Reflections on The Nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, 2012: “Make Straight…A Highway For Our God” (Isaiah 40:1-5 & Luke 1:77-79)

Dear Christians,

It might seem strange to some folks that we would commemorate the day of the birth of St. John the Baptist, but consider:

• Next to the Lord Himself, he was the greatest prophet (Luke 7:28) in the sense that he was the last prophet under the old covenant and this was so on account of his close connection to Jesus.
• He announced Jesus’ advent and preceded our Lord in a martyr’s death.
• John the Baptist and the Lord were so closely related that Herod confused the two of them (Luke 9:7-9) as there was some question as to whether or not John the Baptist had been raised from the dead.
• But the reason John was truly great was because the Word of the Lord was in this great prophet and furthermore his message is not to be consigned and restricted to ancient history. It is rather a message that is as much needed today as it was the first time John the Baptist proclaimed it!

What was that message? Isaiah 40:3-4:

“A voice cries, ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.'”

What is God saying to us?

#1 Every valley shall be lifted up = valleys are said to symbolize weakness of faith, discouragement, and lack of trust in God’s promises!

#2 Every mountain and hill be made low = mountains and hills represent the opposite extreme of valleys; here John is proclaiming that haughtiness of spirit, pride of intellect and heart, presumptuous judging of God’s will and criticizing His ways!

#3 Uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain = this condition describes sinful conduct, taking a person away from the straight, smooth path of God’s commands!

All of us are sinful, but the sin in our hearts manifests in different ways (in terms of our most formidable spiritual struggles): some of us are in valleys. We struggle with weakness, discouragement, and depression. We can feel as though the LORD is a 1000 miles a way. From our valleys we doubt the LORD and we feel as though His forgiveness and hope cannot reach us in our bottomless pits. Some of us are on mountains and hills. In this way, we are way too full of ourselves and we look down on others from our mountain-tops of pride and egotism. From our perches we love to judge, to criticize, and to condemn. We are so easily angered and frustrated, because we balk at forgiveness even though we have been forgiven. Some of us are on uneven ground and rough places. We are deceiving ourselves by the way we are going along with deliberate and active sinning. In this case, it is not so much thinking that forgiveness is too far up or that forgiveness is too far below, it is rather that we don’t care enough about forgiveness to begin with.

But thanks be to God that John’s ministry was not just to preach the Law to reveal our sins, but also to proclaim the sweet, sweet Gospel to show us our Savior! So Luke 1:77-79 records:

“to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Dear Christians, thanks be to God that Jesus came. He entered our valley  to the point of becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13), closing the gap between our pits and God’s mercy; Jesus placed Himself on our mountains and hills by absorbing our self-absorption, humbling Himself to the point of death so that His humble sacrifice would be ours; and Jesus journeyed through our uneven and rough places by becoming sin for us (2nd Cor 5:21), so that on the cross He became the guilty One for all of our acts of rebellion and unbelief.

On account of Christ, John the Baptist was born. He was born to show us that in Christ our darkness has been enveloped by the light of our Savior. Peace is now yours dear Christian. Peace is now yours.

 

In Your Service and To Christ’s Glory,

 

Dr. Espinosa

 

 

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