“If you want something done right, do it yourself.” That saying or mantra has been around for a long time. It’s attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, though I’m sure the sentiment is much older. It certainly fits Napoleon, a man who was quick to take charge and wasn’t going to wait around for other people. We often see this as a negative, or a sign of arrogance, and people can certainly take “If you want something done right, do it yourself” too far. Moses had to learn this lesson. Exodus 18 tells of how Moses’ father-in-law Jethro came from Midian to see Moses as he was leading Israel, and Jethro told him he was doing too much. He said, “What you are doing is not good. The work is too much for you. You are not able to handle this alone.” Moses had the right attitude. He cared for the people and for God’s law. He wanted them to hear God’s law and apply it rightly, but he couldn’t do it all himself.
But sometimes you really do need to take matters into your own hands. This is especially true in the stewardship of the things God has given you in life. Your doctor can give you health advice, but ultimately it’s up to you to take care of your body. You could hire a cleaning service for your house, but really, how you want to live is a matter for you to decide. And what about your spiritual life? Children may need their parents to wake them up and drag them to church, but at some point you need to do that for yourself. You need to make time for devotion and prayers. You need to prepare yourself for temptations and spiritual challenges, and for the day you will meet God face-to-face. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you. Take some responsibility. Do it for yourself and do it right!
But is that actually the way that spiritual preparation works? It may seem that way. After all, the Lord has given me the responsibility to use my time well and take time to hear his word. But in reality I’m not the one preparing the way. God demands preparation but—thanks be to God—he wants it done right. And so the Lord himself prepares his way. He prepares his way in the world. He prepares his way in our hearts. And he prepares us to proclaim his ways.
Just like for us who are now so close to Christmas we can almost taste it the way you might stretch out your tongue to catch a snowflake, for the people at the time of John the Baptist there seems to have been a lot of excitement and anticipation. And it’s no wonder really. There was something happening, something that was new but at the same time something that was very old.
These people had never seen a prophet before. Sometimes the timelines in the Bible get all mushed together in our heads and we don’t realize just how much time might separate one thing from another. It had been 400 years since Israel had seen a prophet from God, someone who actually was called by God to speak for God with all of God’s own authority. Four hundred years is a really long time. You could imagine that some people might have been wondering if God had forgotten about them, but then all of a sudden here is John the Baptist, proclaiming God’s Word out in the desert wilderness.
And John was baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sins. This was a new thing too. We don’t know too much about how John was baptizing people. We do know that the location mentioned in the Gospel here, Bethany beyond the Jordan, does have a number of shallow freshwater springs. You can go visit them today. And we know that there was a kind of baptism, a tradition or ritual for proselyte families, those who left paganism and joined the Jews in their longing for a Messiah. So the general idea of baptism wasn’t new, but this was, because it was for everyone and it was for the forgiveness of sins.
This general attitude of excited anticipation among the people is seen in how many people from all walks of life were going out to John to hear him preach and to be baptized by him. That attitude is quite different from what we’re used to seeing around us. Our society is very complacent and apathetic about God’s Word. On Sunday morning churches all over our nation are half-empty or worse, and that’s in spite of the comfy pews and climate control. Nobody’s walking through the wilderness to get here.
But John also attracted attention from some people who had no interest in listening to him. Their question really had to do with authority. Who are you? Who do you think you are? Who gave you the right? John the Evangelist says of John the Baptist
This is the testimony John gave when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”
20He confessed and did not deny. He confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
21And they asked him, “Who are you then? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
“No,” he answered.
22Then they asked him, “Who are you? Tell us so we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ just as Isaiah the prophet said.”
Much of this had to do with their own ideas and traditions regarding the coming Messiah or Christ. John didn’t claim any glory or authority for himself. His job was making straight the way of the Lord. If you really think about it though, John is saying a lot here. He is saying that he is the fulfillment of a 700 year old prophecy from Isaiah. He’s saying that he has the privilege of being the Lord’s own herald. He’s actually already answering the next question they asked, which is,
“Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet?”
John was doing great and wonderful things, calling people to repentance, proclaiming to them God’s Word, baptizing them for the forgiveness of their sins. But he was speaking as a mouthpiece of the Lord. His hands were baptizing as hands of the Lord. In things that seemed like nothing at all God was powerfully at work with his own glory and grace to wrest people out of the Devil’s grasp and prepare the way for his Christ.
The Gospel says,
“I baptize with water,” John answered. “Among you stands one you do not know. 27He is the one coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”
John was certainly not denigrating baptism with water here. His baptism was for the forgiveness of sins. What could be greater than that? But what he was saying was that the authority of baptism was not his own. Does John have, in himself, some power to forgive sins? Certainly not, that power belongs to Christ, the one who can forgive sins by paying for them with his own holy, precious blood.
And that’s just it. The work of preparing the way has always been God’s own work. God laid out all the groundwork when he chose Abraham and told him that through him and his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God made Old Testament Israel into a great nation and gave them his law as a hedge to separate them from the nations around them. He saw to it that even when they suffered terrible destruction because of their rebellion against him and even when seemingly everyone turned to worship idols instead of the true God, there was still a remnant, still a precious few kept firm in the faith, brought back from exile, preserved for the sake of the promise.
He was the one who sent the angel to Zechariah, father of John, and to Mary, the virgin mother of our Lord. He was the one who called John and set him apart to be the voice calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord.” He was the one who opened the ears of the people so that they flocked to John to hear what he had to say.
And he’s the one who does the same thing today as he prepares our hearts for the Savior. What reason, really, is there for you to be here? You got up early. You drove all the way here. You sit and listen to a man talk, about the same kinds of things he’s talked about a thousand times. Why do you do it? God himself brought you here. He chose you. He called you. He gave you a heart that longs for the forgiveness and life and salvation that he loves to give you, that is yours by the cross. It may look like you are preparing yourself as you set your alarm clock clock to get up for church, as you put aside time for prayer and meditating on his word, as you dedicate yourself to his service. But it’s not you. It’s him, your gracious Lord, working in you and through you, preparing his own way. And it’s him working in you and through you when you share his ways with other people.
And what a wonderful thing that is. Because when it comes to my salvation, my eternity, I don’t trust even myself to do it right. But the Lord does this himself. Would you claim that God is too weak, that his arm is too frail to save you? No. The Lord prepares his way. With him, by him, in him you are prepared for your Savior’s coming. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson