The gospel of Mark starts out and it announces the good news about the son of God. The announcement is made in the wilderness. The prophet Isaiah hundreds of years earlier was the first thorn in the side of the temple, when Isaiah proclaimed that God is not impressed by burnt offerings and does not live in a house built by human hands.

John the Baptist’s ministry was a living example of Isaiah’s message. The voice that cried out was way outside of Jerusalem, way, way outside. And yet he was drawing many people away from the sacred center which was the temple in Jerusalem and he was calling them to become real Jews. That is what baptism was for a Jew. If you came from the outside you were baptized, if you were born a Jew, you were not. So John was saying, all Jews needed to remake their nation and worship over again because what existed was corrupt. No temple sacrifice was necessary, blood ties to Abraham were of no account, this is the beginning of the good news.

Jesus is coming, inviting us to experience the conversion, which starts with the forgiveness of our sins. That forgiveness makes repentance or a complete change of life possible. Last week we said that it was Mark’s gospel that says at its end that Jesus was not in the grave or anywhere near Jerusalem, but that he has gone ahead of you to Galilee and there you should follow. He has invited us to become characters in his great story of good news.

I have noticed the Christmas displays are going up all over our community. I have even got a few Christmas cards. I especially like the Isaiah inspired Lamb lying down with the Lion, or anything with the wise men, or a star over the manger. But did you ever see a Christmas display or get a card with John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness?

I haven’t and that is because John the Baptist is totally inappropriate for the way we celebrate Christmas. But in Mark’s gospel and in the churches during Advent, John the Baptist gets his rightful place. Advent means coming and 2,000 years ago God came to us and still he comes to us, it is in God’s nature to seek us out like the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to find the one that was lost. The scriptures tell us that God is love. His nature is love and love cares, love gives, love can’t do anything else. Our hope is that he comes, has come, is coming and will come again. We have an Adventing Lord.

At the beginning of his gospel Mark gives us John the Baptist, there is no Zechariah and Elizabeth or Mary and Joseph. Mark makes a statement if you want to understand the good news it starts right here with John the Baptist out in the wilderness.

Mark’s use of the word “beginning” mirrors the beginning of Genesis. In the beginning God created and it was good. Now it is the beginning all over again, the Good news is about a whole new creation for you and me. In Christ we have a new order and new lives that are disconnected from our sinful past.

God is creating salvation for us, a restoration of everything sin has stolen from us, as baptism restores. The lord is making a road for all those who are far away to walk home upon. He is unleashing grace that can redeem everything sin destroyed, making all things new. This new creation is all wrapped up in the person Jesus. All the prophets and the final prophet, John the Baptist said to us that God is up to something and that this is it! This is the one through whom God changes everything.

If we are to experience this personally we must change the way we think about God. No one has seen the Father, but God has made him known in Christ. In Christ, God shows himself to be love. A love that heals and forgives and sets the captives free! How we think about salvation changes. God does not deliver victory over warriors like Goliath, but instead he delivers us from the monstrosity of sin that has held us captive for so long, leaving our communities and our lives a wreck.

The new creation springs up from the person of Jesus. In him all the promises of God, everything God has ever communicated through a prophet, everything he has ever placed into a human heart, all these promises become a big yes! In Jesus the son of God.

If there has ever been a generation that needs to hear and respond to John the Baptist’s call to go into the wilderness it is us. We have a diluted focus, we rush around here and there, we conform to other’s expectations. Our beliefs are deceived by advertising and television. We compromise with culture, we go along to get along.

So John the Baptist invites us into the wilderness. If we are going to step out of the old creation and into the new, we have to do it away from all the distractions. The wilderness is where we learn to live on every word that comes out of the mouth of God instead of all the stuff we have.

The wilderness prepares us to be an alien people from a different world. A journey into the wilderness will change how we celebrate Christmas. That change will allow us to chose the calm of Jesus presence over all the busyness and noise. John Calls us into the wilderness so we can step away from all the temptations and distractions that steal our focus so we can see and know the son of God.

This is after all repentance which changes the way we live from another direction to the way of Jesus. Repentance is the call to throw off whatever hinders or entangles so that we can turn toward Jesus.

So for this purpose, John the Baptist has been provided for us. He calls us out into the wilderness so that we can get away from all the distractions, so that we can focus on Jesus. We can pray, “forgive me, help me to overcome, help me throw my hindrances aside”, so that we can follow Jesus on his way. The way of the cross is the way of giving our lives away. This is how John the Baptist breaks into our Christmas fog to get us ready for the coming of Jesus into our lives.

1. Why does our Gospel lesson contain a reference to the prophet Isaiah?

2. What does the wilderness symbolize in the lesson and where is our wilderness?

3. What does it mean to repent and how can we do it?