prepare the way

Like Ore in the Fire

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By Linda Rex

December 8, 2024, 2nd Sunday in Advent | Peace—On our second Sunday in the season of Advent, the Gospel passage points us to the ministry of John the Baptist, who was sent by God to prepare the way for our Lord’s entry into our human sphere in the incarnation. Let’s continue to look at the Old Testament readings for this season, which brings us to the book of Malachi. Malachi, in the Hebrew, means messenger—a word used not only for angelic messengers, but also for a human messenger, in the sense of a diplomat, ambassador, or emissary.

In the first chapter of Malachi, the prophet describes a messenger sent from God. But in our passage for this Sunday, Malachi 3:1–4, we see that two parties are involved—one to prepare the way before the Lord, and the other, the messenger of the covenant, who is the Lord. Though the Jews of Jesus’ day wrestled over the meaning of this passage and felt it was unclear, in retrospect, because of Jesus’ instruction, we see that Malachi predicted the coming of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Messiah.

Many of the Jews of Jesus’ day were expecting a messiah who would deliver their people from oppression and punish their oppressors. For many of those who sat in the halls of the Sanhedrin, the governing body, the fact that they were God’s covenant people meant that God was going to cleanse the world of all that was evil and give them their rightful place as the leader of the nations.

But the book of Malachi, written hundreds of years before Jesus came, was quite clear about where the issue lay—within the spiritual leadership of the nation, the worship of the temple, and the lives of the people. What Malachi predicted was a messenger of ancient Israel’s covenant with God who would “sit as a smelter and purifier of silver” and “refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.” He was indicating that this messenger, their Messiah, would bring the covenant people into judgment, so that they might be purified and refined, cleansed of all those things which were hindering their right relationship with God. This was an intervention which would look quite a bit different than what these leaders expected and planned for.

What does it mean to “sit as a smelter”? Today, when we consider smelting, it probably is not something you would encounter as you walked down the streets where you live. According to Wikipedia, when smelting, intense heat and a chemical reducing agent are applied to an ore in order to extract a particular base metal product. Today, this is done in large factories where blast furnaces are used to produce base metals, such as pig iron from which steel is made.

To refine silver and gold, great heat is applied, and as the impurities rise to the top, they are scraped off and removed. It is said that when the person refining the metal sees a clear reflection of themselves in the liquid metal, then it is pure. This provides a great metaphor for what Malachi was saying the coming messenger of the covenant would do for his people. It was greatly needed, for within their hearts and lives existed the twisted elements of evil, sin, and death, and this was preventing them from living in right relationship with God and one another. The only way they could be righteous was for God to make them right with himself. So, through Malachi, God promised to send a messenger of the covenant, who would apply the intense heat and chemical reducing agent, so to speak, which would remove these impurities and bring God’s people back into right relationship with God.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, written many centuries after Malachi, writes about what Jesus Christ accomplished as the Anointed One send by God to his people and to the world. In Philippians 1:9–11, Paul expresses his concern for the brethren there, praying “that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Notice the source of the believers’ righteousness, or right relationship with God—it comes through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Jesus took on the judgment of all of us, bringing our humanity to intense heat through his purifying life here on earth, which led to the crucible of the crucifixion, where, in dying, he scraped off the impurities of evil, sin, and death. And Jesus rose again from the grave, having purified us as silver and gold are purified, giving us peace with God, as he brought us home to his Father and sent us his Spirit.

Because of what Jesus has done, and is doing in and through us by his Spirit, we are able to participate in Jesus’ own right relationship with his Father in the Spirit. In other words, because of Jesus, we can be at peace with God and at peace with one another. As we live and walk in Christ by his Spirit, we live and walk in his right relationship with God and one another, participating in his righteousness. And as the apostle John says, “We know that when [Jesus] appears, we will be like him, because we will see him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2b–3 NASB). The Holy Spirit continues to work in our hearts and minds, to conform us to Christ, to transform our hearts by faith as we trust in Jesus and respond to him in faithful obedience. This refining and smelting will continue throughout our lives, as we respond to the Spirit’s work, and God will not quit until he has finished what he has begun. But one day we will see him face to face and live with him forever in the new heaven and earth as his beloved children. And that’s the good, good news!

Thank you, Father, for transforming our hearts by faith, for cleansing and renewing us in Jesus. Heavenly Spirit, please fill us anew with Jesus’ righteousness, that we may live at peace with God and man, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.

1“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear 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. 2But 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. 3He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. 4Then 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 NASB

3“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 6For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. 7For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. 8For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”     Philippians 1:3–11 NASB

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Preparing for a Royal Visit

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By Linda Rex

December 5, 2021, ADVENT | Peace—As a college student, we took a class trip our senior year to Palm Springs, California. This city is located in the Sonoran Desert, so it hot in the summer and very dry. Since growing anything of significance in southern California requires the use of water, which was often in limited supply, it was common to see rock gardens blended with cacti, succulents and palm trees in the front yards of homes and businesses.

There are a variety of stones used to create rock gardens. Today, one can purchase large bags of pea gravel or attractive polished rocks at a do-it-yourself home supply store or even have a truckload of these products delivered to one’s front door. Here in Tennessee, we have contractors blasting rock, digging it out and removing it in order to build a home and create an attractive front yard. There they were filling their yards with rocks!

But this whole discussion about rocks came about because I was thinking about what Luke said John the Baptizer was doing when he came into Judea before the coming of Christ. He said that he was preparing the way before the Messiah. Back in those days, when a ruler was planning to visit a particular place, an announcement was sent ahead, telling the people to prepare the road. They would go out and clear all the rocks off the road so that the visiting dignitary wouldn’t be jostled about, nor end up with a broken axle or wheel on his conveyance.

Having lived some time on a farm in southeast Iowa, I know what it is like to try to travel on a gravel road or, even worse, a dirt road. And this is while driving a car. All it takes is one large rock in the wrong place and you are in serious trouble. Or if the road isn’t level—many times they had a large mound in the middle or a deep, muddy hole a tire could get stuck in—you would end up stuck or broken down, and not being able to get safely where you needed to go.

Since most of us today here in America travel on asphalt, and apart from the occasional pothole, do not face these types of issues, we may find it difficult to understand fully the importance of John’s message. For many of us, the hard work of removing the rocks and leveling the road has already been done. We take for granted that we can safely travel from one city to another at a high rate of speed on interstate highways which extend for miles in every direction. We also assume that we can, apart from road construction or accidents, easily travel back and forth from work, school, or the store.

What we need to realize is that what Jesus did for us was to create this amazing paved road to life in the kingdom of God in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension—and then he gave us the ability to travel it by sending his Spirit from the Father to dwell in human hearts as we place our trust in him and his finished work. We celebrate an important step in this amazing work of redemption during Advent as we prepare, in a sense, for the coming of the Messiah in the incarnation. John’s message is important because it reminds us that, apart from the coming of Christ, our road is unlevel and full of rocks and obstructions.

John’s call to prepare the way involves the call to repentance and baptism for the remission of sins. By necessity, we need to discern the difference between just feeling bad because we messed up or sorry because we got caught and are experiencing consequences, and truly being repentant. Biblical repentance involves a change in both one’s mind and heart. It involves a turning away from one’s self and one’s own will, and a turning toward Christ and his will. To repent in this way means a total change in one’s direction and way of living. It’s the beginning of a lifelong journey on the kingdom path of God’s righteousness being worked out in us by the Spirit, as we grow up into Christlikeness.

But this awareness of need and turning away from sin, Satan, and self is a lifelong process. We never want to take this level road Christ has given us for granted. It is good to ponder the message of John and ask ourselves again: What rocks of sin, Satan, and self are lying about in my soul today? What do I keep tripping over or crashing into, forcing my life to come to a complete stop? How deep a rut am I caught in right now that is tearing up my heart and destroying my relationships and my health? Perhaps it would be good to reflect a moment on the message of John—prepare the way of the Lord.

We, as the body of Christ, have often taken this message—prepare the way of the Lord—to mean that we need to preach the gospel in order to hasten the second coming of Christ. It is a good thought, and I would not want to resist what positive affect it may have on our spiritual renewal and preparation for Christ’s return. But I humbly submit that perhaps there is another preparation for the way of the Lord we need to consider—the preparing of our hearts and minds anew to receive the gift of the Christ child—of Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Are we open to the coming and presence of God by the Holy Spirit within our souls right now, in each and every moment? Is there someway in which perhaps we need to take seriously the call to repentance that we have previously ignored? What have we put in the place that only Jesus Christ should have in our minds and hearts? Are we living in the realization that all of our life is in Christ, and that every moment is meant to be filled with his presence and power by the Spirit?

It is hard to move forward in life when we are constantly dealing with the rocks of sin, self, and Satan. Jesus’ criticism of the religious leaders of his day was not about their devotion to God and his ways, but for their arrogance in believing they did not need to repent of their sins and be baptized in his baptism in the Spirit. Could it be that our struggle even as followers of Christ today is that we are so sure we are traveling the right path and are rightly related to God that we are missing the simple reminder, prepare the way of the Lord?

Jesus has come, he has offered us the free pardon of grace. He has paved the way. But do we recognize the reality that we are traveling on an unlevel road filled with rocks and holes and ruts? Repent—turn around—go the other way, he calls to us. Trade in your path for my easy path. Make a way—clear a path—these are all the Spirit’s work in our hearts and lives. But God calls us to participate by doing our part—repent and believe. Be washed in baptism, if you haven’t taken that step. Then feed on Christ—on his life, poured into you through his Word and by his Spirit, and in joining together with other believers as we share communion. This is the easy path forged for us in Christ. We receive it daily by faith, in gratitude for all God has done, as we travel daily down this road called life.

Dear heavenly Father, thank you for creating in Christ and by the Spirit a path to travel in life that is free from the rocks and obstructions of Satan, sin, and self. As we travel day by day, grant us the grace and humility to remain repentant and to ever make way for your royal coming and presence through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.

“And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God.” ’ ”      Luke 3:3–6 (1–6) NASB

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on ‘before the Lord to prepare his ways’; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, ‘to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death’, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”     Luke 1:76–79 (68–79) NASB

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