Lent Day 5: In Christ Alone

¹ In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ³ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”

Matthew 3:1-3

Once a year, there is a parade around November in Montreal, and many other cites of North America that marks the beginning of the winter and also introduces the Advent season. Little do people know that the Santa Claus Parade was originally a celebration of the church to usher in the weeks before Christmas. Families with their children would flock to the downtown streets to see the spectacle of the parade and hear the extravagant playing of instruments. But everyone is waiting, waiting for the main star of the event: Santa Claus. Unfortunately, everyone waits for the wrong person. Through commercialization by department stores and certain soft drink companies, it has become rather a secular event. In fact, we all know that Christmas was never about Santa Claus in the first place, and the premise of the season had nothing to do with giving or receiving presents. Christmas, nor Easter is about anything we see in the media.

In Matthew 3 it is not just regular citizens that gathered around John the Baptist to hear a message being preached, but it was also the teachers of the law, sadducees and pharisees. They were suspicious of John, and were considering four different things about him: that he was either a prophet foretold by Moses, Elijah reincarnated, the Messiah, or simply a false prophet. They thought of John the baptist to be the main attraction. But the pharisees missed the point. It was not about John. Rather, John the baptist wanted them to know who Jesus was – the Messiah.

We often drift into every other detail of Christianity other than Jesus himself. We are concerned more about the religious teachings on morale, the style of delivery of the message and the messenger, or the kinds of people the church gathers rather than knowing who Christ is. When we look anywhere else other than Jesus, we are merely dodging repentance to justify our prideful and sinful nature. But when we look at who is being preached it is there our pride and our self righteousness begins to wash away. Who is being preached, is Jesus Christ.

If we are distracted by any detail of the church or of the Christian faith other than Jesus, come back to the one who matters. Today, fix your eyes on Jesus Christ. It is in him you will begin to find your answers.