Only ten more days until Christmas!  The "countdown" in the stores started a few months back, and soon it will be over, but only for another year.  For our small children and all adults working in retail, it can't come soon enough.  For those busy with work and family or just getting older, it's coming too fast.  And for those trying to keep focused on the reason for the season, Jesus is barely in the picture.

          John the Baptist would have been really upset had this happened during his watch.  He was the one sent to prepare the way, the one Malachi promised saying, "I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD." (Malachi 4:5)   John's sole purpose was to lay the groundwork for Jesus.  As soon as Jesus had begun his work, John's work was done.  When Jesus began to preach, the Bible says John went to prison and died there shortly thereafter.

          John was the last prophet and the greatest.  Most prophets just spoke of the Messiah, but John had met Him.  Who else could say he baptized the Son of God?  John met face to face with the One all other prophets had only dreamed of.

          This last, great prophet of God had a serious problem with sin, so his primary message was "Repent!"  The Hebrew word for repent means "to turn", to turn away from sin and to turn back to God.  Sin was turning away from God, so repentance meant a total turning back to God.  Not a partial turning back, not a half- or a quarter- turn, but a total turn, perhaps a re-turn, a coming back after having left God.

          Repentance was often shown by tearing one's garment.  To rip the collar of your robe was to destroy something precious, showing you were sincere.  Today we have so many clothes, tearing them would mean little.  We'd have to shred a bundle of twenty dollar bills to show our sorrow - think you could do that?  How about if we include that in our worship?  To show we're sorry for our sins, we'd have to tear up a lot of money and throw it in the garbage.  If we started that, I think we'd have lots of volunteers eagerly wanting to empty the garbage.  This symbol of sadness was done by men, not women.  Women wept, but men rent their garments.

          But the prophets said it wasn't enough to rend your garments to show you were sorry.  Joel 12:13 tells us, "Rend your hearts, not just your garments, and so return to the Lord."  Rending your heart is making a real change, something on the inside, not just on the outside.  Repentance means obeying God, trusting Him and having a radical switch away from your old self and its sinful ways.

          John led the people on a countdown to Christmas.  He said, "Repent, because He is coming soon!"  And he didn't mean a baby, but a man.  When Jesus finally came by one day to be baptized, John met him with the most powerful thing he ever publicly said:  "Behold the Lamb of God."

          To be called the Lamb of God was the greatest honor John could bestow.  "Take a good look at Him," said John, "This is the one who will shed His blood for our sins.  This is the real, the genuine Lamb of God."

          Calling Jesus the Lamb of God brought to mind two images.  First, it was the lamb who died during the first passover meal in Egypt, the one whose blood was smeared on the doorways so the angel of death would pass over the Jewish houses and save the people.  That lamb died so the people could be released from slavery in Egypt.

          But this image also brought to mind the sacrificial lamb.  Every Friday in the temple, a new young lamb was killed and its blood was sprinkled on the altar to cover the people's sins.  Soon Jesus would fulfill that image and die for the sins of the people.  To be the Lamb was the highest honor.  It was what Jesus had come for.

          Months ago Madison Avenue started a countdown to Christmas.  About 2,000 years ago John started a countdown to Good Friday.  On that special Friday, Jesus, the Lamb of God died at the exact hour the sacrificial lamb died.  When the shofar horn sounded at 3 o'clock on the pinnacle of the Temple, the people knew that blood was shed to cover their sins.  At that exact same time on another temple called Calvary, Jesus said, "It is finished!"   His blood was shed for us.  The final sacrifice was over.  No more lambs had to die, because Jesus, the true Lamb, had died once and for all.

          John came to testify about the Light of the World, another name for Jesus.  The world was pretty dark back then, in many ways like today.  Despite peace and a fair amount of prosperity, the people were getting more and more worldly and depraved.  They made excuses for wicked lifestyles and ungodly actions.  They revelled in pleasure and ignored important responsibilities.  They believed lies rather than truth.  Like today, people back then lived in darkness and seemed to love it.

          Ever noticed how sin and darkness go together?  It's always more fun to sin after the sun does down.  And people enjoy sinning together.  Both kids and adults know this is true.  Hey - it's no fun doing something wrong by yourself.  Find someone to join you!  It's a lot more fun, it seems more acceptable, and it's a lot more exciting!

          But living in the darkness without Jesus is like driving a car with its front end out of line.  You might be able to stay on the road if you grip the steering wheel with both hands and hold on tightly.  Lose your strength, however, or get distracted, and you head straight for the ditch.  Society in general -- especially educators, politicians, and writers -- tells us that life will be okay if we just try hard enough.  We just need to drive straight, hang on to the wheel, and curb our destructive tendencies.

          But life is a ceaseless struggle.  Trusting to Christ is a little like getting a front-end alignment.  The pull toward the ditch is corrected from the inside.  This is not to say there won't be bumps and potholes that will still try to jar us off the road.  Temptations and failures will always be there to test our alertness and ability to steer a straight course.  But when we trust in Jesus and He forgives us, the moral mechanism has been repaired.  And most importantly, He's there with us to keep us on the right road.  No amount of human wisdom can show us the road to peace on earth and eternal life in heaven.  Only Jesus can do that.

          The world of John's day was living in darkness, but it's always been that way.  He told people to repent, to change their ways, to see the Lamb of God.  Some did, and when Jesus came, they followed Him.  That was all John wanted.  His job was done.  Jesus was made greater, John had become lesser - it was as it should be.

          But not all the problems we have today are from living in darkness - sometimes they're just from weakness, from being human.  While we have it far better now than in John's day, I'm not sure we're better in handling our troubles than we've ever been.  Sometimes it seems only the calendar and the faces have changed.  The troubles are all the same.  We make our plans but then things go bad.  We lost our job, we get sick, we fight with the spouse, or the kids drive us crazy.  We try and we try, but we don't seem to gain an inch, and we just wish we could figure out what to do next.

          A farmer's old mule fell down into a big old well.  It was about 30 feet down, too far to risk a man's life.  The old animal brayed pitifully as the farmer tried to figure out how to get him out.  There wasn't enough room to go down to tie a rope on it.  He couldn't lasso it and drag it up without breaking its neck.  Finally he decided the mule was old and that old well needed to be covered up anyway, so he might as well do both - bury the mule and fill up the old well at the same time.

          So he called a few neighbors, gave them each a beer and a shovel, and told them what to do.  With the first shovelfuls, the old mule brayed and snorted, but then he quieted down, seeming to accept his fate.  Ten minutes of shovelling later, the farmer looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw.  The mule was half-way up to the top!  Every time dirt hit him on the head, that mule shook it off, stomped it down and looked up.  Every time they shovelled dirt, he'd shake it off and take a step higher.  Ten more minutes of shovelling, and a dirty old mule jumped up out of that hole and trotted off.  And you know what?  That farmer swore that old mule was smiling!

          Life is going to shovel dirt on us, all kinds of it.  Our troubles can bury us or they can be stepping stones.  Have faith in Jesus, friends, and follow Him into the Light.  Don't give in to the darkness, don't let your troubles cover you.  In this countdown to Christmas, no matter how much dirt hits you, keep on stomping and looking up.  Amen

Copyright © 2002 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.