PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD

Ancient Israelite tradition, particularly in Malachi, expected the prophet Elijah to return and prepare the way for the Messiah. Christianity believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and, thus, his "Elijah" is John the Baptist.

Sunday's lection tells us that the word of God came to John in the wilderness. Not in Jerusalem; not inside Herod's temple; not even in a synagogue, nor through the Saducees, Pharisees, and Scribes.

The wilderness conjures up a lot of ambivalent images for us who study scripture. God appeared to a hardheaded Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness. The Israelites wandered almost aimlessly in the wilderness for forty long years. Many of them died there, including Moses. Like John, the wilderness played a key role in Jesus' early ministry. The wilderness does not seem like a very hospitable place.

God anointed John to prepare people for a new way: not the way of Emperor Tiberius, Herod, his brother Philip, Pontius Pilate, Anna, Caiaphas, and their ilk. But God's way that "will make every valley filled, and every mountain and hill made low, and the crooked made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh see God's salvation."

And God's way requires repentance: a complete turnaround; a 180; a change in the opposite direction; deciding to stop pretending but actually living our lives loving God by serving people.

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*art, "John the Baptist preaching in the desert," (JESUS MAFA 1973), available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.