Advent2025 Waiting With Matthew 14

Day 14: Waiting in the Wilderness. Today we reflect on Matthew 3:1 – “In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming…” Join us this Advent as we sit with the waiting in the first 5 chapters of Matthew's Gospel.

Transcript

Hello my friends,

This is Mark Gladman,

Also known as Brother Frederick James,

Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.

Welcome to Day 14 of our Advent 2025 series,

Waiting with Matthew.

And today our focus verse will come from Matthew 3,

Verse 1,

Where Matthew writes,

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea proclaiming.

And so as we begin,

I invite you to find yourself in a comfortable position,

To still your heart,

Still your mind,

To breathe deeply in and out,

And to rest in the one who opens our ears,

Our minds and our hearts to what it is that we need to take away from our reflections today.

Wilderness is one of Scripture's most consistent meeting places between humanity and God.

From Israel's wandering to Elijah's cave to Hagar's cry to Jesus' 40 days,

The wilderness is where noise fades,

Illusions fall away,

And the truth of our hearts rises to the surface.

And so it's no accident that Advent leads us here.

And before Jesus speaks a single word,

Before he heals or teaches or calls any disciples,

The Gospel begins again in the wilderness with a prophet whose voice is strong enough to shake a nation awake.

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea proclaiming.

Now Matthew doesn't begin this chapter in the temple courts,

Though that would have been expected.

He doesn't begin in a royal setting or a scholarly center or a place of religious prestige.

He begins in the desert,

The wilderness of Judea,

A harsh,

Barren landscape,

Rocky,

Jagged,

Exposed.

It's a place where survival requires attentiveness,

Where every step is intentional,

Where shade is rare and silence stretches like an open sky.

The wilderness is not an accident of geography,

But a chosen stage for God's work.

So we might ask the question,

Well,

Why?

And I think perhaps it's because the wilderness strips us down to what matters.

There's no shortcuts here.

There's no statuses to maintain,

No crowds to impress.

There's no distractions to hide behind.

The wilderness literally holds a mirror to our soul and does so with startling clarity.

And into that clarity,

John appears,

Not in splendor or spectacle,

But in simplicity,

Clothed in camel hair,

Eating locusts and honey.

He embodies the message he proclaims,

Return,

Turn around,

Wake up,

Prepare the way.

John,

You see,

Doesn't just speak,

John disrupts.

He unsettles.

He calls a people dulled by comfort and routine back into the rawness that allows God to be heard again.

And this is the heart of Advent,

A season that calls us to a spiritual wilderness where the clutter falls away and our longings sharpen.

Advent invites us to become attentive again to the stillness inside us,

To the ache for God that we often try and quell and quiet,

To the longing for renewal that we sometimes push aside.

The wilderness is where desire becomes clear.

John's appearance in the wilderness isn't just a historical detail.

It's a theological declaration.

God's new work often begins in barren places,

Not instability,

Not in predictability,

Not in abundance,

But in wilderness.

These are the places where life feels stalled,

Where futures feel uncertain,

Souls feel tired and where we stand with nothing but hope left to sustain us.

The wilderness is where God prepares us for Christ.

And perhaps that's why Matthew begins here.

Because before we can receive the one who comes after John,

We must hear the one who goes before him.

Before grace comforts us,

It confronts us.

Before the manger welcomes us,

The wilderness wakes us.

John's proclamation cuts through the desert air.

He says,

Prepare the way of the Lord.

Make space,

Clear room,

Let go of what no longer serves you.

Level the ground of your heart.

Advent is not merely a countdown to Christmas.

It's a desert pilgrimage,

A journey into the wilderness where our souls are made ready for the God who draws near.

The wilderness waiting,

Like other waiting,

Isn't passive,

It's receptive.

The wilderness teaches us how to wait without distraction.

How to listen when there's no background noise.

How to hope when the landscape looks barren.

And how to recognize God's voice,

Not by volume,

But by truth.

We often resist the wilderness seasons of our lives.

We label them barren,

Empty,

Unproductive.

But today's scripture reframes all that.

The wilderness is where proclamation begins.

The wilderness is the birthplace of awakening.

John's very presence there turns the desert into a sanctuary of preparation.

And notice this,

People leave the cities to go to him.

They leave comfort for clarity.

They leave predictability for transformation.

They choose the wilderness because something in them knows that God is moving.

And this too is Advent,

Stepping away from the noise of our lives into a quieter,

More demanding space where we can finally hear ourselves think and hear God whisper.

We all carry wilderness places inside us,

Areas where we feel uncertain or lost,

Stripped or stretched,

Waiting for direction or renewal.

Advent doesn't ask us to avoid those places.

It asks us to enter them with intention,

Trusting that God's voice still rises in barren landscapes.

For the wilderness isn't the end of the story.

It's the place where the story gets honest.

It's the place where the presence of God becomes unmistakably real.

And so today,

Matthew invites us into our own Judean desert to let the wilderness be teacher,

To let hidden longing become prayer,

To let John's voice guide us towards the one who is already drawing near.

This is the paradox of Advent.

We prepare for the one who is already present.

We wait for the one who's already come.

We stand in a wilderness that's already blooming with signs of the kingdom.

John appears in the desert because the desert is where hope becomes fierce,

Clear and uncluttered.

May we enter the wilderness with him and may we discover there the God who never stops coming to us.

So as we hold those things that have risen in our hearts through our contemplation today,

Let us pray.

God of every wilderness,

You meet us in the barren places where our hearts feel exposed and our illusions fall away.

Give us courage to enter the wilderness with honesty.

Strip away what distracts us,

What numbs us,

What keeps us from hearing your voice.

And in this Advent season,

Help us to prepare the way within our own hearts.

To make room for you in the quiet,

In the emptiness,

In the longing that draws us back to life.

Awaken us as you awakened your people through John.

Renew us in the desert places and guide us toward the one whose coming changes everything.

Amen.

And so my friends,

As we rise from this time together and we enter into the rest of our day,

May you find God waiting for you in every wilderness you enter.

May the desert become a place of clarity,

Honesty and awakening.

And may your Advent longing lead you to the God who is always drawing near.

And may grace,

Peace and love go with you and continue with you every step of Advent as we approach Christmas.

Amen.

Until tomorrow my friends,

Peace be with you.

Reviews

Thank you. I know now that the wilderness places are ones where God is working in me. They are not to be feared and avoided, but to be faced with faith. 💝🙏🌅

Thank you for bringing a more progressive Christian perspective to insight timer community.

God builds us up in the wilderness where there are no distractions and also where our. attention and awareness are sharpened, so that we are readied to proclaim the Kingdom of heaven.

Thank you for guiding us as we prepare the way for the coming of our Savior ✝️

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

I love being reminded that God is always drawing us near. A “aha” moment for me came when you said that before Advent can comfort us it must confront us. That people left the comfort of the city to be confronted by John in the wilderness. Very inspiring.
Until tomorrow, peace be with you 🙏🏾

This speaks to my soul, beautiful as always ✨🙏🏻