The Beginning Of The Good News

By: Paul DeVries

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:8-12, Mark 1:1-8

December 30th, 2007

The three and four year—old children are quickly and quietly calmed by the teacher in the church classroom. She has the children gather around what she calls the “Desert Box.“ The teacher silently runs her hands around, over and through the sand. As she does this she softly says, “This is the desert box. So many important stories from the Bible take place in the desert, that we need our own little piece of the desert in our room. The desert is a strange and wild place. During the day it is burning hot. At night it is freezing cold. The wind blows and sand is always shifting and changing. Once a man named John the Baptist lived in the desert.“ With these words the teacher starts her story of good news in the desert.

How can this be? If you ask someone to describe the desert you might hear words like dry, lonely, and barren. The desert is an odd place to begin the message of good news, (don’t you think?)——especially today, just after Christmas and with the hope of a new year just around the corner! This is a time for dessert, parties, and joyful expressions of Happy New Year—not the desert. These days after Christmas are days when songs like the Halleluiah Chorus and Joy to the World, still ring in our ears! It is almost New Year’s Day! Are you ready for your New Year’s Eve celebration? Have you made it to all the right holiday parties and festivals? Are you ready to rejoice in the bright lights, the rich food, and the wonderful celebration of the New Year?

Well, not so fast. We need to go back to the desert first. Why?——Because the children’s teacher is right. So many Bible stories take place in the desert. God speaks to Moses from the burning bush in the desert. Manna falls from the sky and water springs from the rocks in the desert. David hides from King Saul and gains his fame as a powerful leader in the desert. The great prophets Elijah, Elisha, and others do much of their work in the desert. In the New Testament, the evangelist, Philip, speaks the truth of Scripture and baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch on a road in the desert. Jesus spends time in the desert. And, as we will hear today, even the good news of the Gospel——of the birth and ministry of Jesus——begins in the desert.

Once again, I admit that the desert seems to be an odd place to begin the gospel story. But don’t blame me; this is where both Luke and Mark, two original tellers of the Gospel story—the story of good news—begin.

Luke’s Christmas story is well known. It is Luke who tells us of the trip to Bethlehem, of no room in the inn, of the stable, the manger and swaddling clothes. Most likely, you have already heard or read Luke’s Christmas story more than once this past Christmas season. But do you remember the part of the story right after the birth of Jesus? Immediately after Jesus is born, Luke pulls us away from the baby Jesus out to the “fields nearby,“ to a bunch of dirty, dusty Shepherds. Now, I know that the Shepherds weren’t literally in the desert, but figuratively they were. In that day and age Shepherds were considered the dregs of society. Sources tell us that they weren’t even allowed to legally testify in a court of law because they were considered unreliable and false witnesses. Due to the time they spent away from the towns and villages, out in the fields with the sheep, they were often dirty and smelly. In short, they were at the bottom of the social and economic food chain. They were in the desert.

Yet, it is out there—in the fields, to the lowly, outcast shepherds, in the desert—that the angel speaks “good news of great joy.“ It is in the desert place, the desert box, that we first hear the good news of the Gospel. How odd, that the good news begins in the desert.

The Gospel of Mark also starts in the desert. No sooner has Mark declared in the very first verse of his Gospel that this is “The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ,“ than he brings us out to the “voice of one calling in the desert.“ The desert? Why does the voice have to cry out in the desert? We want to rush to the message of good news; but instead, Mark slows us down bringing us to a strangely dressed prophet, with a hard message of repentance in the desert. Mark brings us to the wilderness. With both the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Mark, then, we find ourselves brought to the desert for the beginning of the good news.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised to find ourselves in the desert at the start of the Gospel. After all, so much of life is lived in the wilderness. Even in the holiday season of Christmas and New Years, much of our existence is consumed by that which is dry, barren, and empty. There are some of you listening today who for the first time have to face the New Year without your spouse who died days, weeks or months ago. Others of you don’t have the sort of job that you would like. Perhaps some don’t have any work at all. Maybe, your children don’t care to come home this Christmas, or they will come home, but there will be no joy due to hard feeling and strained relationships. Every year I have several members of my church who come to me during the holiday season grieving, hurt or angry because the holidays have no good news for them. The truth is that many of us get caught in the desert.

Perhaps that is where the shepherds were at as they kept watch over their flocks by night outside of Bethlehem so long ago. Perhaps they were feeling the desert dryness of their lowly profession. Maybe they hoped that one day some new year would dawn and bring them new status and wholeness. Oh, it’s possible that the shepherds were okay with their station in life, but still, they were out in the fields—away from parties, celebrations, bright lights and warm homes. We can be sure that none of them expected to see angels out there.

Imagine the shepherds surprise as the angel came and spoke the “good news of great joy.“ Their mouths hung open in fear and then in awe as they began to grasp the truth that the good news was coming to them. Good news was coming out to the fields—out to the desert places. The good news was not first proclaimed in Jerusalem. It was not first proclaimed to the rich, famous and well—groomed. It came first to the fields, to the shepherds, to the desert places.

So too, Mark, in his Gospel, brings the good news about Jesus Christ straight away to the desert. He takes us out to the wilderness where John the Baptist is “preaching a baptism of repentance.“ Now, yes, baptism is good news, but notice that it is a baptism of repentance that John preaches. It is a baptism that is conditioned on us turning around our lives—a baptism that calls on the people to prepare the way of the Lord. The Lord is coming. The kingdom of God is at hand and we need to be ready. The hard desert truth of John the Baptist’s message is that we need to do what we are not very good at; namely, repentance—turning our lives around to receive our Lord. Oh, we know how to turn around and confess our sins, but it is hard for us to walk in the new way of life. We repent and then we sin again. We repent and then we sin again. We repent and then we sin again, and again and again. We fail. We fail to measure up to God’s standards and we wonder why the Gospel of Mark has brought the good news to the dry, barren desert ground of our fickle souls.

Frankly, the other Gospels reveal even harder words from John the Baptist. For example, in Matthew, John the Baptists spits out these words at some of his listeners, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?“ He goes on to warn, “The ax is already at the root of the tree, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.“ This sounds harsh; it sounds like bad news; it sounds like the desert.

But the most distressing part of Mark’s “good news“ is what John the Baptist says about himself. He says, “After me is coming one more powerful than I.“ At first, I admit, that sounds like good news. Who wouldn’t want the one greater than John—the great Messiah and Savior of the world who—to come? But listen to John’s full sentence “After me is coming one more powerful than I,“ he says, “the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.“ When I hear those words I am worried. John is essentially saying that even he, a great prophet, is not worthy of the Messiah’s presence. I wonder, if John the Baptist, a man who ate locust and dressed in camel’s hair—if John the Baptist a man who lived in the desert—if John the Baptist, a prophet and forerunner of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—is not worthy, than what possible hope can there be for me and you? To put it succinctly, if this great man can’t measure up, than who can?

What we find then is that we are stuck in the desert. Like the shepherds we receive the angel’s message of good news of great joy, but surely we are not good enough to see the Christ child. Like the people of John the Baptist’s day, we want to prepare the way of the Lord, but we aren’t worthy. We are stuck in the desert.

Moreover, even if somehow we think that we are spiritually worthy, life circumstances often keep us stuck in the desert. When cancer besets our bodies, we are stuck in the desert. When we sin and destroy our marriage by adultery, we are stuck in the desert. When we are overwhelmed by our loneliness, we are stuck in the desert. So many things bring us into the desert and often we get stuck there. The word of the Gospel, the word of John the Baptist is “Prepare ye the way of the Lord…make straight paths…repent.“ But, heaven help us, so often we’re not up to it.

How are we supposed to prepare the way for the Messiah when we are stuck in the desert? How are we to repent when we are a stiff—necked people, more prone to play in the sand and wander in the desert than to prepare the way of the Lord? In short, how can we find the true good news this New Year?

Let me simply suggest that we take a moment to go back to the Word, God’s Word as it is recorded in Luke and Mark. First, let’s look at the words spoken to the shepherds by the angel. The angel does not just say, “I bring good news of great joy,“ but rather, “I bring YOU good news of great joy.“ It is specifically good news for the shepherds, for those in the fields, for those in the desert. It is not just good news for a few people, but “for all the people,“ the angel says. The Savior has not just been born to Mary and Joseph. Instead, the Angel says, that the Savior has been born “to YOU.“ Moreover, the angel gives the shepherds a sign which is just for them. He says, “This will be a sign “to YOU.“ Additionally, it is the Shepherds who will find the Savior. “YOU will find him,“ the angel says. YOU, YOU, YOU. The Savior is for YOU! How great it must have been for the shepherds to hear a message for them, for those in the fields, for those in the desert. Moreover, how great it is for YOU to hear these words today!

But sometimes these words are hard to hear. A man that I’ll call Michael could not hear the words of good news. He was a man that I knew well. He would come into my office and look at me with utter despair and sadness in his eyes. He had sinned and he knew it. His sin had left its mark on him and he couldn’t get rid of it. Somehow he had received the message both from his family and his church that his sin was an especially heinous sin. He felt both unclean and unworthy of God’s love. He was in the desert.

I met with him many times. I told Michael that the good news of forgiveness and peace was his in the name of Jesus. My words did little to comfort him. Michael said that he knew “in his head“ (as he put it) that God loved and forgave him. But he still felt like he was in the desert, a place where no good news could penetrate. Then one day—a day that was just like all the other days, a day of desert despair——Michael suddenly heard the word “YOU.“ That little three letter word changed everything for Michael.

It happened during prayer. I was praying (as I had countless times before) for Michael to be blessed with the knowledge and the feeling of forgiveness from his Savior. While I continued to pray I briefly opened my eyes and saw Michael shaking his head “no.“ He was not feeling it. I am not sure what came over me, but at that point I simply stopped praying and said directly to Michael, “The good news of forgiveness is for YOU, Michael, in the name of Jesus, it is for YOU!“ Suddenly it was as if a twenty pound weight had fallen off his shoulders. He heard the “You.“ He heard the good news as if for the first time.

What about you? Have you heard the good news? Maybe like Michael you have heard it all your life, but never owned it as your own. If so, hear the words of the angel today and be transformed. Michael left my study that day rejoicing in the Lord, just as the shepherds left Bethlehem rejoicing. Praise God! The good news is for YOU.

It is true that in many respects nothing physically changed for the shepherds. The shepherds remained out in the fields at the lowest rung of the socio—economic ladder, and the fact that Michael had sinned didn’t disappear. But with the good news there is a new beginning. For the shepherds that beginning meant going to Bethlehem and then returning to the fields transformed, praising God for his salvation. For Michael and all of us in sin today, it means repenting of our sin and then being transformed by the good news of great joy that the Savior has come and has forgiven. Using the Gospel of Mark’s language we can say that the shepherds, and Michael, and all of us today who hear and believe this message have experienced the “beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ.“

So where does all this scriptural truth leave us? Yes, we must admit that the desert is a strange place to begin a New Year. Still, God’s people have always spent and lot of time in the desert. More importantly, God has always brought his people back out of the desert with good news. I challenge you to make this New Year a year when you hear and live out the good news that has come to YOU—even if you are in the desert! For a Savior has been born to YOU.

Let’s pray together.

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank you that when we languish in our own personal deserts, when we find ourselves far from you, when we find ourselves broken, when we find ourselves with no joy, you come to us through our Savior Jesus Christ. Help us to hear the good news this New Year. Help us to hear the good news that a Savior has been born for us. We pray this, in Jesus name, Amen.

About the Author

Paul DeVries

Rev. Paul DeVries, most commonly referred to as “Pastor Paul”, is the Sr. Pastor of Brookside Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is married to Diane (nee Vanden Akker) and the father of four children. He graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary in 1989 and served for 12 years as the pastor of Unity Christian Reformed Church in Prospect Park, New Jersey. As a pastor his first love and greatest joy comes in the honor of bringing God’‘s Word to his congregation on a weekly basis through his preaching. He enjoys reading, camping with his family, watching his children’‘s sporting events, and working on home improvement projects - inside and outside his home.

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