Road Work Ahead
You are driving down the road when you suddenly see a familiar orange sign that says: road work ahead. What is your first thought? If you’re like me you probably sigh, roll your eyes, and wonder how much time this will add to your trip. Road construction can be frustrating. It slows traffic down and seems to take forever to get done. Sometimes it seems like they just put orange barrels out because they don’t have anywhere else to keep them. But can you imagine the alternative? Potholes, washed-out roads, and even slower traffic. Road construction is frustrating while it’s happening, but the final product is amazing. There’s nothing quite like the feel of cruising down smooth pavement.
When you stop to think it is amazing how much work and effort it takes to make a smooth and level road: the mountains of dirt that are moved, the valleys that are filled in, and the rivers that are bridged just so we can get from place to place. Modern construction moves really fast. Go and take a look at the new Microsoft development for an example. Now imagine that you needed to build a road through mountains, valleys, and deserts without any modern construction equipment. It would be a monumental if not impossible task. As difficult as that task would be we have been given a far more difficult task: preparing our hearts for the coming of the Lord.
The season of Advent is a time of preparation. We get our churches and houses ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus by putting up lights and beautiful decorations. It is also a time of personal preparation and reflection. As we look forward to the coming of Jesus at Christmas, we also remember that our Lord will come again on the Last Day. John the Baptist had been called by God to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming of Christ. He was, “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth.’”
We are told that the Word of the Lord came to John just like it came to the prophets of the Old Testament. He was to go into the wilderness and preach a message of repentance because the hearts of the people were not ready for the coming of Jesus. Many of the people had a wrong understanding of what the work of the Savior would be like. They expected Jesus to come and throw off the oppressive rule of the corrupt and wicked Romans. They were looking for a restoration of the throne of David; a new king who would once again make them a great and powerful nation. John had come to remind the people that God's kingdom was not about political rulers or wealth or power. God’s kingdom existed in their hearts and the people needed to prepare their hearts for the advent of their King.
The Prophet Isaiah wants us to picture our hearts as vast and desolate deserts filled with high mountains and deep valleys. The roads going through this expanse are crooked and rough. Our hearts are no fit place to welcome our heavenly king. They are filled with deep dark valleys of sin and mountains of pride. We daily sin against our holy God in countless ways with our thoughts, words, and actions. We love to wallow in the deepest valleys of sin. We covet the blessings of others because we aren’t content with the blessings God has given to us. We lie and gossip about others. We look at and say things that we know go against God’s holy will. We love to stand on the mountains of pride. We ignore and minimize our own sins and compare ourselves with others foolishly thinking that we are better than we are. Are hearts are filled with the crooked and rocky paths of a whole host of sins. Our hearts are no fit place to welcome our heavenly king. Our hearts deserve God’s righteous wrath and anger.
There is roadwork ahead. We are just like the people who went to hear the message of John the Baptist in the wilderness. We need to have a massive construction project in our hearts to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. This is a monumental project that we have no hope of completing on our own. In the same way that it would be impossible for you to move a massive mountain or fill in the Grand Canyon using only a shovel, it is impossible for you to fill in the valleys of sin and level the mountains of pride in your own heart. We as sinners can do absolutely nothing to make our hearts acceptable and pleasing to God our Father.
John did not give the people a set of instructions or rituals to follow. John did not command the people to simply try harder and do better. Instead, John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John told the people not to trust in their own works for salvation, but to trust that God would save them. John’s
baptism was an amazing blessing. It gave people the forgiveness of sins as a free gift from God. John knew that he was a herald who was preparing the way of the Lord. John pointed the people to Jesus because he knew that Jesus was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
Dear friends we cannot prepare our hearts for the Lord. We can do nothing to save ourselves. There is roadwork ahead, but it is God who has done all the work for us. He does this through Word and Sacraments. Through his holy Law God tells us that he is holy and righteous and that we are sinners. We can do nothing to earn his grace and favor and deserve only his wrath. In the Gospel, we hear the beautiful truth that God sent his one and only Son Jesus Christ to suffer and die for the sins of the world. This is the miracle of Christmas. That Jesus Christ, true God from eternity clothed himself with human flesh and made his dwelling among us. He lived a perfect life in our place. The heart of Jesus had no valleys of sin or mountains of pride. The heart of Christ was perfect. In his great love for us, Christ offered that perfect life on the cross for us. He took all our sins on himself and suffered the torments of hell in our place. In return, he has given us his perfection.
Through the power of the Gospel the Holy Spirit changes and renovates our hearts. Through the water and the Word of baptism, we are reborn. Our sinful nature is crucified and buried with Christ, and we arise as a new creation who desires to live a new and holy life. We want to smooth out the rough places of our hearts and make the crooked ways straight. This is what repentance is. Now, strictly speaking, repentance consists of two parts. One part is contrition, that is, terrors striking the conscience through the knowledge of sin. The other part is faith, which is born of the Gospel or the Absolution and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven. It comforts the conscience and delivers it from terror. Then good works are bound to follow, which are the fruit of repentance (AC).
Repentance is not something that we do once. Repentance lasts our entire lives. As Christians, we are both sinners and saints. Repentance is a daily struggle against our sinful nature. It is a desire to live as God commands us. Each day we strive to put God first in everything we do. We use our time, talents, abilities, and possessions to his glory. We seek each day to selflessly love our neighbor. We seek to turn away from evil and do good. But we are going to fail and when we fail, we turn to Christ. We put our faith not in the good works that we have done. Instead, we trust in what Christ has done for us. We remember that in baptism our sins have been forgiven. We remember that when someone forgives our sins in the name of Jesus they are truly forgiven and have been removed as far as the east is from the west. We trust that in the Lord’s Supper, we receive the forgiveness that was won for us on the cross as we eat and drink the very body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who suffered and died to save us.
Dear friends, there is roadwork ahead. Our hearts need to be prepared for the coming of our Lord. But this massive construction project is not something we do on our own. It is a lifelong struggle to live as children of God. We have confidence that this massive work of renovating our hearts has been done by Christ. Jesus has already prepared our hearts. Every valley has been filled and every mountain has been laid low by the death and resurrection of our Savior.