Why this story?

Luke 1:13-17  But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴ He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Why start with John the Baptist? Why this story? Why doesn’t Luke just start his story off by talking about Jesus and his teachings? It would seem that you have to get ready for whatever God is going to do. The promised Messiah does not appear all of the sudden. Luke starts his story with a time of preparation. Get ready because the Messiah is coming. If you don’t get ready then you are going to miss something. Preparation then is necessary.

            All four Gospels talk about John the Baptist going into the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. John the Baptist runs around telling people to repent and get baptized because the Messiah is coming. The time of preparation is an essential piece to the Gospel message. This time of preparation is a reference to Isaiah 40.

Isaiah 40:3-4 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level,

Isaiah 40 is all about God’s justice and peace coming at last. It is also a call to reform. Isaiah is saying if you are crooked, like a road, then get straight. If you think you are high and might then you had best get low. God is coming and of you are not prepared you will miss him as well as things not going well for you.  John the Baptist is going to tell people to get ready. The Messiah is arriving. The hopes, dreams, deepest desires of the Jewish people are coming into reality. Get ready!  

The verb that means “to make ready” also means to “furnish.” Which is an interesting image. If you are going to have someone over for dinner then you will need to make ready.  You might need to rearrange the furniture. You might need to move the dinner table or add some chairs or de-clutter the living room.  You have to prepare for your dinner guests otherwise you will miss the guests. You will miss out on an opportunity if you don’t do the work of furnishing and getting ready.

            Well just what are we supposed to be making ready? Just how does the furniture need to be arraigning if I am going to get ready.

1. Verse 16 says He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. So what will this time look like? People will turn to God. John the Baptist’s main message is repent! Change your heart! Change your mind! Get ready! Reshuffle your priorities. Reconsider what your life is focused upon. What does it look like to prepare for this coming Messiah? You will want to turn back to God and repent.

2. Verse 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children. So what does this preparatory time look like? The hearts of parents will turn toward their children. Now that is coming concrete. Think about the tensions between parents and children. What is this going to look like? It is going to look like some turning toward you children.

3. Verse 17 the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous. What will this look like? A turn toward wisdom. So this is not so abstract. John the Baptist will go running around yelling at people – Get ready! Repent!

            This is the furniture the needs to be rearranged if you going to experience the coming of the Messiah. It is interesting that some of this furniture that needs rearranged is that parents and children. What if your child is doing things that displease you? What if they are leading a reckless life? It seems that the answer comes in the form of question. Parents could say “God how do you want my heart to turn in this situation? Knowing that if I take the first step you will reveal what I need to do.”

            How many of you when you think about Christmas think about wisdom? Is our culture one of wisdom? We live in a culture that is kind of insane. We have all probably watched videos or heard news reports of Black Friday shopping fighting, trampling and sadly killing. All so that people could get a discount on some item. It is probably worth just stopping for a moment and listening John the Baptist for a moment. We call it Christmas and we are supposed to be celebrating the birth of the Messiah and we go around acting insane. It is the total opposite of wisdom. I can hear this in my own life. I can hear John the Baptist beating his drum because it is so easy to get sucked into this obsession with material goods.

            I will promise you that the discounted cell phone or low cost wider screen TV is not going to do you any good. They will not make your life any better. The insane thing is . . . we know that! The text is saying if you are disobedient then stop being disobedient and turn toward the wisdom of the righteous. This is what we should be seeking yet during the holidays we go around often making very unwise choice that have consequences.. We live in an insane culture that we all participate. We are all compromised and compromising.

            The season of Christmas is more than just looking to an event that already happened. Christmas is not just looking ahead to some future event when Jesus might return. Advent is our reminder that Christmas is not just about the past or some future event. Christmas is all about the prayer . . . Come Lord Jesus! Especially now in the midst of our insane culture and the ways that we behave. Come Lord Jesus!

What is it that you really want this year? What is it that you really hope will happen? I promise you, if you’re honest, it will be nothing material. Do you desire to grow in wisdom? Do you want your heart to do be healed with you and your children? What is it that you are really longing for? Is it for Jesus to come again and be made known in your life? That is what Christmas is really all about. Come Lord Jesus.

This opening story by Luke is inviting us into two things.

1. Get ready. Rearrange the furniture. There is not a single person that does not need to do some repenting. Not a one of us that in some way or another does not need to turn toward God. We need to recognize our own insanity of chasing after this and that. Maybe while rearranging the furniture we might realize a need to let go so some stuff. This season is an invitation to rearrange the furniture. It is a time to consider that perhaps we don’t know it all and maybe we are wrong.

2. Waiting for the unknown. The Christmas story should remind us that God shows up in the most unexpected ways and places. Zechariah doesn’t even believe what is happening. In fact Zechariah will not be able to speak for nine months. Zechariah does not have all of the answers because he is not given any. He will have to wait and see how God will bring about what he has promised. Just like Zechariah we too do not have all the answer and often find ourselves unable to speak. Yet, pay attention. God will show up but probably in a way you did not expect.