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A Straight Path

Vicar Todd Liefer
December 6, 2009

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of God that engages us today comes from Luke 3 — the Gospel reading for this morning. Dear friends in Christ.

Advent is a time of year with lots of different sounds. Bing Crosby playing on the radio. Wrapping paper being cut. Choirs singing. Bells ringing at street corners. Those stuffed animals that move and sing, and kids play them over and over and over again...those are the lovely sounds of Advent.

Well, today in our text, we get a whole different sound for the Advent season. It's the sound of a jackhammer. Concrete getting ripped up. Chainsaws cutting down trees. Diesel trucks pouring wet cement.

That's the sound of John the Baptist.

Like our text says, here's what John sounds like:

"A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.'"

Valleys filled in. Mountains made low. Crooked roads straightened. Rough ways smoothed. That's what John does. He's preparing the way for the Lord. He's clearing a path. Paving a road. That's the work of John the Baptist.

Let me tell you a little bit about John. Remember this is the cousin of Jesus, the son of Elizabeth, the baby who leaped in the womb when the expectant Mary came to visit. But now in our text today, John is no cute and cuddly baby. He's been out living in the desert. Eating wild honey. Wearing camel's hair. Not really your clean-cut sort of guy.

Well, that's exactly the kind of guy the Lord uses to clear a path. Pave a road. Of course, in our text today, we're not talking about a physical road, but John is paving a road into the hearts of the people who come to hear him preach in the desert. He's clearing paths into their crooked hearts. Apparently, there's a lot of work for him to do. And, let me tell you, this is not a very quiet job!

We even have a snippet of one of John's sermons: "You brood of vipers!" he starts out. "Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?" Now that’s a way to start out a message! Husbands look at their wives and say, "We're missing the big game to listen to THIS guy?"

John doesn't mince words. He's pretty blunt. After all, he doesn't have a lot of time. Jesus is about to start his ministry! The world's been waiting for this for a very long time! But, clearly, the people are not ready for the Lord to come.

John recognizes that these people are living crooked lives. Sins have grown up in every direction, and these people aren't walking on a straight path at all. So John begins to clear a path.

He starts with the Jews. To sum it up, John says, "You may SAY you believe in God, but it doesn't even make a difference in your life! Help people! Help the poor! Share you possessions! Let your faith show some fruit!"

To the tax collectors, John says, "Stop cheating people out of their money!"

To the soldiers he said, "For goodness sake, be honest! Tell the truth! And don't be greedy!"

John clears his path. He uses harsh words of law. He's telling people to stop doing what they're doing, because it'll get in the way! Their bending, winding, crooked ways are going to get in the way of their salvation! John starts chopping down trees, hacking down sins, so that when Christ starts his ministry, it actually means something for these people. Christ is going to come and start healing, feeding, calming, comforting, teaching, proclaiming, dying, and rising. Their hearts have to be cleared so that Christ can come into their hearts and do his work.

Now if John were here today, standing in this pulpit, or standing on 4th and Main, how do you think he'd be received? Probably not well. Remember, John is blunt. He doesn't mince words. He just tells you how it is. And our culture doesn't like that. No, we like being told things gently. Being let down easily. (In other words, if you were here this past summer, the dog is on the roof!)

But in all honesty, John would have us stop and think. Are we ready for the Lord to come? If John were here, he may say, "You know, it sure doesn’t look like it." Because there are sins in our lives. They are sins that entangle our hearts. If John were here, he may say, "There are things in your own life that are not pleasing to God!" You know what those things are:

Anger. Acting out in rage. Lust. Taking a second look at that person. Gossip. Letting out some news you've just got to share, even though it might hurt someone's reputation. Laziness. Neglecting God's Word. Greediness. Not sharing what you’ve been given with those who need it. Obsession. Letting things like your job, your TV, or even your kids, take over your life so much that God gets pushed out.

If John the Baptist were here, you know what he'd say? Straighten up! Get rid of these sins! Get rid of them because they keep you from being close with God. Get rid of them because they are entangling you. They're suffocating you. Get rid of them, because they're making you walk a crooked path. If anything is standing in the way between you and God, between you and Christ, get rid of them because there's a better way.

If John were here today, he'd want you to make sure that no sin is entangling you. He'd say, "Take a second and think about the sins that make you walk a crooked path." What sins leading you away from God? Damaging your relationship with him?

And when we find those things in our lives, we realize that we need to change. We don't want to walk a crooked path anymore. We need these sins to be cut down — right at the root. We need a path to be cleared into our hearts. We need this to happen because there's a better way.

And that better way is Christ.

Christ is the one who has given you a better way. He's the one who has cleared a path for you. Christ is one who has laid down a straight path for your salvation.

Christ was the one John the Baptist was pointing to. Christ was the reason the valleys needed to be filled in, the mountains made low, the crooked roads made straight, and the rough ways made smooth. Prepare the way of the Lord! Christ was coming to walk a straight path for you.

The road that Christ walked was always straight. He taught the right things. He helped the right people. He said the right words. He healed those who needed it. He proclaimed the truth. He came to the world and said he was the Son of God. And hearing that, the world made Christ walk another straight road. A road all the way up to Mount Calvary. A road where Christ dragged a cross for his own crucifixion. A road where mockers lined up to insult Jesus as he passed. And once he walked all the way to the top, once he finished his straight path, he was killed for the sins of the world.

But, thank God, that was not the end of Christ's road. No, because three days later, everything changed. That day, a stone was rolled away. That day, Peter heard and ran straight away to find an empty tomb. That day, Jesus himself walked with two men on a road to Emmaus. That day, Mary, the other women, and all the disciples couldn’t help but spread the word: Christ had been raised from the dead.

And that clears for you, and for me, a straight path. A straight path for our salvation. Your salvation is taken care of. You're on that road. Your sins have been forgiven. Cleared away for good! Never to be seen or stumbled upon again. Now, because of Christ, you have been put on a STRAIGHT path. No more crooked, winding, bending roads. No. A straight path for your salvation.

And now, as people on a straight path, what do we do? We walk. We walk like people who live on a straight path. Because of what Christ has done for us, we walk differently. With Christ, we let go of our sins. With Christ, we are kind and patient with others. With Christ, we stay faithful with our spouse. With Christ, when we hear a juicy piece of gossip, we just keep it to ourselves. With Christ, we stay in God's Word, share our time, our possessions, our money with others. With Christ, we don’t obsess over our job, over the big game on TV, or even our kids. Because Christ has taken care of our salvation. He's blazed a straight path for us. He's got us in his care. Nothing derails or detours us. No. Nothing gets in the way of God's salvation!

I remember one of the first times I'd ever flown, we were changing planes in Denver, Colorado. And that airport had something I had never actually seen in real life. One of those moving walkways. A continuous moving belt on the floor — kind of like an escalator that's flat — that people step on, and it propels them along a very straight hallway, very quickly. I thought that sort of thing was just for the Jetsons! Those moving walkways are incredible because they are LONG but they are FAST. If you start walking on one of them, as long as you're going the right way, you're walking a straight, fast path to wherever you need to go.

That's the kind of path you get to walk on as a Christian. God has put you on that straight path. Moving walkway. A path that moves you to eternal life. A straight path to your salvation. Praise God because Jesus has cleared that straight path for you. Let's go and walk on that straight path forever. Amen!