Wilderness Gospel
Isaiah 40: 1-11; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8
The first time I heard the expression, “You’re going through a wilderness,” a friend was explaining what she thought I was feeling as a young mother years ago. I remember reaching out to God in prayer, reading my Bible, and staying active with my church, and yet the situation I was struggling with wasn’t getting any better. I felt very little joy. It was a kind of spiritual desert. A time when I felt separated from God, even though I knew, in reality, that it wasn’t true. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
My friend Krissy compared my spiritual struggle to the journey of the Israelites. They had escaped captivity in Egypt, only to find themselves wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They were lost. Tired. Afraid. Some wondered if Moses had led them into the desert to die.
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On this Second Sunday in Advent, a season when we both hope for the coming of Christ and celebrate God with us, we read about John the Baptizer. He is the voice crying out from the wilderness, calling us to repent. All 4 gospels tell us that John’s wilderness ministry fulfills Old Testament prophecy about the messenger preparing the way for the Lord.
John had shunned the comforts of the urban middle class and the distraction of things to live a life solely for God in the desert. He wore camel’s hair—a rough, harsh garment—as a sign of his penitence. His food was locusts and honey—nourishment that the wilderness provided.
Here is a man whose life is intimately connected with Jesus, right from the start. Luke tells us that John leaped for joy when he was in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth, when Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, came to visit the older woman. Elizabeth, a relative of Mary’s, lived in the city of Judah in the hill country with her husband Zacharias, a priest. At Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She called Mary “the mother of my Lord.”
Elizabeth had been childless until an angel visited Zacharias to announce his wife would bear a son. The angel said this baby, John, would grow to be “great in the sight of the Lord.” He would not consume any wine or strong drink, and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. The angel said John “would turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
John boldly spoke the truth, though it meant risking his life. He proclaimed a message of social justice during a time of corruption and greed in the ruling classes and great unrest amongst the masses. He called religious leaders “hypocrites” and “vipers.” He blasted materialism and selfishness. He challenged those who pretended to be pious, but whose lifestyles did not demonstrate love of God and neighbor.
His message sounds a lot like Christ’s, doesn’t it? But Christ had not yet begun his public ministry. And He would not until He heard that King Herod had John arrested and shut up in prison. John had rebuked Herod for all the evils he had done, including unlawfully marrying his brother Phillip’s wife.
People listened to John. The Spirit moved the multitudes to come and be baptized by him. In our Mark reading, all the land of Judea, and all who lived in the city of Jerusalem, went out to the wilderness to confess their sins and be baptized in the Jordan River.
And Jerusalem was a city of about 50,000 people at that time.
Even Jesus came out to the wilderness to be baptized by John. Jesus would later say in Luke, “This is he of whom it is written: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You…
“There is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist…”
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I never thought of a wilderness as anything but a bad place before our reading this week. I remembered what Krissy told me years ago when I was struggling. About the Israelites wandering around, feeling miserable and abandoned.
But I am sure now that I got it wrong. The miracle of the wilderness is that God is there with us. We aren’t abandoned, though we may feel that way. It is a place where we cannot take care of ourselves, but we can rely on God to supply all our needs. The wilderness is here, where we dwell at this moment as Christians, living in the time in between the Resurrection and the Second Coming. The wilderness is a place where we work hard in faith daily—where we worship, pray, and confess our sins—so that Christ can cleanse our hearts, over and over again.
The wilderness is a place of both joy and suffering. Like we talked about last week with the story of the rat, we are surrounded by evil and temptation in this world. There is sickness. Sadness. Loss. But this is where God wants us right now. This is where He is using us for His loving work.
Second Peter chapter 3 verses 8 and 9 remind us that God is not like us. He sees all eternity at once. He is patient and merciful. “Beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise…. But is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
For those of you who may be struggling to keep hope, are grieving a loved one or battling a serious illness, remember that our Lord is always our Good Shepherd, and we are His sheep, forever secure in His care.
My fellow lambs, hear Isaiah’s words of comfort, “The Lord will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm. And carry them in His bosom. And gently lead those who are with young.”
On this Second Sunday in Advent, John the Baptist cries out from the wilderness.
Repent and confess your sins.
Be made whole. Be filled with joy.
Remember, there is no place, no wilderness, real or imagined, where Christ will not already be….. waiting for you.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we can’t understand your love for us and why you sent your Son to die for us. We can’t understand what you see in us. Why you would make such a sacrifice. We are sinful creatures, helpless sheep, unable to care for ourselves, unable to love each other like we should. We thank you for your forgiveness and your Holy Spirit that dwells within us. We thank you for your loving plans for salvation and that you have no desire for people to perish. We ask that you would give us opportunities and the courage to share this wilderness gospel with our family, friends, and community. We pray, Lord, that you would help us see hope and light during this in-between time when we await your return and only see and understand things in part. We look forward to when we see you face to face and understand fully. And you will reign on your throne forever and ever. In Christ we pray. Amen.
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