Cold Open
Mark 1:1-8
Mark’s gospel begins abruptly. There is no narrative about the birth of Jesus. There are no shepherds, angels, or animals here. There isn’t even a genealogy. It begins so abruptly that you may wonder if you’ve missed something, and you have! Mark seems like it opens in the middle of the story because that’s exactly what is happening–this is not the beginning of a new story about God’s actions with people, but is a continuation of the story that had been told in the synagogues for centuries. Mark’s gospel tells you this by opening with a quotation from Isaiah 40. The longer version is:
A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Likely written between the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests of Israel and Judah, during which many Hebrews were deported into captivity, Isaiah 40 offers a hopeful vision of return and a lifeline for people in exile. Both the kingdom of Assyria and that of Babylon, which followed it, were ruled from modern-day Iraq, a fertile valley surrounded by desert. Though Baghdad and Jerusalem are less than 1,000km apart, a direct route meant crossing a vast desert–an almost certain death. To get from the heart of these empires to Jerusalem safely was a journey of around 2,000km following the Euphrates northeast to Syria before turning south down the coast to Jerusalem. The prophet imagines a different way.
Perhaps if the people set out in faith across the desert, God would make the ground bloom as they went. Perhaps their act of faith would render the barren desert as green and fertile as the Mediterranean coastal regions of Lebanon, Mt. Carmel, and the Sharon Plain. The burning sand would turn to pools of clear, cool water to refresh them. Impassible mountains and valleys along the way would level themselves. Do not worry that your hands are weak, your knees feeble, and your heart afraid–God will strengthen, steady, and steel you!
Isaiah’s vision of renewed creation is what John was preaching in the wilderness. It was this message that drew the crowds to him. It was this message that moved people to repentance and baptism. It was this message that upset the political and religious leaders. The world still needs this message of hope, and we are the ones to proclaim it. We are called to see new possibilities where once we had assumed there were none. Perhaps, during this season of Advent, we can be the voice in someone’s wilderness and prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of others.
Rev. Ryan Young
