Advent realignment

Advent reminds us to expect Jesus to come in various ways.

One of those ways is announced by a peculiar prophet who retreated to the desert, ate off the land, and reminded everyone of the great Elijah.

John the baptizer was the son of a priest who stood to inherit a prestigious place in temple worship. Yet he distanced himself from the religious establishment and practiced a strange priesthood of sorts in the wilderness next to the Jordan River. He traded a comfortable apartment in the temple complex for living in the wilderness. He gave up good food contributed by worshipers for locusts and wild honey. He swapped fine linen vestments for a coat roughly sewn from camel hair and a poor man’s leather belt.

From the pulpit of his open air wilderness sanctuary John thundered his advent message: “Repent!” he demanded. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” For months people flocked to the riverside to hear his message, repent of their sins, and submit to baptism into the new order.

Repentance means more than conviction, guilt, and the resolve to do better. It means a complete realignment of life, beginning with rethinking. It relies on the grace of God to help us do what we cannot do for ourselves to be cleansed and renewed. At its heart is faith in God and transformation of life from the inside out.

Dr. Luke reminds us the people were already in a state of expectation. Most informed synagogue-goers realized that the “seventy weeks” prophesied by Daniel leading to the coming of Messiah were just about complete. Many were uneasy, expectant, and hopeful. The clock started when Artaxerxes sent Ezra to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. There were roughly three years left until the expected event.

John insisted he was there to “prepare the way of the Lord,” to make his path straight. He refers to a passage in Isaiah chapter 40 that describes dramatic construction work on roads when the sovereign plans to pay a visit. In anticipation of his arrival hills and gullies must be leveled, curves must be straightened, so that the king’s travels will be smooth and easy. The king’s travels required reworking the highway system.

In John’s mind there was little time to prepare, to make way for his coming. The coming kingdom would change everything as the order was realigned and restored to God’s original design.

The desert priest’s wilderness activities did not escape the notice of the religious elite. Pharisees and Sadducees, self-appointed keepers of religious order, came out to interrogate the prophet who had defected. John called them a “brood of vipers” and demanded that they “bear fruits worthy of repentance” and not rely on their association with Abraham as a pass into the new kingdom. Nothing short of full-scale transformation of the entire system would do. The coming one, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, was ready to judge the unfruitful systems and realign everything for his kingdom.

Advent gives us opportunity to learn several key lessons from John the baptizer. He arrives in a time of expectation and hope. He announces a coming one and demands change and realignment to God’s design. He challenges us to expect Jesus to come in unexpected ways, and to prepare the way for his arrival. Jesus comes.

1 Advent A (2010)