Preparing for the Ones Who Come
Preparing for the Ones Who Come by Rev. L. John Gable
November 28, 2021
The word “gospel” means “good news”, so it would be right to say that the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were “good news tellers”. A number of years ago I was filling out an information form and one of the questions was “describe what you do in your job?”. I answered, “I get to tell people Good News!” As a literary style, the purpose of a “gospel” is not merely to tell a story or write a history, rather the author is writing with a bias with the intention that the reader will come to believe what the writer is telling, that they will receive and believe the “good news”. Each of the Gospel writers state their intention and strategy for sharing the “gospel” message. Mark opens his Gospel by saying, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Matthew, writing to a predominantly Jewish audience, outlines the genealogy from King David to Jesus of Nazareth since it was a known fact that the promised Messiah was to come from the bloodline of David. John takes a cosmic perspective, mirroring the creation story in Genesis, as he writes, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (1:1); that Word being Jesus Himself, the Word incarnate. At the end of John’s Gospel he states his reason for writing even more plainly when he says, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God” (20:30-31). And Luke, whose Good News telling we will focus on this morning, states his purpose for writing “so that you may know the truth” (1:4).
Given that the stated purpose for each of the Gospel writers was to tell us about Jesus, why is it then that they each take so long in getting there? Matthew starts telling the story 1000 years before the Messiah’s birth, John starts from the creation, and it takes Luke 80 verses in chapter 1 and still the child is not yet born. Mark comes closest to getting right to the point by omitting telling about the birth altogether, but even he follows a rabbit trail before he gets there. Each of them, in their own particular literary style, begins by telling about another one who was to come.
Luke was a physician, so we might expect him to get lost in the weeds of details a bit. He opens his Gospel by giving us some dates and places. The story he tells is set in the days of Herod the Great who was king of Judea from 37 BC to 4 BC. During his reign there was a particular priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah which meant that he was a descendant of Aaron, Moses’ brother, as was his wife Elizabeth.
Now imagine for a moment that you have never heard this story before, that you don’t know where he is going with it, so you start taking mental notes: priest Zechariah, wife Elizabeth, order of Abijah. Got it. Then Luke gets a little more in the weeds, maybe TMI: both Zechariah and Elizabeth are good righteous people, faithful to God in every way, but they are old and have no children. Elizabeth is barren, which in those days was a social disgrace and an indicator of God’s displeasure.
Have you ever been with someone who starts telling a story that seems to drag on and on, too much information, too many details? You nod and smile at them as if to say, “OK, get to the point. Where is this all going? I thought this story was going to be about Jesus?” But Luke doesn’t get the hint. He just keeps going.
One day Zechariah was serving as priest in the temple in Jerusalem. There were 24 priestly orders which served the temple duties and his was on call. Adding even more detail to the story, on this particular day, Zechariah’s name was chosen by lot, the Biblical version of drawing straws, and he was selected to burn the offering of incense and offer the prayers of the people, a great honor and literally a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. So as Zechariah entered the holy place the people waited anxiously outside to see if perhaps the priest had heard a word from the Lord, but Zechariah didn’t emerge from behind the curtain for a very long time. At this point you find yourself leaning forward a little wondering, “So what took him so long?”
Once he got in there an angel appeared to him telling him that his prayer had been answered. And which prayer might that be? That Elizabeth, even in her barrenness and old age, was going to have a baby, and the angel was rather specific with the details: a boy, to be named John; he will bring you joy and gladness and many will rejoice with you; he will never drink wine or strong drink; and even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord and will have the spirit and power of the prophet Elijah, which is short-hand for, “he will be the forerunner of the coming of the Messiah”, he will be the one “preparing the way of the Lord.” Suddenly you begin thinking that this is a good story, but wondering if Luke has lost his way. He is telling the story of John not Jesus, but hold on.
Fast forward through that part of the story, Zechariah questions the angel, “How can this be?” and the angel strikes him mute until the baby is born at which point Zechariah is able to tell the whole story for himself.
So now, finally, we get why Luke has taken so long to get to the telling of the story of the birth of Jesus, because John, who would later be called John the Baptist, was a really big deal. Rather bizarre as he was, living in the wilderness, clothed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey, baptizing people in the Jordan River and preaching a really forceful message of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, he has a huge following. Many at the time wondered if perhaps he was the Messiah; although John never wondered that about himself. He knew who he was and the role he was called to play, and it wasn’t to be the Messiah.
So why does Luke spend all of this time telling his readers about John, and why do the other Gospel writers do the same? Because each of them needed their readers to know that John, as popular and charismatic as he was, was not the Messiah, Jesus was. But they also wanted their readers to know that John was not a bit player in the story, nor was he an after-thought on the part of God; rather he was integral to the telling of the Jesus story. The Messiah needed an Elijah, Elijah being the Old Testament prophet who was promised to return in order to “prepare the way of the Lord”, And that one was John.
Back to Luke’s Gospel telling, before he can tell the truth about Jesus, he first had to explain the essential role John came to play, and having done that he is now ready and able to tell the story he really wants to tell about the birth of Jesus, a story we know well. Six months later (note the birth of Jesus is referenced by the birth of John) the same messenger from God, the angel Gabriel, appears to a young woman named Mary in the city of Nazareth. As frightened and concerned as to what the angel’s visit and announcement to her might mean, she listens intently and trusts that God was at work in her life even though she couldn’t yet know in what ways or why she had been chosen. Nor did she yet know that God was at work in ways beyond her vision in the lives of her first cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah who lived in the hill country of Nazareth.
As different as these two birth stories are they are remarkably similar as both speak of our need to prepare for the ones who come. Elizabeth in her old age and Mary in her youth. The elder, long married, in her barrenness, the younger only betrothed in her virginity. Elizabeth in her seclusion, her disgrace lifted, Mary now scandalized seeking a place of welcome and protection, which she finds in the home of the now vocal priest Zechariah and his once barren wife Elizabeth now with child. Even in utero these two boys would come to recognize each other. The message of the angel Gabriel to each of these families, different as their circumstances were, was simply this: “Nothing is impossible with God!” Their stories remind us that our faith does not begin with us, there are others who have gone before us preparing the way, and that God is at work in our lives, in ways we perhaps do not yet see or understand, in ways that to us may seem miraculous or impossible. God continues to speak to us through ways common and extraordinary, so we are called to open our ears, our eyes, our hearts.
We tell this part of the “Good News” story on this the first Sunday of Advent as a reminder to us to prepare for the ONES who come; to ready ourselves for the advent or coming of Jesus to be sure, but also for the likes of John and others who bear witness and encourage us to prepare for His coming.
Both of these stories must be told because the birth of Jesus cannot be separated from the birth of John, any more than can their ministries be separated from one another. Jesus was clearly the Messiah and John His Elijah, His preparer! Eventually John’s ministry will fade into the background, as well it should. He would plainly say, “He (meaning Jesus) must increase and I must decrease”. He knew the part he was given to play, as do those who point us toward Jesus. Karl Barth, the renowned 20th century theologian, had a painting, not of Jesus but of John the Baptist, hanging in his office, on the wall opposite his desk, in his direct line of sight. The painting depicted John pointing his long, boney finger to the figure of Jesus hanging on the cross in the distance. This was John’s purpose, first to last, pointing not to himself but to Jesus. Luke tells John’s story in order to honor how important his ministry was, as well as to remind us of how important are all those who God has used to first tell us about Jesus, all those who planted seeds of faith in us, or watered or fertilized them, by their words of encouragement, all those who were the forerunners and preparers of Jesus in our lives. On this first Sunday of Advent, on this Thanksgiving Sunday, let us remember how important their stories are to our stories and give thanks for them. Their words were as important to us as were John’s words of preparation in the first century. And today, even as we give thanks for their role in our coming to faith, we pray also that we, through our words and actions, might play that role in the lives of those we meet, that they too might hear and receive the Good News of the Gospel.
The season of Advent, leading us to the celebration of Christmas, is intended to be for us a time of preparation, not just of gifts and meals and parties, but for the coming of our Lord in to our world and into our lives; and beyond that I would suggest that we open our hearts not to His advent only, but also to all those who point us to Him. May this advent be a time for us to prepare for the Ones who come.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN