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Mailing Address: PO Box 575
860.658.7627
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December 2, 2021The Second Sunday of Advent always focuses our attention on John the Baptist. Who is this figure, and why is he important? John is the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary’s “relative” or “cousin.” The story of John’s miraculous conception and birth is told in the opening pages of Luke’s Gospel (1:5-27). Zechariah and Elizabeth are childless, until one day, when Zechariah is ministering at the altar of incense in the Temple, he has a vision of the angel Gabriel, announcing that he and Elizabeth will finally have a son, who is to be named John. This son will follow the traditions of the Nazarites, who drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be set apart, filled with the Holy Spirit, and going forth in the spirit of the great prophet Elijah, to turn the hearts of the children of Israel back to God. All of this takes place as the angel Gabriel reveals and Elizabeth, as several Old Testament women before her, conceives in her “old age.” John is the first to recognize and acknowledge the presence of the Lord Jesus, leaping in his mother’s womb when Elizabeth is visited by Mary, who herself is now bearing Jesus in her womb through the power of the Holy Spirit. John, like many of the great prophets before him, goes out to live in the desert, dressing and eating very strangely, and announcing the coming of the One who is mightier than he, Whose sandal straps he is unworthy to unfasten. To prepare for the coming of the Messiah, John calls the people to repentance and to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. In this context he will baptize his relative Jesus in the Jordan River, (cf. Mk. 1:1-11). Later on the Scriptures tell us that John is imprisoned for challenging the adulterous actions of the powerful King Herod, who will eventually have John beheaded at the request of his daughter (on behalf of her mother), as a result of the favor he promises her after she performs a dance at banquet, delighting his guests (cf. Mk. 6:11-29).
So what is so important about John the Baptist? He is the one who announces that the Messiah has come and challenges them (and us) as we hear in this weekend’s Gospel, to “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths! Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low.” John is the great figure of Advent, the last of the prophets of Israel, bridging the gap between the prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah, and Jesus’ actual coming into the world. Jesus says of John, “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he,” (Lk. 7:28). John acknowledges his place in the history of salvation, that he is “not the Messiah,” (Jn. 1:20), directs his own disciples to follow Jesus, the “Lamb of God” (Jn. 1:35-37), and testifies that “he [Jesus] must increase; I [John] must decrease,” (Jn. 3:30).
This great Advent figure, John the Baptist, challenges us in our own time to pave the way for Jesus to be revealed in the world, to remove all obstacles to Jesus’ presence among us being made evident. What are the mountains that need leveling, or the valleys that need to be filled in? What curves in the road need straightening, so that the Lord has a smooth, level and straight path into our hearts and into our world? For us on a personal level, it may be a call to repent from sin and to turn our hearts back to God. On a more global level, it may be a call to work towards eradicating the injustices that create divisions and inequities among people, a call to give witness to the compassion, justice and love of our Savior. May this Advent be for us all a time to awaken to the realities that prevent the Lord from being more widely known and honored, and resolve to do our part to level those mountains, fill in those valleys and make crooked ways straight!
