“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hold with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit-hole and that means comfort,” first line of…The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. “It was a pleasure to burn,” Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Or, my personal favorite, “far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea,” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Disregarding the evolutionary idea in the last quote, the first sentence of an author’s work is arguable the most important. Not only is it intended to reach out and hold onto you for the length of the book, but also sets the tone and context of the book. In it, the author tells you who the story will be about, the main narrative, etc. At the risk of stating the obvious, it also tells you where the author wants to begin the story, the most important place.
That is what makes the beginning of the Gospel of Mark gripping. Where does he begin? It isn’t with baby Jesus in the manger, where we might begin the story if asked. The very first and arguably the most important words of his Gospel are, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” He starts by getting right to his point 1) Mark is not writing a biography of Jesus. He records the GOOD NEWS about Jesus, the story they need to hear. 2) This GOOD NEWS is that Jesus is the promised Messiah, who came to save his people. 3) The messiah is the Son of God, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.
This first sentence sets the tone of Mark’s Gospel, because, on the surface, this story does not look good. Listen carefully during this next year as we listen to Mark tell us about Jesus’s love followed by people rejecting him. God teaches and heals people, yet the religious leaders reject him. Regularly, Jesus’ disciples don’t seem to understand who he is, yet demons know and outsiders believe in him. Despite Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God, he immediately rebukes Jesus for telling them he will die for their sins. Mark wants people to know who Jesus is, because he wants them to be prepared for his coming and to know what God did to make them ready for his coming.
Then, Mark continues by revealing God’s plan, “as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.’” The good news about Jesus doesn’t begin at the manager, but with a messenger. That messenger is John the Baptist, who God sent to prepare people for his Son. God sent him to prepare a path into people’s hearts for Jesus, to get them ready for Christ’s coming.
This is why God inspires Mark to start here. He wants people to know his purpose, to get their hearts ready for the Lord. God wants people’s hearts ready, because people are easily distracted by the diversions of this world and clutter up the path to their heart instead of clearing a path for him.
I had the privilege to live in Russia during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. I even saw the Olympic torch in person. Tomsk, the city I lived in, was on the torches route. Something you should know about Russia though, the roads are bad. They are filled with deep potholes, which a toddler could safely stand in. They are filled because when it snows in November, the snow fills them in. Then, the snow doesn’t melt until late spring. So, winter evens out the road and literally makes it the best time to drive on the road. Since the Olympic torch was coming to the city, the city government decided not to rely on the snow to fill in the potholes and instead decided to fix the roads. This meant not just filling in the potholes, but rebuilding parts of the road. They wanted it to be beautiful, because the world was watching. They worked hard for months in advance (tearing up roads, redirecting traffic, and renovating buildings), so they were ready for the Olympic torch to run through the town for a couple hours. They worked hard to prepare the roads for a couple moments of glory.
In a similar way, God comes with all his glory not just to run past you, but also to live permanently live with you. If people are willing to give all their energy to urgent tasks that fade away, how much harder should people prepare for something that doesn’t? So, with so much on the line, why be distracted? Because that is all they are, things that distract from what is truly important. It’s easy to spend your time and emotional energy getting wrapped up in the controversies of the election or the policies of a president. It is easy to spend your time and energy getting wrapped up in worry or frustration during the middle of a pandemic. It is easy to spend your time and energy getting wrapped up in both the joys and hardships of the Christmas season. It’s easy to get wrapped up in frustrations with other people. The devil loves getting people distracted. He loves it because if you are distracted, you are not prepared. If you are not prepared, you are not ready for God’s coming. Those not ready for his coming, will spend eternity separated from him and his love. Don’t let the distractions of this world prevent you from being prepared for God’s coming.
God’s love for you and desire to be with you drove him to send messengers ahead of him to prepare you for his coming. He sent John the Baptist to preach and baptize to prepare people’s hearts for his coming. He continues to send his messengers today to prepare your heart for his coming. Those messengers are pastors, friends, family, or members of church. He wants your heart ready because he knows the incredible gift he brings, an unfading glory and life with him. He sends them with a specific message for you.
What is the message of God’s messengers? “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” John did this by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. This message attracted people from all over the land of Judea. People needed to hear this message and flocked to it because they knew who they were, sinners. God told them how to prepare for his coming, by having the roads to their heart perfectly level and clear. But, they are filled with boulders of pet sins and sections are washed away from lives of apathy and distraction. They knew they couldn’t move that boulder or rebuild the road, because they put them there in the first place. So, when they hear this message of free forgiveness of their sins, they gladly walked at least 6 hours one way to publically point out their boulders and washed away roads into their heart and then be baptized by this desert prophet and receive forgiveness. God prepares the road into their hearts.
But his message didn’t end there. “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John was only the messenger, the one who comes before. Someone more powerful is coming, the Son of God. That powerful one shows his power by sending God the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit lives inside people to continue to keep the paths into their heart clear for the day the Lord comes.
This is the same message the Lord gives you too! He is the one who prepares the path of your hearts. He is the one who keeps those paths ready by sending his Holy Spirit. He is the one that lifts your eyes off distractions and refocuses you on what is truly important, his coming. His powerful Son will do this by showing his greatest power in death, when he forgave all your sin on the cross.
So, where to begin? What’s the first line of your life’s story? Start with what’s important and sets the whole tone for your life. Mark begins at the same place, with the good news of Jesus, the Son of God, the one who prepared your heart for his coming. Amen.
