Preparing in These Days
Live like John the Baptist (locusts and wild honey optional).
“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the desert of Judea,” Matthew informs us. By “those days” he means the deplorable times in which John the Baptist lived and worked. Selfish ambition ruled the day in the form of social injustice and unchecked fraud; Pontius Pilate himself is highlighted later in the gospels as preferring personal gain over the proper decision to let Jesus go free; Tiberius Caesar changed the Jewish high priest four times until he found one who submitted to his wicked practices and looked the other way while Tiberius bullied the Jews. Greed and personal pleasure inspired one of King Herod’s greatest accomplishments – not helping others but helping himself by building a city for himself on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee and constructing his own palatial palace there.
Into this world came John the Baptist. How? His “clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” John wanted nothing the world could give him, and feared nothing the world could do to him. He could refrain from worldly ways out in the wilderness of the Jordan because God was with him there. He saw through the shams of his age and saw how hollow and temporary they were. He surrounded himself with the ways of God, because to him heaven and hell were no pie-in-the-sky possibilities. They were “near.” Possessed with being prepared, he wouldn’t let the world deceive or distract him.
The world in which we live and work and play today is no different, is it? Selfish ambition is an unwritten policy at work; if you don’t inflate and flaunt your ego like the rest you probably won’t advance like the rest. Greed is a deceptive sin that results from living in luxury and advancing in technology – it convinces us we really need what we actually don’t, and need it now. All the man-centered religion today looks good, feels great, and sounds attractive: have faith in your inner self, be happy about the close knit unity of mankind and respect everyone’s right to believe anything they want. The leaders of John’s day who bought into these worldly ways didn’t benefit from them at all. Tiberius went insane. Pilate committed suicide. Herod died in exile. Annas and Caiaphas looked right past the Savior. These men chose their own wrong way.
Live like John, understanding the serious difference between the immediate and empty fulfillments of this world and the long term, long lasting, real fulfillments of the kingdom of God. Live like John, who stood alone in the wilderness and didn’t need things to be content . With his camel’s hair and locusts and ways of God, John had all he needed, and was prepared for his Savior’s coming.
Oh, the world didn’t notice, but Jesus did. “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist,” Jesus commends John. “Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,” Jesus commends us (Matthew 11:11). Confession of sins, big and small. Humble repentance. Childlike trust. Unquestioning obedience to God first, then roommate second, fiancé second, upper management second, personal pleasures second, and finances a distant third. Love for the neglected and needy, the undesired and unpopular. These ways of God are often times despised by the world, but always noticed and commended by our Savior Jesus when we prepare the way for the Lord.
PRAYER: Shout out, Lord Jesus, louder than the clamor of this world ringing in my ears. Speak up, Lord Jesus, more clearly than the cacophony of guidance available in editorials and philosophies so easily leading the way. Say it like it is, Lord Jesus, even if I don’t like to hear it, because you are the way, the truth, and the life. You are my Savior, and I want to follow only you. Amen.
Scripture references from Matthew, chapter 3.