Monday 29th December
Read Matthew 3:1-3
“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
‘A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.”’” (NIVUK)
Matthew has moved from Jesus’ early life to the beginning of His ministry, and like Mark begins with John the Baptist. John, as we will see, is quite literally the last of the great prophets. He speaks and acts in the same way as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Malachi and draws on imagery from all of them as he proclaims his message. To understand John is to grasp the purpose of the prophets.
Their purpose was to warn the people and turn their hearts back to God before it was too late. They exhorted the people to undertake a U-turn in their thinking, to step off the path they are walking down, and to fix their hearts on something else. It is nothing less than a call to switch allegiance.
As we approach the New Year, with those all-too-frequently abandoned, resolutions to change habits – perhaps we should be heeding John’s call? Perhaps these times call for just such a switch in thinking – a shift in priorities. The truth he proclaimed has not changed. The kingdom of heaven has come near.
