Saturday in the First Week After Trinity
I don't know what happened here... this is actually Friday but the Higher Things site has Saturday's devotion up. Or maybe I slept through Friday and this is Saturday? Could be, I was pretty tired after the symphony on Thursday. :-)
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of sins, because of the tender mercy of our God.” (St. Luke 1:76-78)In the Name of Christ. Amen. Maybe it seems weird to think of Advent in the middle of summer, but that’s where we are today: remembering the birth of the forerunner of Christ. In St. Luke Gospel, Gabriel tells Mary that Elizabeth, her cousin, is in her sixth month of pregnancy.
If Jesus was born in December, then John was born in June. Want to sing an Advent hymn or two now? In the great scheme of things, does it really matter when John was born? No. But why he was born does matter.
John was the forerunner, the way-preparer, the advance team for the royal visit. John softens up the beachhead of sinful humanity to “prepare the way of the Lord.” John issues a call to repentance, a call that all should hear and heed. It is a call that earns him nothing but grief and ultimately costs him his life, but it is a call that he unerringly makes over and over again so that the “way of the Lord” might be easier for Jesus.
John prepares the way so that Jesus might follow that way – that path – to its ultimate destination, the Cross of Calvary. Jesus took that path that Israel then and we now could not follow.
Jesus accomplished the redemption of His people by following the path John had prepared to its bloody end. John’s preparation had “given knowledge of salvation to His people.”
The content of that knowledge was the forgiveness of sins, for only in forgiveness can one find entry into the eternity of heaven. And forgiveness is ours only in the Cross of Christ.
Only in the Cross of Christ is salvation, because there the perfect sacrifice has been made, the Law perfectly kept, and God’s requirements perfectly fulfilled, all for us. Amen.
“Almighty God, through John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, you once proclaimed salvation; now grant that we may know this salvation and serve you in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” (Collect for the Nativity of John the Baptist)
Daily readings
Proverbs 23:19-21, 29-35, 24:1-2 1 Timothy 5:17-25 Matthew 13:31-35