We’ve walked through Christ as Hope, Peace and Joy, through the lens of the prophecies foretelling His birth. Today, we look to “the greatest of these,” – the Messiah as Love, the presence of the God who is Himself love, incarnate.
In Matthew 3, we meet John the Baptist in the context of the prophecy in Isaiah of a “voice crying in the wilderness” – a mirror of the story of God bringing the Israelites out of the wilderness and into the promised land. John’s story from the beginning was the same as it is for us – repentance and forgiveness of sins.
There are three key prophecies about this messenger that we will cover in the Old Testament. Isaiah 40 is cited specifically by Matthew.
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
Isaiah 40:3-5
This return of the presence of God is necessary because the presence of God departed, moving on from the connect point that was the temple as described by Ezekiel in the era of exile. Even though the temple is eventually rebuilt, God’s presence never returns as described in the historical books.
So in Malachi we see another prophecy about a messenger and the return of God to the temple:
Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.
Malachi 3:1-4
We see this in Matthew as well, this difficult teaching and the warning of refining fire from John the Baptist to the Pharisees and Saducees:
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 3:10-12
But Malachi has more to say about the messenger who will come before the Messiah:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
Malachi 4:5-6
Elijah was a key figure in Jewish history, and was taken up into heaven by a chariot of fire, leading naturally into this notion that he would return. A seat is still set for Elijah at every Passover meal. He and Moses both saw the face of God, and Elijah was seen as the one who restores the Law, as counterpart to Moses who gave the Law. And of course Moses and Elijah are the two who again see God in the person of Jesus Christ during the Transfiguration.
Jesus clearly points to John the Baptist as this return of Elijah – like Elijah, living in the wilderness, like Elijah wracked at times with doubt, like Elijah preaching repentance to those who do not want to hear it.
Immediately after the Transfiguration, Jesus said, “I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”
God fulfilled these prophecies in ways no one could have expected. Elijah returns as a crazy guy in the desert. The glory returns affixed to one man, voices speaking at Baptism and Transfiguration. And the Lord returns to the temple – first as an infant, dedicated by his earthly parents. Then as a child, speaking with the teachers. Finally, as a “king, riding on a donkey,” before the once for all sacrifice that would reconnect all of lost humanity with the presence of the God who is Love.
What is our response to this? Do we sit around in complacency, or do we center our lives around the presence of God in the person of Christ as John the Baptist did? Do we respond to the message of repentance that John held out? Do we serve as messengers as John did? Do we hold out the difficult truths like he did? Do we prepare the way for Christ like he did?
– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, December 20, 2020