On the second and third Sundays of Advent each year, the gospels focus on John the Baptist. In today’s reading from the Gospel of St. Luke, we read how Luke connects the appearance of the Baptist both to secular history and to religious or salvation history as he brings the Baptist on stage in wording reminiscent of the appearance of the Old Testament prophets. This precise dating of his appearance tell us that Luke has a view of John the Baptist different from Mark and Matthew. Whereas they thought of the Baptist as the “beginning of the gospel,” the point at which the salvation event began, Luke, by contrast, places John before the beginning of the salvation event. For St. Luke, John the Baptist sums up in his own person the whole salvation history of the Old Testament; he stands at the head of the Old Testament prophets and points, as they did, to the coming Christ. In this Gospel, John is depicted as the last of the prophets and announces Jesus’ impending arrival.
John fits very neatly into the historical picture that we have of this period. Roughly speaking, between 150 BC and A.D. 250, a general “baptist” movement existed in Palestine. Numerous Judaic and Messianist groups at this time practiced some kind of ritual washing, or baptism. These groups included the Essenes at Qumran, the Ebionites, John and his disciples, Jesus and his disciples, and a variety of Gnostic believers. The baptisms administered by these various groups took different forms and had diverse meanings attached to them. Luke explains John’s baptism thus: “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
The heart of the Baptizer’s message is the need for repentance. The Greek word and its Hebrew counterpart were very familiar to his listeners. In ordinary daily life the words meant simply “a change of mind.” In a religious context the same words took on the meaning of a “broadening of horizons, a transformation of experience, and a reform of life.” We commonly use the word “conversion.”
In the Judaic mind the religious sense of these words included the idea of “turning” to God from ways that are disobedient or displeasing, actions which need God’s forgiveness. Clearly a human effort is demanded: a personal taking stock and a resolution to do something about what one discovers. John seems to indicate that turning to God and expressing that conversion by submitting to baptism, will obtain forgiveness of sins. The Baptizer does not explain his meaning, but in the Gospels, the closest analogy for this phrase is the “forgiveness of debts.” This is, in fact, what Luke writes in his version of the Lord’s Prayer: “forgive us our sins for we too forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” Here, sin is the same as debt. The Baptizer is urging his listeners to turn to God from their wicked ways so that God would forgive and forget what was owed. For John the ritual of washing in the Jordan symbolized this turning.
John baptizes in the Jordan River. This place is very symbolic as it was this river that the Israelites first crossed when they claimed the land flowing with milk and honey after years of slavery in Egypt. The prophet Baruch reminds us that years later, they were led out of Israel into slavery again. However, the prophet also proclaims that all of Jerusalem should stand upon the heights and rejoice that God has remembered and saved them, bringing them back to that same river and allowing them to re-enter their homeland. God is their leader, and God’s glory in seen in his mercy and justice for all flesh.
The conversion of life that is called for by the Baptist was successfully preached by the Apostles after the Resurrection of Jesus. No one was more successful in his preaching than St. Paul who writes from prison to the community of Philippi in today’s second reading. He has been jailed for his preaching but he does not allow his imprisonment to stop him from continuing in his mission. He expresses his confidence that God, who began the good work in this community, will continue to complete it until the day on which Jesus returns.
This, then, is our prayer on the Second Sunday of Advent. May God continue to stir our hearts to conversion of life, to an ever increasing love for our neighbors, and for a resolve to persevere in our efforts to discern what is of value and furthers the glory and praise of God!
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator