Preparing

If last week was about apocalyptic inversion to come, this week is about the efforts of God’s servants to prepare the world for its coming.

Isaiah proclaims he has come to preach a restoration to come; the passage is taken up by Jesus to define his mission. The psalmist sings in expectation of that restoration.

Mary sings her magnificat praise to her God who with strong arm will invert the present order, while in her whom the Son of God is preparing to bring it about.

John baptizes taking water to cleanse and foretell a baptism of another kind. He is not The Prophet that is waited on, but he clearly stands in the prophet’s office. The Pharisees see it and begin to tremble at the coming inversion, despising the words of the prophet.

Paul exhorts us to the life that, like Mary, Isaiah, and John prepares the way for the coming of the Lord in our lives.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.