Do you have certain rituals of preparation you follow as you get ready for Christmas? It is not a hard and fast rule for us, but we start ramping up for the season after Thanksgiving. I think most people think this way. We want to pay deference to the current holiday by giving thanks for all we have and enjoying a feast around the table with family and friends.
Shortly after that fourth Thursday in November, however, Christmas colors and decorations and lights and trees and baking and everything else start to appear in and around our house. We go tree hunting for that perfect shape and sized tree that will fill our living room adorned with lights and decorations.
We switch out the fall décor for the winter/Christmas dish towels, candles, napkins, and whatnot. The nativity scene goes up. The icicle lights and tree lights wound half way up our two trees are strung. And more and more Christmas music fills the silence of our home.
It is here that I think it is important to note that the decorations and the lights and the music and the baked goods are not what is important, but it is what all these things begin to point us to that is important. Each and every year we are ought to actively prepare because we want to be active participants in what is truly important.
This is what John the Baptist was all about. In Matthew 3 John is calling us to prepare. Can you hear the words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near?” Again, it was not about the preparations being the most part, but it was about WHY we were preparing in the first place. John the Baptist wanted us to be ready for when the Lord came. That we would be prepared to believe him. That we would be prepared to receive him.
If you invite guests to your home, you will probably get ready for them. You clean up the house, clear away all the clutter, and scrub the bathrooms. You put out the fancy little finger towels that no one ever uses.
You mow the grass and pull the weeds. This time of year, you clear away the snow and ice from the walks. You cook special foods that are not the ordinary fare from your kitchen. You have honored guests coming to your home and you need to get ready.
That is what this season calls for us to do as people. We are called to clean up! Organize! Arrange! Prepare! To be ready for Jesus. Because this time of year is not just about the fact that Jesus came in the form of an infant baby born to the virgin Mary. It is about the fact that Jesus will come again. And we are called to be prepared!
And John gets really specific in our preparation by saying, “Repent!” Repent, that word that means turn away from. That word means to run away from. That word that means what you are doing wrong, you need to do the opposite of that.
If repentance were merely regret or a passing sorrow over personal failings of the self and others, it would be easy to bring about. But, of course, John isn't interested in such a little bit, and neither is Jesus. The message of the kingdom is about living under the reign of the king.
Repentance about demonstrating the life of God now in a world bound for death and hell. That’s why repentance is so important. We turn from a life that pleases self and turn toward eternal life—the life of the ages, the life demonstrated by Jesus and given to us by the Holy Spirit.
What is repentance for you? Based on where you are today spiritually, what does it look like? Is it turning from some sin? Is it turning toward God for the first time? There’s a word we don’t use a lot anymore, but it’s a perfect word to describe repentance. It’s conversion. It’s what God wants to do in your life. He wants you to turn from your sin and to turn toward him. He wants to change you from the inside out.
The kingdom of heaven is near. Are you prepared? Jesus came once to offer salvation. When he comes again, it will be in judgment. He will separate his disciples from those who are not. He will “gather the wheat into the barn and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Are you prepared for the kingdom?
