Delivered by Gail Ray
Our Lenten series for this year is based on Pastor Adam Hamilton’s most recent work of the same name (THE WAY: WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS). You might remember we’ve studied other works from this Kansas City pastor; we went through THE JOURNEY a year ago at Christmas … and last year, during Lent, we studied the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life (24 Hours that Changed the World). ‘THE WAY’ is Hamilton’s final installment in this trinity of work on the life of Christ…
To get started in this Lenten study, let’s begin with this question: Why would we want to look at the details of Jesus’ three short years in ministry? (That’s the ‘footsteps’ that we’re talking about, of course…) Well, here’re some words from the Apostle John that might help answer that question: It says in 1 John 2:6 (NIV)…
“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
So, there’s the reasoning behind this study that we’re going to be in throughout the season of Lent 2013! How many here today claim to be a follower of Christ? … It looks like we’re all in good company, doesn’t it? So, if that’s what we claim, what does God’s word say? “[We] must walk as Jesus did.” And that’s what we’re going to do starting now. Going to our lesson for today, let’s begin to look at Jesus’ ministry, beginning with his early years (Mark 1:1-7, NLT):
This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began 2 just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. 3 He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the LORD’s coming! Clear the road for him!’” 4 This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had turned to God to receive forgiveness for their sins. 5 All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 John announced: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals.
According to God’s plan, before Jesus’ official ministry could begin … there was going to be a messenger who would prepare the way for this holy task; his name was John…
Let’s start where the Gospels begin, with John the Baptist and a bit of speculation about his relationship with Jesus before Jesus was baptized. The story begins when John and Jesus were just boys…
After the story of Jesus’ birth (Christmas), there is really only one story of Jesus as a child that we know of. That story shows up in Luke 2:39-52. Nazareth was Jesus’ boyhood home. But, as it was for all Jews, Jesus’ parents made an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to gather with fellow Jews for the festival of Passover. Jesus, in this story, was about 12 years old. They went to Passover and then headed home. On the way home, Joseph & Mary discovered Jesus wasn’t with their caravan, so they had to go back to Jerusalem to look for Jesus; three days later they found him in the Temple, talking with the religious teachers there. Can you imagine their panic? Do you remember this memorable story … when the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph had actually misplaced the Son of God? (God has a great sense of humor, doesn’t he?)
The reason I mention this story is because of where Joseph & Mary would’ve stayed while in Jerusalem for the Passover. There weren’t hotels like there are today. There weren’t B&Bs in Jerusalem like you find today. More than likely, they would’ve stayed with relatives! And who were their closest relatives? Zechariah and Elizabeth (John the Baptist’s parents) over in Ein Karem—what we might call a suburb of Jerusalem today. So, Jesus would’ve grown up going to see his cousin, John. Their mothers were very close—their sons being born 6 months apart. And from what we see when Jesus is about 30 years old, these two stayed close throughout the years…
It’s probable these two boys spent at least a week together every year at Passover time…
They no doubt played together, laughed together, and dreamed together…
Later on, Luke tells us that John went to the wilderness—probably joining a religious group called ‘the Essenes’—but he and Jesus would’ve stayed close during these years too (more on that shortly)…
Folks, many believe Jesus’ future ministry was greatly shaped by John—the messenger of God who came before Jesus to prepare the way for his ministry. And there were at least two things regarding John that played very important roles in Jesus’ life during these format
ive years: Baptism … and the message of John! Let’s take a look: First…
BAPTISM. Verse 4 tells us: “This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had turned to God to receive forgiveness for their sins.” Here is the one who was to come before Jesus and prepare the way for his ministry … and baptism was a big part of John preparing the way—getting people ready to follow Jesus…
John, as we’d mentioned earlier, went to live in the wilderness—probably around the age of 14. His parents would not have just sent him into the wilderness without a plan. But, they would have given him to do God’s work—to live and be educated and grow up with the help of a religious group called ‘the Essenes.’ They lived in a settlement down by the Dead Sea called Qumran. We believe this is where John probably lived during his late teens & 20s … and Jesus, more than likely, would have visited him there from time to time, picking up on their ways…
The Essenes were a religious order who were big into ‘ritual bathing’—not a form of bathing simply to knock the dirt off the body (although that would have happened too); it was rather a means of expressing a desire to be clean before God and a way of experiencing the cleansing and wholeness that can only come from God…
Folks, washing in the ritual baths—as the Essenes did—was the pre-Christian origin of what we know as baptism today. So, when John showed up at the Jordan River around 30 years old and began to baptize folks, this was an act he was very familiar with—as were many (including Jesus). It was not just a ‘get the skin clean’ kind of a thing; it meant much more than that to all that were present in that day—a very real part of John’s message…
- To John’s followers, it was an expression of their desire to repent, yet also a sign of God’s forgiveness and grace…
To many who’d previously been baptized on conversion to Judaism, they would’ve seen this as a new birth of sorts—a chance to begin anew (as Jesus spoke of being born both of water and of spirit)…
To the Apostle Paul, he later observed that in baptism, we die to the person we’d previously been; we identify with Jesus’ death; we’re buried with him; and just as we come up out of the water, we’re also raised up with him … to a new life!
This was a pivotal moment in Jesus’ ministry, the day he was baptized by his cousin John, affirmed by his Heavenly Father, and given the gift of the Holy Spirit (Dove) to empower his ministry on earth. So, Jesus’ baptism by John played an important role in the steps he took into ministry! And that other item of importance was then…
JOHN’S MESSAGE. Verse 4, again, tells us: “This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in 
the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had turned to God to receive forgiveness for their sins.” So, he ‘preached that people should be baptized to show that they had turned to God to receive forgiveness for their sins.’ That was his basic message … and it was URGENT! Why? Because John loved them so much that he did not want anyone to miss out on the Messiah—the only One who could repair the relationship between God and humanity! Repent (metanoia)! It literally means to think differently or to change one’s mind. And this is a great message for us today, too, as we begin this season of Lent together. In Luke 3, we find that John baptized anyone willing to turn from their former life to a life of righteousness: he baptized common people, and tax collectors, and soldiers … calling them all to let go of their greed and turn to God! Is that not a message we need to hear today, too?
Folks, John’s words are timeless. Our world, including the Church, continues to ‘miss the mark’ (sin). We still need John’s call to repent! This story is often told during the season of Lent, when Christians smudge their foreheads with ashes as a sign of both their repentance and mortality. In doing so, we symbolically join all who came to hear John preach and who repented when they heard him. Lent is a chance to acknowledge that we too have strayed from the path and want to return to ‘The Way’ of Christ once more… That’s what John pointed toward. It’s what is meant by the title of our Lenten series. And that’s the direction we’ll be going as we follow Jesus’ ministry, walk in his footsteps, and look into the face of God together…