Please pray with me: “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the
King of glory” AMEN
Our text for this morning is a portion of the Old Testament lesson, “ A voice cries: ‘In
the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our
God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven
ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
In the ancient middle East, it was common practice for a King, or other important
traveler, to send his servants ahead of him to make everything ready. The servants would be in
charge of letting the people know who was coming, so that they could be adequately prepared.
The servants also were in charge of making the road as smooth as possible for their master. This
would include removing all the rocks so that their master would not trip, filling in all the potholes and leveling out the higher spots in the road so their master could travel the road with ease
and comfort. This was an important job. The safety and comfort of their master was very
important to all the servants and was not entrusted to servants who were unreliable. It was an
important sign of your master’s trust to be assigned this task.
Our text has Isaiah making this statement but our text is pointing to another herald that
would come before our Lord on earth: John the Baptist. John was the cousin of Jesus. John’s
mother, Elizabeth, was a cousin to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Our gospel lesson this morning
about the birth of John the Baptist comes in Luke chapter 1, just before the familiar account of
the birth of Jesus which we read every year at Christmas in Luke 2. John comes to be the herald
for Jesus. Earlier in the chapter when Mary comes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the sound of
Mary’s voice greeting her cousin causes the unborn John the Baptist to leap in the womb of his
mother. He knew her voice and who she was. He knew she was carrying his Lord, Jesus Christ.
He was already starting to make “noise” of one sort or another concerning the coming of Jesus.
And, as he grows up, John continues to speak the words of preparation for the coming of Jesus.
The portion of our text I would like to focus on this morning is the last part, “And the
glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the
LORD has spoken.” What is meant by “the glory of the Lord?” In the next chapter of Luke, the
Apostle uses this term to explain the sight on the hillside outside of Bethlehem when the Angel
spoke to the Shepherds. Can you remember the words, “and, lo, the Angel of the Lord came
upon them and the glory of the Lord shown round about them and they were sore afraid.”
They were surrounded by the “glory of the Lord” on that dark, hillside and it scared them.
Imagine what that must have been like. You are sitting in the complete darkness on a hillside
watching your sheep and, all of a sudden, the sky lights up like it was noontime, and an Angel
appears to talk to you. I think that kind of thing would scare most of us. They were surrounded
by the glory of the Lord. What do you suppose that felt like? Was it just the bright light, or was
there more to it? What did it feel like to be surrounded by the glory of the Lord?
St. Paul tells about this very thing when he is describing to King Agrippa what happened
to him on the road the Damascus in Acts 26. Paul says, “At midday, O King, I saw on the way
a light from Heaven, brighter than any sun, that shone around me and those who
journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to
me in the Hebrew language.” That was the glory of the Lord. So bright, and so intense, that
everyone fell to the ground because they did not know what was happening.
These are two examples of how the “glory of the Lord” was shown to people. But our
text says, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see ‘it’ (which is the
glory of God) together.” This seems different than the two accounts we talked about. Maybe
there is another way to look at the words “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” When John
the Baptist was preaching repentance and preparation for the coming of Jesus to our earth, he
was preparing the way for the “glory of the Lord” to be revealed. The “glory of the Lord” or,
better, “the glory of God”, was being revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was the “glory of
God” come to earth: revealed for all flesh to see together and worship. Jesus was the visible
manifestation of the “glory of God”: the same glory that frightened the Shepherds on the hillside
outside Bethlehem and the same glory that drove Paul and his companions to the ground, not
knowing what would happen next. The “glory of God” contained in the body of Jesus of
Nazareth, the man.
So, why didn’t all flesh see Him together and worship Him? Good question. This is
where the breakdown happens for the Jews. The Jews are expecting Jesus to come, just as His
herald had said. They were expecting a great King to come and take over the world, just the way
His herald was preparing the people. They were expecting someone great and glorious to lead
them in battle over their enemies, the Romans, and be their King. That is what they were
expecting. What they got, was very different. They got Jesus, the Savior of the world. They got a
servant-King who washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper. They got a King who was
arrested, tried, and put to death because He was not what they were expecting. In their minds
they got nothing, they rejected Jesus. And it was this very rejection that fulfilled the prophesy of
Isaiah from our text. Our text says “all flesh shall see it (the glory of the Lord) together.”
Jesus had come to earth to be the “glory of God” for all flesh, not just the Jews. He opened His
salvation promises to all people: all flesh together. And you and I are Christians today because of
that wonderful offer made to all flesh together. We have received the “glory of God” for us in
the person of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His work of redemption on our behalf. He came to
earth, as the glory of God, for each one of us. He could have come to earth as the conquering
King that the Jews were expecting, but He didn’t. He came as the meek, humble, persecuted, Son
of God: who chose death on a cross for you and rose from the dead to give you life in His name.
This is the glory of the Lord that was being proclaimed by John the Baptist as he made the
people of the earth ready for the coming of Jesus.
The last part of the verse gives each of us the confidence to know, in our heart, that the
promises of God are true. It says, “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” This was an Old
Testament way of speaking to the people that let them know where the words actually came
from. Prophets used these words to let the people know they were not speaking their own words,
but the very words of God, given to them. If it is actually spoken by the mouth of the Lord, we
can have confidence that the words are true and that God means what He says. His glory will be
revealed and all flesh will see it together. This is the promise of God.
But there is another “glory of the Lord” to be revealed to all flesh together. Jesus is
coming back. He is coming back and, when He does, all the world will see the “glory of the
Lord” revealed in the King of all Creation. Jesus will come back to pass the Father’s sentence of
judgment on all people who are living and have ever lived since the world began. All people will
be judged. Some will be found innocent in the blood of the lamb, sacrificed on the cross for all
true believers, and be given eternal life with Jesus forever. Some will be found guilty of rejecting
the gift of the gospel, freely given to them, and be sentenced to eternal damnation, in the lake of
fire, with the devil and all his followers. Either way, all flesh, the flesh that is alive and the flesh
that will be re-united after death with a glorified body, will see the glory of the Lord, on that
Judgment Day, together. The mouth of the Lord has promised us this too.
Where does the “glory of the Lord” live in you? When you were baptized, the glory of
the Lord was placed in your heart by His Holy Spirit for you to share with others. How are you
sharing it with those you come in contact with everyday? Are you being His herald and helping
to prepare the way of the Lord into their lives, or are you hoarding that “glory” for yourself? God
has given you His “glory”, His love, to share not to hold on to for yourself. He will give you
more when you need it so you will never run out. You don’t have to worry about running out.
God will make sure that never happens. He has sent you ahead with the good news of salvation
to make the way ready for Him. He has trusted you with this important task, because He knows
that you are a trustworthy servant. You are to get the people ready for the Gospel message. You
are to smooth out the road so the Gospel message being brought by your King can be spread
smoothly along the road of your life. You have been put in charge of making the way clear for
Jesus. Are you holding up your end of the bargain, like John the Baptist?
My friends, the glory of the Lord has been given to you. The love of Jesus Christ, your
Lord and Savior, has been given to you. You have been made into God’s messenger and herald
to this world. Hearts must be called to repentance in anticipation of the coming again of Jesus.
The way of our Lord needs to be made ready: it is the way of holiness, it is the way of loving our
neighbor as ourself, it is the way of glory. We are living in the wilderness of sin and desert of
unbelief. We are being commanded to make ready the way of the Lord and His Gospel message
of salvation. We are being entrusted with this important task. It is a labor of love. It is sharing the
gifts God has freely given to us with everyone: not just those we choose. It is being open to the
opportunities God puts in front of us everyday and having the courage to take the opportunities
to share His love and glory with others. It means truly being heralds and prophets for His Gospel
message and not just talking about it. Take what has been given to you and share it with others.
Seek out new ways to share the Gospel in your life and the lives of your family. Bring your
family members who have strayed from grace back into the loving arms of their Savior. Be the
Gospel force which cannot be silenced and will not stop. Pray for those who resist your efforts to
bring them to the Lord. Be the Gospel for everyone you can touch, and let the Holy Spirit do the
rest. Be the prophet you can truly be. Let the Gospel out, so that others can share in it too. Love
them more than you love yourself.
God grant that we do not hinder the Gospel message for our world, but we share it with
all people so that all the glory can go back to our Father in Heaven; who gave it all to us in Jesus
Christ, our Lord, AMEN.