Christmas in the Wilderness

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way—a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” – Mark 1:2-3

As the Christmas countdown clock winds down, and as you make your way through the checkout lines at WalMart or Winco, chances are you’ve been hearing the question: “Are you ready for Christmas?” And most of us will answer: “NO!!!” After all, you’ve still got shopping to finish and Christmas cards to write and Christmas programs to attend. But in the first chapter of his gospel, Mark reminds us that there is a much more important question to ask: Are you ready for Jesus?

Most of us have never heard a Christmas sermon preached out of the Book of Mark. And there’s a good reason for that: Mark doesn’t write anything about the nativity. Nothing about a baby crying, angels singing or wise men traveling. He doesn’t say a single word about Bethlehem, a virgin birth or a manger. But hidden in the opening verses of Mark 1, there are some powerful, hidden insights about the first Christmas. He starts it right off in verse 1: “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

When Jesus was born, the title Son of God was more or less interchangeable with the title of Messiah or Christ. But as Jesus’ ministry progressed, he demonstrated through his teaching and miracles that the title meant much more than just the Christ: he himself was divine. He himself was God in the flesh. Jesus came to earth as the Christ and the very Son of God. He was 100 percent man, but he was also 100% God. Now, that’s a miracle to celebrate!

But are you ready? As we prepare for Christmas, Mark wants us to know that before Jesus began his ministry, God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way. Mark writes in verses 2 and 3, “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way—a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” Notice that he uses the word “prepare” twice in those two verses. And those who hoped to be in God’s will were called to join him in preparing.

So, this Christmas, what do you think the chances are that God is much more concerned with you preparing your heart for Jesus than He is with you preparing your table for the Christmas ham? What do you suppose the chances are that God is more concerned with you preparing your schedule to worship Christ than He is with you preparing your best white elephant gift?

Don’t get me wrong. The ham and the gifts and the lights and the music are all wonderful parts of the Christmas season. But they’re all meaningless if we don’t prepare ourselves for the heart of Christmas: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born to save the world. God wants us to prepare ourselves and our families to celebrate his coming, to worship his majesty, and to recommit our lives to him.

And for one more marvelous insight … according to verses 3 and 4, where did John do his preaching? Well, some translations use the word “wilderness.” Others translate the Greek word as … “desert.” Doesn’t that sound a lot like the Victor Valley? “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4).

Time and time again in Scripture, we find that God speaks to us in the wilderness, reaches out to us in the wilderness, calls us to repent and change our evil ways in the wilderness, God forgives us and ushers us into the Promised Land from the wilderness. Mark wants us to understand that the story of Christmas—the story of Jesus—begins in the wilderness … or, if you like, the desert.

Let’s be honest: For many of us, this is NOT the most wonderful time of the year. Some of us have lost family members this year. Others have lost jobs, while still others have seen our health take a nosedive. Perhaps you are flat broke and can’t even think about buying presents or taking a trip to see family this Christmas. The truth is—as this year draws to a close, many of us are in the wilderness.

But guess what happens in the wilderness? God speaks. God reaches out. God calls. And what’s His message? “Jesus is coming. In fact, Jesus is already here. Prepare the way for him in your heart, because he is the heart of Christmas. Take hold of him, and don’t let go.”

Dane Davis is the Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information, visit www.fccvv.com.  Join us for our message series, “Simply Christmas,” Sunday at 10 a.m., and for our Christmas Eve Service Sunday night at 7 pm.

A Strange Beginning to the Christmas Story

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:21

The Christmas season is one of the most wonderful times of the year, but it’s also one of the most hectic times. With all the shopping, decorating, school programs and parties—for many of us, this season has become too much of a rat race. So this year, I hope you’ll take the time to stop and smell the poinsettias. (Do poinsettias even smell? It doesn’t matter.) If you slow down and push aside the commercialism and hecticness of the season, underneath it all you’ll find the simple heart of Christmas: Jesus Christ—born to save the world.

As with anything simple, it’s best to begin at the beginning: the opening chapters of Matthew. Usually, when we read the Christmas story from Matthew, we skip the first 17 verses. Because, after all, 15 of the first 17 verses are a genealogy—just a list of names. And that’s not very important, right? Yet for some reason, it’s the first scripture to appear in the Bible after the book of Malachi, some 400 years before. Why on earth would the Holy Spirit lead Matthew to break the silence with a genealogy?

Great question. He did it, in large part, because Matthew’s original audience was Jewish. And the Jewish people in Matthew’s day were very concerned about pedigree. For example, a priest was required to give an unbroken record of his genealogy all the way back to Moses’ brother Aaron. So, to the Jews of that time, it would be impressive that Jesus’ ancestry could be traced all the way back to Abraham, and that his lineage also included King David. As Matthew set out to prove that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the King of the Jews, proving that Jesus was both a descendent of Abraham and a descendent of King David was critical. Otherwise Jewish readers would have ignored the rest of Matthew’s gospel account.

After establishing that sterling pedigree, here’s a surprise: Four women are listed in Jesus’ genealogy. Back then, this would have shocked every Jewish reader. The nation of Israel was a very patriarchal society, and most Jewish men would never list any women in their genealogy—especially women with mixed blood lines and sordid pasts. Yet Matthew lists Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. The first two women practiced prostitution. Ruth was from the wicked nation of Moab. And we all know the story of Bathsheba’s affair with King David.

So, what was Matthew thinking? What’s the deal with these four not-so-upstanding women being included in Jesus’ genealogy?

As theologian William Barclay puts it, “If Matthew had ransacked the pages of the Old Testament for improbable candidates he could not have discovered four more incredible ancestors for Jesus Christ [than these four women]. But surely, there is something very lovely in this.” Barclay points out that by including these names at the very beginning of his gospel, Matthew was showing the essence of the good news to come. The story of Jesus Christ is all about barriers going down: the barrier between Jew and Gentile; the barrier between male and female; and most of all, the barrier between saint and sinner. As Jesus says in Matthew 9:13b, “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

You see, the Good News of Jesus Christ is contained right here—in this genealogy that you’ve always thought was boring and unimportant. Jesus didn’t come to be the Savior of those who have their act together, those who have a squeaky clean past, those who have no skeletons in the closet. Jesus came to be the Savior of the whole world. That includes prostitutes, addicts, liars, cheaters, thieves and murderers. So, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how far you’ve strayed, no matter how many skeletons you have in your closet, Jesus came for you, too. He came for you.

And here’s one more dollop of heartwarming icing on the Christmas cake. In Matthew 1:17, Matthew strategically lists Jesus’ genealogy in three groups of fourteen generations each. If you take a closer look at the beginning and ending names in each group of 14, you’ll discover a beautiful snapshot of human history and the reason for Christmas.

The first group begins with Abraham (the “friend of God”) and ends with David (the “man after God’s own heart”). The second group begins with David and ends with the Babylonian exile—a punishment by God for Israel’s rejection of God. And the third group begins with the exile and ends with the birth of Christ.

Herein lies the unfolding of human history: We were created as friends of God to become men and women after His own heart. But we squandered that wonderful gift by turning our backs on Him. As a result, we suffered defeat and death. But Jesus came to give us grace and hope and life. That’s the story of human history. And that’s simply Christmas!

Dane Davis is the Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information, visit www.fccvv.com  and join us this Christmas season for our message series, “Simply Christmas,” Sundays at 10 a.m.