Years ago the President of the United States spoke at a venue 30 minutes drive from my home. The preparations for his arrival were extensive. Security, the press, state officials were all in action. Publicity of his arrival was everywhere. If you wanted to see him you had to prepare for him to come. 

Someone greater than the President has arrived, Jesus the Son of God. In our chapter today, John announced Jesus’s coming. Curiosity consumed the common people.

John preached a baptism of repentance from sin to prepare the peoples’ hearts for Jesus to appear. People despised by the religious elite wanted to know how to be prepared for “God’s salvation.”

“Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?””

Luke 3:12 NIV

 We know the story goes on. Jesus did indeed come. He became our Emmanuel, God with us. How do we respond to our invitation to come to Him? Have we “Prepared the way for the Lord” in our hearts?

The tax collectors, the most despised of sinners by the Jewish religious elite came because they wanted more than the wealth they had amassed and approval of the occupying army, the Romans. They asked a question that rings in my heart today. “Teacher, what should we do?”

As we take a few moments each day to prepare our hearts to celebrate the arrival of Jesus to our world during the first Christmas, may we ask the same question. He will not turn away the most despised and desperate one who is trapped by sin. He will not turn us away. What should we do in response to the one who longs to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire and bring us into a relationship of oneness with Him?

May we ask Jesus the same question the tax collectors asked John all those years ago. “Teacher what should we do?”