Prepare the Way for the King
Trumpets usually announce a King and are an important way of announcing news to people. The human version of a trumpet is a herald, who also announces a king and communicates important news to the people as a representative of the King.
John the Baptist was a herald, trumpeting his own message in an unconventional way for his time. He wore uncustomary clothing (made of camel hair) and ate unusual food (locusts with honey). He lived in isolation, away from the other Jews, coming out of the wilderness to make announcements to the people. He also came with an uncommon message, calling the people to “repent” of their sins.
Unconventional Life
Even before his conception, his life was going to be unconventional. For starters, his parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, were not the parents one would expect, they were both very old and Elizabeth had been unable to conceive. Zechariah was told by Gabriel that:
“…he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:15-17)
Zechariah, being a priest, would know that his son would be the herald (the one to announce a King) because the people were waiting for a prophet that had been predicted in Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3, one who would be: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
Before his birth even, his mother Elizabeth (6months pregnant) felt John leap for joy in her womb when Mary arrived, pregnant with Jesus the Messiah. One can say that before birth, John knew WHO he was and WHO he was announcing : The one to announce the coming of the King. He knew his life task was important. As his father said at his birth:
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:76-77).
He knew Jesus was the Messiah before anyone else knew. John’s role as the Preparer of the Way—was so important that Jesus Himself said of him, “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John” (Luke 7:28).
Why was his task so important?
In ancient near east, the coming of a King was announced by a herald to prepare the people for his arrival and to make final preparations. There would normally be a delegation of servants sent ahead to remove any obstacles in the road and make sure the way was ready to travel. As herald the task was two-fold: to announce the coming of the King and to prepare the way for him. John came out of the wilderness to catch the attention of a people who had been without a prophet for 400 years! His task was to awaken and prepare the people who were in a spiritual slumber, calling them out of the dead legalism of their religious practices.
Now he is announcing that that time has come to an end, the King is coming and a way for the King needs to be prepared. The starting point for this work of preparation is in the inner being, the removal of internal obstacles, the first step being repentance. Before any of us can decide to receive the King into our hearts, we need to repent of our sin. To repent is to acknowledge our sin and sinfulness before God. To acknowledge the need for a saviour, Jesus, and to turn – to change our mind and will – a turn from sin to righteousness in obedience.
John was also announcing the coming of the long-awaited King that the Jews were waiting for, announcing that His kingdom was here. The Jews were under Roman oppression and thought the King would be a political figure and that they would automatically be included in His kingdom, being of the line of Abraham. John refuted this and at the same time exposed the religious leader’s false pretense at righteousness. He also challenged the people to demonstrate their current repentance in practical ways, like caring for the needy, working with integrity, and showing love to others. (Luke 3:11-14).
John had an important task and fulfilled his task well, declaring when he saw Jesus:
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
As the year draws to a close, we are celebrating the birth of our Messiah, Jesus. We all have been given the good news to share with the world: salvation in Jesus Christ. We too, come out of the wilderness of the world around us, with a message telling people of a King, who made it possible for us to live a life free from sin and become part of His Kingdom. We are also like John, called to live unconventional lives, lives that demonstrate that we belong to the Kingdom of our King, changed lives that don’t look like the world around us. We too like John are saying to the world: “Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
We too, like John know WHO we are (His children) and know WHO we are announcing. Like John, we all have a call upon our lives to announce Jesus and make Him known. To show the way to forgiveness of sin and life everlasting. Jesus is the way.
Like John we also know that true repentance demonstrates itself in a changed life, which in turn produces fruit in keeping with a changed life.
“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Luke 3:8a)
John the Baptist is as much a part of the Christmas story as Joseph and Mary. He speaks of preparing a way for the King in our hearts, the way for salvation, i.e. repentance.
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming and making it possible for us to receive forgiveness of sin and become citizens of heaven. Thank you for the message of salvation to share with the world as we remind people of your birth and the purpose of your arrival on what we now celebrate as Christmas. Help us to live unconventional changed lives for you that produce good fruit and change the world around us.
Merry Christmas readers of Heart Treasure, I appreciate your regular messages and delight in sharing my treasures with you.
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