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Preparing the WayWe are now in the Advent season - a season of preparation before Christmas. Before the first advent of Christ, God the Father sent a man named John to prepare the way. We know that man as John the Baptist. To prepare the way for the Savior the ministry of John had to be well focused. That focus was threefold. First, John’s focus was on human need. In many ways modern man has redefined human need. The primary focus is on the economic, social, psychological, and physical needs of humanity. These are indeed areas of need, but they are not our real need. It is our real need that creates all of these other conditions. Because of sin in our hearts we are separated from God, the only source of good. That breech impacts negatively everything else in our lives. John the Baptist, like a skillful doctor, treated the disease, not merely the symptoms of the disease. How many of us would go to a doctor who only gave us drugs for our symptoms, while we were dying from some fatal disease. None of us would knowingly do so. John’s message spoke to the human disease of sin. His was a message of repentance. As St. Luke put it, “...he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (St. Luke 3:3) That message is as needed today as it was two thousand years ago. Secondly, John the Baptist focused on the truth. God’s revealed Word, the Holy Scriptures, is the Truth. We need to believe whole heartedly without reservation in the truth and authority of the Bible. The deplorable condition in many of the mainline churches today is the result of the loss of God’s Word. John’s actions and preaching were based on God’s unchanging Word and Truth. He boldly denounced King Herod for violating the 7th Commandment. Many today would consider John a bigot, a legalist, a narrow-minded fanatic. For his efforts John was thrown into prison and eventually murdered by Herod. It takes courage to speak the truth. People may not always like it, but they need the truth. God’s truth is a blazing light. “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.” (St. John 3:19-21) People will respond to the truth, some negatively, but others positively. It is our job to speak the truth. Thirdly, John the Baptist’s focus was on Christ. When John began to preach, a few months before Christ opened His public ministry, some people thought that he might be the Messiah. John quickly corrected their misapprehension. The purpose of ministry is not to attract people to the minister or even to the church. Our purpose is not to make ourselves popular. That is the world’s way - the way of the personality cult. John’s goal was to attract men and women to Jesus Christ. Christ is the answer and the only answer to humanity’s need. He is the Savior and it is through faith in Him that we are healed. As John saw it, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (St. John 3:30) As Christians and as the Church we like John the Baptist are to be preparers of the way. If we are to be successful in our mission we need a focused ministry like that of John, whose focus was on human need, the truth, and Jesus Christ. by Rev. F.M. Levi
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