Tuesday after the Sunday after Christmas
Posted on January 3, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 3:1-9 (NKJV)
3:1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.
5 ‘Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth;
6 ‘And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
7 Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 9 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Devotion
One of the tasks civil engineers have to do is site preparation, which involves a lot of “cutting and filling.” You need a flat site so truck and rail traffic can move about easily and construction can commence quickly and smoothly. There are hills, ravines, and trees to be dealt with, and mucky soil that has to be removed and replaced with suitable fill. There is much preparation work to be done below before any building can be done above.
If the engineers and earth-movers thought they had it tough, look at the mountains and valleys God has to move and fill to prepare the way for the Gospel. There are the heights of self-righteousness, as well as the valleys of weak faith. There is crookedness and roughness in our sinful straying that takes us away from the straight and smooth path of God’s commandments.
But we don’t like being “leveled.” We don’t like having our “kinks” straightened out. We no longer wish for preachers to preach. We should not go into God’s House expecting to come out feeling better about ourselves. Rather, we should expect to get “leveled.” God’s Law will never make you feel better about yourself, only worse. But such prep work clears the way for the Gospel. We come to expose ourselves to the Son now to prevent burning later. For it is only in the Son that we ultimately find warmth, light, and salvation.
Prayer: Almighty and Everlasting God, direct our actions according to Thy good pleasure, that in the Name of Thy beloved Son, we may be made to abound in good works; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
