'The beginning of the Good News......' But is there an end? Maybe it's no accident we don't have MK's ending. After all, Gospel doesn't have one, does it?

Wilderness is a popular ideal for many today. Hop into our four-wheel drive (if we can afford the petrol, now!) & get away from it all. Get away from what? Get away to what? Whether escaping to bush or beach works or not, it's popular. Whereas making the Lord's paths straight isn't popular. Not a popular message except to the seriously seeking & the already converted.

In starting as he does by quoting Isaiah, MK straightway draws our attention to how much Jesus builds on the message - there IS just one message - of spiritual giants gone before. Experience tells me we can't assume our hearers know & understand the connectedness & continuity of Scripture & life. There's a chasm of ignorance there. How to build a bridge to connect Hebrew Bible context with our Christian context, but without bringing down that bridge with 'baggage'?

A change of heart, making our own path straight as a result, is pre-requisite for making God's path straight. Goes with the job. Now as then there are enough people who see through 'crookedness' of various kinds on the part of their spiritual leaders to be cynical about, give the thumbs down to pulpit demands to 'straighten out'. It's not a matter of being 'squeaky clean'. Who is? On the other hand, it's all very well to claim forgiven-ness, but what people want to see is evidence of that forgiven-ness. Of a heart change! Even then it will be hard to bridge the credibility gap. There's nothing it for God or us if we go on trading on our own real or perceived virtues. Instead, we're called, baptised, Spirit-filled so we can point beyond ourselves & our strengths or frailties to Jesus. As Jesus always points beyond himself to the Father. As much as anything else, that's why I find Jesus compelling. I who am even less fit than JB to untie Jesus' sandal straps! How I need to remember that!

Many think we've mucked up the baptism bit that comes as part of the Big Dipper's package (which Jesus also develops in v.15, though without tying it to baptism). If we re-connected baptism with a change of heart......what mightn't happen? But could we extricate ourselves from the demands of parents (& grandparents!) for Tim & Tam's 'christening'? Water alone can't make up for what leaving Holy Spirit out does to the equation. Can it?

I think it's John Dominic Crossan who's points out somewhere that there's a political edge to people being called out across Jordan to JB, & then, after baptism, having to re-enter the Promised Land & reconquer it for God. This time with changed hearts, rather than swords. Demonstrating that by living out the 'making God's paths straight' bit. Living out the politics of God is what it's all about. What we're meant to be all about.