December 10, 2017, The Second Sunday of Advent

Get ready for Christmas. Get ready for the coming of Christ. Christ is coming at Christmas, at the end of the world, and today he comes into our hearts and lives. Get ready for the coming of Christ. This was also the message of both the Prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

Isaiah said to make a highway for God in the desert. It was the historical situation that the Exile of the Jews in Babylon was over and that they would soon be returning to the Promised Land. It would be a long trip for them, they had to travel through the desert, and so, Isaiah told them that God would be with them on their journey home and would protect them and would make their journey easy.

3 A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,

And so it would be like walking through a beautiful garden: it was beautiful because they were going home and because the Lord would be with them like a shepherd (v.11).

John the Baptist took the words of Isaiah and applied them to his own work. John was in the wilderness, and there he was preparing a highway for the Messiah to come to the Jews. Isaiah told of the forgiveness of God and John told the people to repent of their sin and to be baptized to receive forgiveness. In the Book of Isaiah, because God had forgiven the Jews, they could return home to the Promised Land from exile in Babylon. For John the Baptist, if the Jews again repented of their sins and turned to God, then the Messiah would lead them to salvation. And Jesus did come. He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He was the path that led straight to eternal life.

And today, we hear the words of Isaiah and John speaking to us. It is time for us to repent and believe in the Gospel. It is time for us to travel the road prepared for us.

Sometimes it seems that the roads that we have to travel in life are not straight. They are crooked. They are in the wilderness. The road is rough. There are valleys and mountains. Our life is filled with hardships and sorrows: economic, social, political, personal, physical, emotional, inter-personal, educational. I suppose these challenges can make life more interesting, but can also bring great pain and the despair of ever reaching our goals in life.

The Prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist however are not speaking of only those problems, they are also speaking of the spiritual problem we have. The road to God is not straight. In fact, the road has been made so crooked by sin that it has become impossible for people to get to God because they cannot find the right road without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And without the Holy Spirit, many people have given up on God. Many people no longer even care if they ever get to heaven. They are so lost in sin.

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He said “Repent!” Repentance in the Bible means to get back on the right road. Forgiveness of sins means that we are now headed in the right direction toward the target. However, even with all his preaching and baptizing, John really felt his own helplessness. He could proclaim that the Messiah Savior was coming, but he knew that he himself could not save anyone. He was the most holy of men, living his life in harmony with God, but still his holiness could not save anyone. He expressed it this way: “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Sandals and shoes are made for walking. But when Jesus came to save us, at first he came as a child without shoes, rather he was laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. If untying sandals is the job of the lowest slave, then Jesus showed his humility when he washed the feet of the disciples. He said this was the way that the disciples should serve each other: in humility and love and in service to one another. There are a couple of times in the New Testament when we see Jesus without sandals. One was when the woman washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. The other was when he was on the cross. His sandals had been removed in order to drive the nail into his feet to put him on the cross. Feet are for walking, and for Christ, the path he had to take was the path of the cross. This is the path that leads first to death and hell, then to the forgiveness of sin, to the resurrection, and to life eternal.

Both Isaiah and John were prophets. They speak to us. When we hear these words, God is telling us also to prepare the road for the Messiah. Soon Christmas will be here, and so we need to prepare for his coming. Maybe we too should build a highway for the Lord in the wilderness. Taken literally, we might build a chapel in the desert or in the jungle or on a deserted island. But when you think about it, sometimes the place where we are right now seems like a wilderness. I am not talking about the economic situation of our homes. I am talking about the desert-like conditions of our society as a whole. People wander around in spiritual darkness and fear. Hearts and eyes are dry from crying and pain and worry. And so the place to build a chapel is right here. This is where it is needed. Not just this church building, but the chapel of our hearts. We prepare for the Lord to come to our own hearts and then we show the path of salvation to others. This is where the Messiah comes. That is the Christmas Story. Christ was born in this sinful wilderness of a world. He came to where we are. Here he suffered like we do and then, even more; he suffered and was crucified for our sin. Then he arose on the third day. Then he promised our resurrection and eternal life in the Promised Land. That prophecy of Jesus is the prophecy that gives meaning to Christmas. Christmas is the first step on the road to the Promised Land.

Jesus Christ is called “Immanuel” which means “God with us.” Christmas tells us that God is with us. We do not travel the road alone. The road of life goes through a wilderness sometimes: grief and sorrow and pain and sin. But it need not be a lonely wilderness. I know in my life that the road has been easier when I have traveled with God in the midst of problems. That is when I pray and ask God to guide me and to be with me. The mountains of problems are lowered; the valleys of disappointment and failure are not so deep.

At Christmas the words of the prophets are fulfilled. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. God is traveling with us.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

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