Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Mark 1-2

It is hard for me to read the beginning of synoptic gospels without thinking back 20 years to the time when Springfield Christian Church presented the Broadway play Godspell. Our friend Tom Heimbach opened the play in the darkness with a rendition of "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord" that still resounds in my mind. Have you ever experienced God in a way that, try as you might, you can never repeat?  Somehow I think, that most of Jesus' active ministry on earth was like this for the people who were touched by it. In just the first two chapters of Mark we meet people who were

• Called to follow him
• Cleansed of demon possession
• Amazed by his teaching
• Healed on many diseases
• Forgiven of their sins... and so much more.

I have to think that many of them, years later, longed for an encore presentation from God. Perhaps after hearing that Jesus was crucified on a cross, they felt a deep sense of loss because they had never met a man like Jesus before, and now felt that they could never experience what he had done again. I wonder if any followed up on the crucification, to learn of the resurrection. Were there Galileans, who had witnessed his miracles at home and gone seeking him only to discover that he had died? Could they have possibly dreamed that he would rise again? Would they dare to believe that could happen too? Or did they start to doubt their own miracle? I wonder if any of them found the truth. How glorious that must have been!

I think they must have felt like those two who met him on the road to Emmaus... they said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” It changed their life. Prepare ye the way of the Lord... it will change your life.