Third Sunday of Advent

“A man named John was sent from God.” Jn. 1:1

Something had to change.

Something drastic had to happen.

The Jewish world of first century Palestine was awash in extreme poverty, widespread hunger, and frightening persecution.

The mood was one of utter hopelessness.

We see much of the same situation to this very day in the Middle East: demonstrations, killings, tortures and the hideous aftermath of violence and utter poverty.

But 2000 years ago, the situation was perhaps even worse. The Roman Empire had imposed brutal taxation and robbed landowners of all they possessed. Some of the leaders of the Jewish religion were colluding with their Roman masters to benefit personally, and in effect joining them in the persecution of their own Jewish people.

Something had to give.

And then … something did.

“A man named John was sent from God.”

Called “the Baptist,” he became something of a sensation of the time. People  flocked from all over to hear his word of judgment, of God’s consuming wrath, and of the need for total conversion through baptism in the river Jordan.

The movement launched by John became so popular that it alarmed the Romans who feared that the people would revolt and complete control of them would be lost.

So, King Herod decided to imprison John to put an end to this growing protest. But, it didn’t stop John. Instead, from his prison cell, the Baptist denounced Herod’s determination to divorce his wife and marry another. So, to silence John permanently, Herod had him murdered.

This brings us to the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Originally a follower of John, including being baptized by him, Jesus took an entirely new direction. Based on his unique relationship with God, who Jesus called “Abba,” Father, Jesus no longer spoke of the coming wrath of God and the punishment that awaits anyone not following the law to its last detail.

Instead, Jesus saw everything in the context of God’s wondrous, infinite mercy.

In fact, Jesus introduced a whole new language about God. He agreed with John that people needed an experience of full conversion, of radical change. But first and foremost, Jesus wanted people to see not the wrath of God but rather God’s lavish compassion for everyone.

And so, Jesus talked about something he called “the reign of God.”

Jesus then emphasized that God comes to us primarily as a savior, a liberator, a rescuer. He replaced John the Baptist’s austere life in the desert with a lifestyle centered on meals open to everyone – meals to which he could invite people to celebrate this new possibility of total trust in a God of limitless compassion.

And then Jesus followed up his words with action.

Doing things John never did, Jesus healed people that no one else could heal, soothed the pain of the “least of these” who lived on the margins of society, and blessed and embraced women and children and lepers and sinners of all kinds.

Everyone was invited to Jesus’ feasts of mercy.

As a result, a revolution had its beginning. People could begin to live out a whole new understanding of who God is – not a God of punishment, but a God who wants nothing more than to share his passion for love and mercy and forgiveness.

Sadly, the world we live in today also faces a host of terrifying issues:  threats of nuclear holocaust, instances of terrible gun violence, the rise of neo-Nazism, fears about the future of our planet, widespread starvation at home and around the globe. And a host of other critical problems.

Hopefully, the coming feast of Christmas will mark a new birthing in our hearts of the very same God of love and mercy that Jesus revealed to us.

Hopefully, the coming feast of Christmas will also remind us that our lives are meant to say to one and all what Jesus said to John the Baptist so long ago:

“Go, tell the world what you hear and see: the unemployed are given jobs, the homeless are housed, the hungry are fed, the children are cared for, the immigrants are granted freedom, the prisoners are visited, the addicted are made whole.”

“A man named John was sent from God.”

But he was only the beginning, only the herald of what was to come. His finger  always pointed to Jesus, “the one who is coming after me.”

May we all follow John’s example and create a “manger” in our own hearts where the child Jesus can be re-born – the Jesus who showed us who our God really is:

A God rapturously in love with all people. Every one!