On this Second Sunday of Advent, we are introduced to John the Baptist. Of all the people mentioned in the New Testament, John the Baptist has to be, at least to me, one of the most intriguing and fascinating of all. His appearance at the beginning of Christian history is different than any other prophet, and it has an impact that is earth-shaking and brings about a new age in the history of the world.
Whenever I think about John the Baptist, a couple of images come to mind. The first is from the musical stage play “Godspell,” where the character of John the Baptist walks in and sings with the cast, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” And this is a lot of what the season of Advent is all about. Preparation. John the Baptist was trying to get people to prepare for the coming of Jesus, just as we are getting ready on this Second Sunday of Advent. Our preparation for Christmas Day involves a lot of different things … decorations, gifts, meals, travel, getting ready for company. We prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of Christ in many different ways. But the season of Advent is much more than getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Advent reminds us to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not for the first time, but for the second and final time.
The second image I get when I think of John the Baptist takes me back to my college days; I remember the traveling evangelists who came to preach out in front of the student union to anyone who would listen. Many of the students who would stay and listen would just make fun of them and call them fools, and talk about them later, and not really listen to what they had to say. Not many people took them seriously. But they kept coming back and preaching to us. Years later I wonder if it wasn’t me who was the fool for not listening or taking the preaching seriously enough.
But when we look at this scene of John the Baptist, we need to ask ourselves a few questions: Why was John dressed the way he was, wearing camel’s hair and a leather belt? Why was he out in the desert by the Jordan River? And why were so many people (the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem) coming out to see him?
John the Baptist wasn’t just a preacher. He was a prophet. The camel’s hair and leather belt that he wore would have evoked images of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets in the history of Israel. In the Gospel of Luke, after John was born, his father Zechariah said of him, “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins” (Lk 1:76-77). There had not been a prophet in Israel or Judah since the 6th century B.C. following the return of the exiles from Babylon. But it was prophesied that Elijah would return. God said through the prophet Malachi, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes” (Mal 4:5). So John was ushering in a new era, and preparing the people for the coming of the long-expected Messiah.
It also says in Luke’s Gospel that John “grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel” (Lk 1:80). Some scholars believe that John was once part of the Essene Community, the religious sect that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. Their community was in the wilderness, and they lived by a very strict rule. So John probably had been out in the desert for a number of years. And the Jordan River was a place that was very significant in Israelite history. It was through the parted waters of the Jordan River where Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land after their 40 years of wandering in the desert. It was at the Jordan River where Elijah also parted the waters and passed his prophetic authority on to Elisha, and where Elijah was carried by a whirlwind up into heaven. And it was in the Jordan River that Naaman the Syrian was cleansed of his leprosy.
The first century was a time of great expectation and anticipation. The time was ripe for the coming of the Messiah according to the prophets, especially the prophet Daniel (see Dn 9:24-27). So when a prophet appears after over 500 years, looking like Elijah, at a place where very important historical and supernatural events took place, and at a time that the prophets foretold, you’d better believe that the people took notice of this. So “the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem” came out to him. His appearance would have been remarkable and certainly would have caused quite the commotion.
It’s not surprising that some people wondered whether John himself might not be the messiah. But if we are to understand John the Baptist, we must first understand that the greatness of his mission lies in his humility. He said of Jesus, “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.” He knew where he stood. But when John came, he preached repentance to the people, and this call to repentance was probably his most unique characteristic. In Greek, the word for repentance means “to change one’s mind,” and in Hebrew, the word means “to turn.” So repentance is not just a matter of belief, but of action. John was telling the people that they had to turn back to God in obedience and trust to do his will. Our change can’t be just interior; it must also be exterior. We can’t just change our minds; we must also change our lives.
John understood that repentance was the first step toward spiritual growth. It was the starting point – a preparation for the forgiveness of sins. But he also knew that repentance was not something someone could do in one day, but required a lot of practice. What is interesting, John’s requirement of repentance for the forgiveness of sins remains to this day a feature of the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation. Notice that in this passage it says that the people were being baptized “in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.”
The sacrament of reconciliation is a gift of the Church that is a necessary part of our spiritual growth. It helps us to acknowledge our need for Christ who keeps calling us to bigger and better things. John the Baptist is warning us in this gospel passage that the greatest obstacle to the coming of Christ into our souls is sin, and as baptized Christians, we have the responsibility of acknowledging our sinfulness and asking for forgiveness. If we don’t, it’s as if we treat Jesus as just another acquaintance who has no forceful presence in our lives or actions.
John is asking people to repent because he wants what all of us should want, and it is what Isaiah described in our first reading today. “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. … proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.” Israel’s exile in Babylon was due to their sin against God. After acknowledging their sin and spending their time in exile (their “penance”), God would bring them home.
This is why I feel that I have to go to confession—because I would be missing out on that gift of grace that Jesus wants so much to give us. It pains me to know that my sin contributed to the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. But at the same time, it’s comforting to know that he accepted it in order to lead us to repentance, and to bring us home. It’s also comforting to know that we are not alone in our penance. It says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that “The confessor (the priest) is not the master of God’s forgiveness, but its servant. … He must pray and do penance for his penitent, entrusting him to the Lord’s mercy” (CCC 1466). While I don’t really desire to impose a penance on our priests for my sins, they act in persona Christi (in the person of Christ); they accept it because they want what Jesus wants: to bring us home. That’s very consoling to me.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It’s time to repent.
It’s time to come home.