Arulvakku

08.12.2019 — Being Herald of the Messiah

2nd Sunday of Advent, – 08th December 2019 — Gospel: Mt 3, 1-12

Being Herald of the Messiah

In all the four gospels, the narrative of Jesus’ ministry preface with an account of John the Baptist. John’s contemporaries viewed him as Jesus’ forerunner and the evangelists presented him as Jesus’ herald. John’s command to repent for the kingdom is same as Jesus’ opening proclamation in Galilee (3,7; 4,17). Similarly, the opponents are addressed by John and Jesus as “You brood of vipers” (3,7; 12,34; 23,33). In this way Matthew draws John and Jesus closer and subtly presents John as a witness to Jesus. In another sense, John seems to have proclaimed to his followers the immediate appearance of a human but supernaturally empowered Messiah (Mt 3,11) that recalls the anticipated Messiah of Is 11,1-5.

Like the prophets of old, John threatened Israel with divine judgment and summoned all to repent and amend their ways. Unlike his predecessors he offered a sacrament of reconciliation.  Repentance entails a radical conversion to a new way of life, a turning of the whole person away from sin and towards God. It demands an interior change of heart, a deeply rooted decision, and a consequent lifestyle of obedience to God. The call to repentance is based on the reality that God’s kingdom has drawn near. The demand for repentance is urgent because, in the divine redemptive plan, the reign of God is at hand – it is imminent.

John’s baptism was apparently a sacramental sealing of those who responded to his preaching and through repentance the faithful remnant joined those who would survive the fiery judgment. The response of John’s message is overwhelmingly positive. Yet when the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, arrive, John denounces their insincerity and offers three stern warnings. First, he insists that repentance must be accompanied by visible evidence in the form of good deeds. Second, he warns against thinking that birth into the people of God is sufficient for salvation. Third, he urges them not to waste the little time that is still available to show evidence of a repentant lifestyle.

Though John and Jesus proclaim the same message, their missions are quite different. John is the forerunner, preparing for Jesus with a water baptism of repentance. Jesus will baptize with “the Holy Spirit and fire”. Both cleansing water and refining fire are prophetic images expressing the outpouring of God’s Spirit in the final age. This baptismal expression of Jesus’ work refers to his whole ministry of preaching, healing and forgiving. His ministry is like a harvester who separates the wheat from the chaff by tossing the harvested grain in the air with the winnowing fork. The righteous are like the good wheat gathered into the granary while the unrepentant are like the useless chaff to be swept up and burnt. In recalling the first coming of Jesus in humility, the season of advent focuses on the second coming of Christ as judge. God’s love that comes down at Christmas is remembered as a divine love that is fierce in its judgement of those who resist love’s demands. John the Baptist gives warning of that repentance, which must not be procrastinated.