Are you prepared to celebrate Christmas? Do you have your tree up, your garland strung, and your lights lit? How are you doing with your Christmas shopping, is it just begun or almost done? Is your cookie and coco supply adequate for the company of carolers that may stop by? Do you have your car stereo set to a Christmas station and your Alexa programed to play a carefully curated selection of Christmas music when you walk in the door? I would say if you have your decorations up, your shopping done, your groceries bought, and your music programed then you are indeed prepared to celebrate Christmas… at least you are prepared for the sentiment of Christmas.
You may be prepared to celebrate the sentiment of Christmas but are you prepared to celebrate the substance of Christmas? Since COVID cancelled our annual Live nativity, I asked Kurt to get together a group of people to set up the manger scene here inside our sanctuary. (Thank you to everyone who did that by the way. I heard the support beams took some beef to get them in place.) I am hopeful that it was worth the effort. I am hopeful that the manger scene is a tangible tool to help people prepare for Christmas. But in order for that to happen I must first ask you, when you look upon the manger scene what do you see? Do you see a humble structure filled with straw? Do you imagine the bleating of sheep and the lowing of cattle? Do you imagine a faithful husband watching over a young mother as she holds her newborn baby in her arms? There is no denying that the manger scene is a precious sight to see, but if all you see is a pile of straw, some animals, and a couple holding a newborn baby then once more all you see is the sentiment of the season.
If you want to be prepared to celebrate Christmas, and I mean really prepared to celebrate Christmas, then you have to take a closer look at the manger scene, you have to look beyond the sentiment and see the substance. Today Saint Mark is going to help us do just that. Today our gospel lesson from Mark 1:1-8 helps us see the substance beyond the sentiment of Christmas; Mark 1:1-8 prepares us to celebrate Christmas.
In verse 1 saint Mark writes, “1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Here saint Mark tells us that he is going to tell us the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ. If you had not just heard me read the gospel lesson (or if you weren’t paying attention), where do you imagine saint Mark would begin the gospel of Jesus Christ? Where would you begin the gospel about Jesus Christ? I think most of us would begin with the manger scene. The place where true God Who became also true man was born under a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. The manger scene seems like a reasonable place to begin the gospel about Jesus Christ.
The manger scene seems like a reasonable place to begin the gospel about Jesus Christ, but that is not where saint Mark begins. Saint Mark begins the gospel about Jesus Christ with a 500-700-year-old prophecy. In verses 2-3 saint Mark writes, “2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— 3 “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” Saint Mark begins the gospel about Jesus Christ with a prophecy about a messenger who will come before Jesus. Saint Mark tells us, according to prophecy, the messenger’s job is to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus; the messenger’s job is to prepare people to celebrate Christmas.
Saint Mark begins the gospel about Jesus Christ with a prophecy about a messenger, then in verse 4 saint Mark tells us who that messenger is and how he prepares people to celebrate Christmas. Saint Mark writes, “4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” The messenger who was prophesied to prepare people to celebrate Christmas is John, the son of the Zechariah the priest and his wife Elizabeth. You may recall the unusual circumstances of his birth, how the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and announced to him that his son John would “will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, …—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”[1] The angel Gabriel confirms what Mark here tells us, John is the messenger who prepares us to celebrate Christmas.
John is the messenger who prepares us to celebrate Christmas, and his message is, “repent!” Confess your sin. I don’t know what sin you have placed in the path of your Savior, what sin you have piled up as an obstacle before Him, what sin you have used to dig a trench to deter Him. I don’t know your sin, but I know mine. I see it when I look upon John the Baptist wearing his clothing made of camel’s hair like the underprivileged do. I see it when I see him wearing a cheap leather belt like the laborers do. I see it when I see him eating locust like the poor people do. When I look at a man like John, I see what a materialistic, covetous, greedy man I am; I see my sin and if your sin is half as bad as my sin then I strongly suggest you heed the words of God’s messenger; I strongly suggest you repent. See your sin. See how your sin blocks the path of your Savior. See how your sin leads you away from salvation. See how your sin threatens your soul with damnation. See your sin and be filled with sorrow; be filled with a sorrow that recognizes how far you have fallen short of the glory of your God. Then with a heart full of sorrow turn away from your sin, have nothing more to do with your sin, stop doing that sin. God’s messenger says to you and to me, in order to be prepared to celebrate Christmas you must first Repent.
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ starts with a call to repentance. It seems an unusual beginning. It seems unusual to associate a preaching of the law with the proclamation of the gospel. But without the preaching of the law there is no need for the proclamation of the gospel. A preaching of the law; a call to repentance is where the gospel about Jesus Christ must begin. At least it is where you must begin if you want to see more than a pile of straw, some animals, and a cute baby then you must first see your sin. A preaching of the law; a call to repentance is where you must begin if you want to see the substance beyond the sentiment Christmas.
Mark tells us that John began the gospel about Jesus Christ with a call to repentance “for the forgiveness of sins.” You see, saint Mark begins the gospel about Jesus Christ with a call to repentance, but that is not, as the late Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story”. In verses 7-8 saint Mark tells us there is more to the messenger’s message. There John the Baptist announces “7… “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Having repented of our sins, the messenger invites us to take another look at the manger scene. He invites us to see not a helpless baby but our powerful Savior. Read through saint Mark’s gospel its only 16 chapters long. It will take you 15 minutes to skim through it, 30 minutes to read every word. Just read it and you will see, in the 8 chapters that follow, a powerful Savior who cleanses a leper, heals a paralytic, calms a storm, drives out demons, raises a dead girl back to life, feeds 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and two fish, walks on water, drives out more demons heals more sick people feeds another 4,000 people with 7 loaves of bread and is ultimately recognized by saint Peter as the Christ the Son of the Living God. Then from chapter 9 on things take a different tone. There are still miraculous healings, but they are overshadowed by predictions of suffering and death. These predictions of suffering and death grow more ominous until, at last, Saint Mark concludes the gospel about Jesus Christ by telling us that the One who is more powerful than us all, rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, ate one last supper with His disciples, and allowed Himself to be declared guilty of sins like materialism, covetousness, greed, and all the other sins we have committed. Saint Mark began the gospel about Jesus Christ with a call to repentance, but he concludes the gospel about Jesus Christ with a sacrifice for sins.
If you want to be prepared to celebrate Christmas, If, when you look upon the manger scene you want to see more than a pile of straw, some animals, and a cute baby; if you want to see beyond the sentiment of the season, then first take a good hard look at yourself and see your sin, confess your sin, repent of your sin. Then take another look at the manger scene and see not just a helpless baby but see your powerful Savior. See the One Who surrendered Himself as the sinner’s sacrifice so that our sins of materialism, covetousness, greed, and all the other sins we have committed could be, would be, and are forgiven. Once you are able to look upon the manger scene and see your Savior from sin, I would say whether or not your decorations are up, your shopping is done, your groceries are bought, or your music is programed, if you look at that manger scene and see your Savior from sin; the substance beyond the sentiment, then I would say you are prepared to celebrate Christmas. Amen.
[1] Luke 1:17