“Preparing for the Lord’s Arrival”

Scripture: Luke 3:1-18

Today, we continue in this journey called Lent. For the last few weeks, we’ve been considering the ways that we prepare for that premier Christian holiday – Easter. We’ve talked about the ways we experience the Lord, we’ve considered the need to become faithful servants in our walk with Christ, and we’ve reflected on the ways we experience God at work in our lives. All of these issues are part of our preparation to meet the Lord in a new way, both in this life and in the next.
Today, we specifically look at our preparations for the Lord’s coming into our lives. But normally, this would seem to be a more appropriate topic for Advent than for Lent. Christmas is our celebration of Christ’s appearance as a flesh and blood man, with all that this brings to our world. But Easter is a similar type of entry that we can’t overlook.

In The Genesee Diary (Copyright 1976) Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest and internationally known writer and lecturer, reflected on an Advent sermon he had heard on Christ’s second coming:
“We should desire not only the first coming of Christ in his lowly human gentleness but also his second coming as the judge of our lives.”
‘When I first heard that comment in an Advent sermon’, Nouwen writes, ‘I sensed that [the] desire for Christ’s judgment is a key to my growing in holiness and yet I realized how little I felt or cultivated that desire. Since it was not easy to desire fervently this second coming and very hard to prepare ourselves for the Day of Judgment by desire, at least we ought to prepare ourselves by fear.’

‘Fear? Yes.’, he wrote. ‘I’ve begun to see more clearly how part of Christian maturing is the slow but persistent deepening of fear to the point where it becomes desire. The fear of God is not in contrast with divine mercy. Words such as fear and desire, justice and mercy have to be relearned and re-understood when we use them in talking about our intimate relationship with the Lord.’

Our preparation to receive the Lord into our lives, whether it is for his first coming or the ultimate second, it is about maturing in faith and in righteousness. It’s interesting, though, that Nouwen considers Christ’s judgment, and our fear, as instrumental in our growth in holiness. First fear, then growth, then desire, then a deep and truthful relationship. But the more we think about this, isn’t this the same approach that John the Baptist took in his ministry?

Read Luke 3:1-6

John’s initial approach was that we have to prepare this life for Christ’s arrival – not that he is coming to prepare us! He would eventually get around to what Christ does for us, but not at first. It is generally believed that the words from Isaiah were prophesy regarding John, but I just might suggest that it might be about us, too. God had chosen John to prepare the way for Christ’s ministry, and we, the Church, have been given the responsibility to prepare the way for Christ’s return. And the preparations aren’t to make it easier for Christ - they are to remove the obstacles from the lives of people, to prepare their way to come to Jesus. And in verse 6, we read “And all mankind will see God’s salvation.” That doesn’t mean that all will experience that salvation – just that they will come to the knowledge that it is true. This is why our faith walk is so important – we are the ones who are to prepare the “lost lives”, to help them to remove their obstacles, to smooth out the rough ground, to make the way to Jesus one that they can travel.

Read Luke 3:7-9

And John isn’t exactly gentle with the folks. You would think that he would be thrilled at the response of the people, but instead, he berates them. Why would he do that? Verse 8 gives us a clue – “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” It’s very possible that many were simply hedging their bets – they knew that they were the “chosen” people and because of that, God loved them. But just to be on the safe side, just in case this strange itinerant knew something that they didn’t, some had decided to go through the motions of John’s baptism. But the Baptizer is telling them that the motions aren’t enough. The ritualism that they had always depended on would no longer suffice. John chastises them by saying that if they aren’t willing to go all the way, then God will produce new offspring from those sources that they consider unworthy, as an irritation, as worthless – stones – other nations – the gentiles!
And not only that, but God is prepared to cast them aside and to declare them worthy only of destruction.

I guess I’m surprised that any of them even remained to go through baptism. That was nothing short of an insult. But John was never one to mince words, and while many came to respect him for his blunt and even abrasive ways, others would see him as one of those obstacles that had to be removed. And yet, some of the people did come repentant and prepared.

Read Luke 3:10-18

Not only were they repentant, but they came ready to discover the new way that John was offering them. And not only did the everyday Jew come to see and hear John, but tax collectors and Roman soldiers came, too! What a mixture of people! It’s surprising that the ordinary people would even stand with these others. Tax collectors were hated nearly as much as the soldiers were feared, and both groups were seen as the worst of sinners. Tax collectors were thieves and traitors, and the Roman army did everything they could to keep the people oppressed and broken. And yet, they came seeking a new way of life, too.
John was preparing the way for the people to eventually see and seek Jesus, and he wasn’t wasting a lot of time in doing it. “Share whatever you have with those who are in need.” “Do your job as honestly and as well as you possibly can.” “Don’t cheat others, even if everyone else is.”

John was bringing a message unlike any they had ever heard before – or at least none since the days of the prophets.
Could he be a prophet? Israel hadn’t had a real prophet of God in hundreds of years, and they all knew that a prophetic age would reappear before the Messiah came. Could Messiah be near?
Or might this man be the Messiah himself? He certainly spoke with authority, and his message was one of turning away from sinful and Godless ways. He spoke of a renewing Spirit and a refining fire, he told of a time of judgment when the bad would be separated from the good of earth, and how the unworthy would be destroyed. He spoke of judgment and consequences, and he spoke of the good news that was coming into the world.

John was a “preparer”, without question, and undoubtedly some, if not many, would listen to him – a few would be ready to receive the Christ when his ministry began. And the urgency of this message is just as critical today as it was 2,000 years ago.
Henri Nouwen confessed that he had thought very little of the coming Judgment Day and what it would mean, not only for others, but for his own life. He saw little desire for Christ’s return, and even less of a need to prepare for that monumental event. Maybe he was right – a return to “fear” might be the world’s one last and greatest hope for preparation! Remember our prayer last week? The one that I urged you to pray every day until Easter?

Once more for today.

“O Lord God, let it be known today that you are God in and of this world, and that all good things are of you. Answer my prayer, O Lord, so that others will know that you, and you alone, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. Amen.”

Are you prepared to be the Lord’s messenger, prepared to carry a word of hope, as well as one of impending doom to the people? John’s words went to “good” Jews, as well as sinful ones, to faithful and oppressor alike. He never picked the easy ones. He never offered sweet and fluffy words. He never allowed the people to nurture the opinion that ritual and ancestry were enough.

Are you prepared for Christ’s arrival?
Will you be a preparer for others like John was?
Will you bring the message of Good News to the world in a way that can never be misinterpreted?
Will you carry the plain and simple truth of Christ, and be ready to share it with those who are seeking a new way and a new life?

Will you today?