the sermon pastor Charles. I really like the above part from Luther.
I do too; that's why I included it. :-) Luther really captured the main thought of the text in just two sentences.
1. Comfort, comfort, ye My people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning ‘neath their sorrows’ load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover
And her warfare now is over.
2. Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
Blotting out each dark misdeed;
All that well deserved His anger
He no more will see or heed.
She hath suffered many a day,
Now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever-springing gladness.
3. Hark, the Herald’s voice is crying
In the desert far and near,
Bidding all men to repentance
Since the Kingdom now is here.
Oh, that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
Let the valleys rise to meet Him
And the hills bow down to greet Him.
4. Make ye straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain;
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits His holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o’er earth is shed abroad,
And all flesh shall see the token
That His Word is never broken.
The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #61
Text: Is. 40:1-8
Author: Johann Olearius, 1671
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1863, alt.
Titled: “Troestet, troestet meine Lieben”
Tune: “Freu dich sehr”
1st Published in: _Genevan Psalter_, 1551
And for those congregations which itch to sing Chirstmas carols during Advent, a slightly altered phrasing to fit the meter of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”:
“Comfort, comfort ye my people
Proclaim peace!” says our God
Comfort those who in darkness sit
Beneath their sorrow’s load.
To God’s people now tell that
His pardon waits for them
Tell them their warfare is over
God reigns in peace again!
For now the herald’s voice does cry
in desert far and near
Calling one and all to repent
For God’s kingdom is near.
Oh, heed the Baptist’s warning
Prepare for God a way!
Let valleys rise to meet our God
Bow down, hills, at His Day.
Straight shall be what was long crooked
And rough places made plain!
Bow down your heart, make it humble
To greet His holy reign!
For our Lord’s awesome glory
On earth is shed abroad
And all flesh shall together see
The righteousness of God!
Of course we sang that hymn today, along with "Ye Sons of Men, Oh, Hearken" and "On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry."
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