It’s the 3rd Sunday of Advent and since we are heralding the coming of the promised Messiah, so the gospel reading today comes from John: 6-8, 19-28 on the testimony of John the Baptist about his cousin, our Lord Jesus Christ. If you read the scriptures, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist was the cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and when the Angel Gabriel told her that Elizabeth who was barren was on her sixth month, she rushed to the hill country in Ein Karem to visit her. That is easily a 10-day grueling journey in those times. Today, it is just a few hours bus ride from Nazareth to Ein Karem via freeway.
“6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
19 And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites [to him] to ask him, “Who are you? 20 He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Messiah.” 21 So they asked him,
“What are you then?” Are you Elijah?” And he said, “ I am not.” “ Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What have you to say for yourself?”
23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert. “Make straight the way of the Lord.” As Isaiah the Prophet said, “24 Some Pharisees were also sent. 25 They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?”
26 John answered them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you who you do not recognize, 27 the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” 29 This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”
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This is a very fascinating story because the Jews from Jerusalem obviously heard of this John who was baptizing in the Jordan River. The Jews wanted to know whether John the Baptizer was the Messiah as prophesied in Isaiah 7: 14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign, “The virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”
For sure, this scripture passage must have been read or announced in all the synagogues of Israel, which is why the Jews from Jerusalem wanted to find out who is this man baptizing in the Jordan River, if he was the man prophesied in Isaiah? Indeed the devout and righteous men and women of Israel were already anticipating the coming of the Messiah… and in reading this particular passage, the deeply religious ones know that the Messiah would be born from a virgin.
By this time, John the Baptist had already gained a huge popularity in Israel that even the Jews in Jerusalem would come to the wilderness to get baptized from their sins. It would have been easy for John to say that he was the Messiah… instead of proclaiming the coming of our Lord. Mind you, this is happening today in many churches, where some church leaders even proclaim themselves as the Son of God.
But John the Baptist was an honest man because the Holy Spirit of God was upon him to guide him. So when they asked him who he was or whether or not he was the Messiah, John insisted that he was not. Yet they prodded him with more questions, asking him if he were Elijah, whom the Jews knew would return before the coming of the Messiah.
In yesterday’s Gospel reading entitled “The coming of Elijah” our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Why do you scribes say that Elijah must come first? Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.” Our Lord Jesus Christ made this remark after he heard of the arrest of John the Baptist.
This gives us an idea that indeed, Elijah who was taken to heaven, body and soul in a flaming chariot (you can read this passage in 2 Kings: 2-11) has indeed returned in the form of John the Baptist. Yet, the Jews didn’t recognize Elijah in John the Baptist and their ruler, Herod Antipas had him thrown to prison and eventually beheaded at the instance of Salome.
So to the question why he kept on baptizing people even if he is not the Messiah, John said to them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you who you do not recognize, 27 the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” Clearly the Jews did not realize that our Lord Jesus Christ was already in their midst. They have forgotten that gruesome incident 30 years earlier when Herod the Great killed the innocents in Bethlehem with the aim to kill the child that the Magi came to adore. Now the stage has been set for the coming glory of the Messiah, whom John the Baptist cried out, “Make straight the way of the Lord!”