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Sound & Season is a daily audio devotional designed to connect the routine moments of life to the rhythms of the Church seasons.
This is sound and season. It's Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Our passage today comes from the gospel of Mark chapter 1 verses 1 through 11. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and all the country of Judea, and all Jerusalem were going out to him, and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Jeffrey Heine:Now John was clothed in camel's hair, and wore a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey, and he preached, saying, after me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open, and the spirit descending on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. This is the word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Thanks be to God. Mark does not begin his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus, the nativity, or the youth of Christ. Instead, he offers a bridge from the old testament into the new with the words of Isaiah the prophet and the ministry of John the Baptist. Mark says, John is the messenger preparing the way for the Lord to come. So, how does John make way for Jesus?
Jeffrey Heine:He calls people to return to God, to confess sin, to be washed in the waters of baptism. That is how the people will be prepared to receive the Christ when he comes. Jesus, who knew no sin, who did not need the waters of baptism to cleanse him, waded out into the waters in obedience to his Father, and in those waters of the Jordan a triune God gathers in perfect harmony, the Father, bearing witness to the Son, the Son receiving the affirmation of the Father, in the Spirit giving confirmation of the sweet and holy communion of the Trinity. The Father speaks his blessing, You are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased.
Jeffrey Heine:Augustine renders these words as, by you, I am doing what is my pleasure. So, what is the father pleased to do through the son? Isaiah says it is the will of the Father to crush him. The Father will put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt, our guilt, and out of the anguish of his soul the Son shall see and be satisfied, and by his knowledge shall the Son, the Righteous One, make many to be accounted righteous for the Son shall bear their iniquities. This Lent, may the Spirit prepare the way in your heart for the presence of Christ Jesus, the King of Glory.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh Lord, hear our prayer, and let our cry come to you. Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who in the blood of Christ established the new covenant of reconciliation, This Lent, grant us the faith to trust in Jesus above all else and strengthen our hope in our resurrected King. Fill us with your blessed Holy Spirit. May our hearts and minds be open to hear the truth of your gospel of grace.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.