Delivered by Amy Higgins on December 10, 2023

Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11

If you’ve ever seen the episode of The Andy Griffith Show where Andy and Barney set up Gomer with Thelma Lou’s cousin, Mary Grace, you may remember the scene where they try to tell Gomer not to get ahead of himself and expect Mary Grace to be “Ms. Right”. And Barney being Barney says, “During our lifetime we travel many roads. There are big roads and little roads, rocky roads and smooth roads. Dirt highways and improved roads…” And while Barney’s analogy does not quite fit the point they need to make, he is not wrong.

Isaiah Chapter 40 begins what is considered Second Isaiah. The book of Isaiah was written by three distinct prophets whose prophesies span centuries. First Isaiah ends with Chapter 39 with the people of Israel carried away to Babylon. Second Isaiah picks up one hundred and sixty years later with Chapter 40. There is a nearly 200 year long gap in the book of Isaiah but, in this gap Israel sings the laments of the Psalms. They sing the psalms but there is a gap in the prophetic callings of Isaiah. The Israelites do not just suffer exile, they suffer God’s silence.

But then, with Chapter 40, the silence is broken. “Comfort, comfort my people.” Wait, what? Comfort? Where’s the judgment? No judgment. Tell Jerusalem “her hard service has been completed…her sin has been paid for.” (40:2) After the Psalms, Second Isaiah is the most quoted in the New Testament and is sometimes called the “Fifth Gospel”. Mark even begins his gospel quoting this very passage. “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: 

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way”-

“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make 

straight paths for him.’” (Mk 1:1-3)

Isaiah specifically says, “make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (40:3) In the desert. The wilderness.

“Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.” (Is 40:4) God is leveling all things, knocking out the obstacles to make straight roads to get directly to us. But our roads are not straight. God’s road to us may be straight but, our road to Him is winding and meandering with hills and valleys. But Isaiah says God is getting rid of all that. Maybe the obstacles God is removing are not what we think. We need the obstacles of life which help us grow. The lessons that bring us closer to God, which then become blessings. Maybe the obstacle God is removing is, as one pastor put it, “our pretense we are self-sufficient”. As one anonymous quote says, “God never said the road would be easy, but He promised He would never leave.”

And that is the comfort the Lord provides. It is not comfort as we think of it. It is not the comfort we settle into like a warm blanket and steaming cup of coffee. It is the comfort of God’s strength and care. It is the comfort of true peace. A just peace that lifts up the oppressed, includes the ignored, and strengthens those who have been made weak. “True peace is not the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”, said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Or, as Ronald Reagan said, “Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” The comfort of true peace transforms and equips us. It transforms our personal peace to our collective peace, moving us from me to we. John the Baptizer understood this. He abandoned the temple of his father and went into the wilderness. And in his preaching he pointed to someone greater than himself. But, he knew that did not let him off the hook to fulfill his own calling. And it does not let us off the hook either. 

The Gospel of Mark does not cover the birth of Jesus. Instead, Mark goes straight to Jesus’ ministry. Some say that by using the word “beginning” in his opening phrase, “The beginning of the good news…” Mark is saying this is the beginning of the spiritual movement. As The Abingdon Commentary states, “It was necessary for redeemed lives to take up the story and complete the tale of the cross in every generation.” Every generation, including this one. The spiritual movement began, but it is far from over.

Like John, we too must leave the temple and go into the wilderness. And we must be willing to settle in, traveling the winding and meandering roads, up mountains and through valleys trusting God is with us. God’s way of working we have to let be God’s way of working. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” We have come to define repentance as admitting guilt and confessing our sins while the Greek definition that would have been used at the time, means “to change one’s mind”. They are very similar but, however you define it, God is willing to wait. He proved that in the life of His son. If the sole purpose of Jesus’ birth was to die, if it was only about the sacrifice Herod would have succeeded. Instead, Jesus grew to become the man who would show us how to step into the wilderness. As verse 15 says, “The patience of the Lord is our salvation.” 

Second Peter also says, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” Time is different for God and the way we count time does not work for him. And while we may wait for the day of the Lord to come like a thief in the night, we can be at peace that it will come. But as we look forward to that day coming, we are to concentrate on what we can do here and now. Our inner peace does not let us off the hook to wait for the coming of Christ to settle the conflicts around us. For God’s comfort, His just peace, to come to all, we must go into the wilderness no matter how rocky the road may be. God is on the road heading straight for us. Will we meet Him there?