John {1:26} John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; {1:27} He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
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Conviction. John the baptist had conviction.
Mark {1:1} The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; {1:2} As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. {1:3} The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. {1:4} John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Malachai {3:1} Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
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John prepared the way of Jesus. Do you think Jesus needed the way prepared? Seriously, do you think He needed someone to precede Him? Wouldn't His majesty, His miracles, His amazing truth be enough without any preparation? Why then was there a need for John to 'prepare' the way?
In fact couldn't Jesus have just arrived on the scene and in great fanfare start whipping out miracle after miracle wowing crowd after crowd? Couldn't Jesus have been much more flamboyent and showy?
In truth, Jesus could have been many things and yet in the end what He is, is love true love.
All through our lives we are prepared for things aren't we? Oh not everything by far, but for a lot of things we hold great store in the preparation. We are prepared for kindergarten by preschool, we are prepared for college by high school and tests, visits to the colleges. We prepare for long term relationships by dating, we prepare for tests by studying, we prepare for work by garnering lots of information and knowing what sort of job we're taking on. The better prepared you are the better things generally go. Preparing for the worst. Preparing for the best. Preparation, very few if any are unfamiliar with the necessity of preparation in life. Sure you'll get some that like to pride themselves on being ready no matter what, on being brilliant and not needing to study or any such thing. You'll get those that like to say they live on the edge and it's true and some are like that but they're not the majority.
Preparation is something that alerts people to something that is going to happen. John was preparing the way of the Lord not because Jesus needed fanfare but because people needed to wake up out of their stupor to realize that something was coming, something was happening, something big, something very worthy of preparation.
John knew his role as preparer and it was an important role but he was taking no fanfare to himself but giving it all to Jesus whom he knew was coming but wasn't there just yet.
Jesus came to prepare us for His second coming, Jesus came to prepare us for eternal life, to give us eternal life, life that we can have that will last forever. Jesus offers it to us all and He promised there would come a time when He'd come again and eternal life would be realized fully. Yes, we can know we have eternal life- the Bible tells us that- '1 John {5:13} These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.'
We can know we have eternal life but it won't be fully realized until Jesus returns.
Jesus is returning.
The way has been prepared.
May God help us all. By the mercy and grace of our Lord and Savior may we fully realize life eternal, love eternal in Him now and forever!
Amen.
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