Today Luke has us right smack in the midst of history. The opening verses of today’s gospel passage don’t have angelic figures, shepherds, sheep or a starry night. It’s not poetry that starts today’s gospel for us, but the chilly reality of the world Jesus entered and where he is soon to begin his preaching.
It is still Advent, despite the mall decorations and the Christmas elevator music in the department stores. It is still our old and tired world that needs rejuvenation, straightening out and smoothing – and that’s what’s about to happen. Luke begins by giving us a picture of the world into which John the Baptist announces the coming of Christ. He begins with a chilling narration as he spells out the political and religious scene and names some of those who think they are in charge of events.
John the Baptist appears in the geographical and political world of the Roman Empire, “the reign of Tiberius Caesar.” The figurehead rulers of the Jewish people were Herod the Great’s sons, Antipas, Archelaus and Philip. When Archelaus was banished in 6 A.D., Roman procurators replaced him. Pontius Pilate was one such procurator who ruled during John the Baptist and Jesus’ ministry. (We don’t know much about Lysanias who ruled in the area of Abilene.) Luke also names the high priest Annas and his son Caiaphas, who was priest when Jesus died.
The scene is set and, as if with an opening of a curtain and the sound of cymbals, John the Baptist appears preaching a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Luke quotes the prophet Isaiah to announce that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” It’s not just religious people who will be affected by the one John is preparing us for; but the created order itself will be transformed – paths, valleys, mountains and hills.
Luke is not telling us a children’s fairy tale. His gospel immerses us in the vast flow of history. He divides history into three periods. First, there was the creation up until John the Baptist, who announces the end of the old and the beginning of a new stage. This second is Jesus’ ministry, from his baptism to his ascension. Then, in the Acts of the Apostles, the third period of history will be that of the Church. This will end when Jesus returns at the close of history
We live in the third period, but today’s gospel has us back in the beginning of the second as John the Baptist appears to make his announcement. Can we listen again to the Baptist with ears made sensitive by what we know of the historical conditions of the people who first heard him? To a people under the heels of the Roman Empire and their appointed puppets, John proclaimed a momentous thing that God was about to do – fulfill the promises God had made through the prophets throughout the ages: they were finally about to see, “God leading Israel in joy.”
We heard that promise in our first reading. Baruch promised the defeated exiles in Babylon that “God will bring them back”; there would be a new exodus from captivity. (See our Responsorial Psalm, 126). Now John the Baptist announces that the longed-for restoration of Israel is about to take place. What’s more, the new kingdom will not be just for the benefit of a chosen few rather, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
In an Advent homily, Robert Waznak, SS (“Like Fresh Bread: Sunday Homilies and the Parish. New York: Paulist Press, 1993) tells us something he saw that sparked his Advent hope. He was driving by an elementary school and saw a teacher with her class of students. They weren’t putting up Christmas lights, or a Santa display. Instead, they were digging holes in the newly-frozen ground to plant a tiny bulbs for the coming of Spring. “She was teaching them something about expecting promises to be fulfilled” (page 22).
Which is what prophets like Baruch do – preach hope. He was speaking to a decimated people who saw nothing good to hope for in their future. Still, he dug holes in the hard-packed earth of his people’s despair by his preaching. The Babylonians were about to destroy the southern kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem and then take the leading citizens into exile. The defeated people in exile would need Baruch’s dazzling promises, “For God is leading Israel in joy by the light of his glory with God’s mercy and justice for company.”
In his homily Waznak also said, “The teacher is like the church, helping us to dig deeper into the meaning of our faith; nudging us to take time during this anxious season to plant some seeds of hope in our God who is coming to save all people” (page 22).
In his preaching to us in mid-Advent John calls us to repentance, a change to our ways of thinking and acting. What needs to be cleared away to let God enter more deeply into our lives? Baruch and John the Baptist announced that God is coming to set things in right order. In our lives and world there are too many valleys of despair that need to be filled; mountains and hills of pride that need to be made low; winding roads of confusion that need straightening and rough, violent ways that must be made smooth. We can’t do this on our own. Putting things right is first God’s work in Jesus Christ. Paul reminds us that God has begun that good work in us. The way has been smoothed/ so we can now respond in love. We are recipients of the work of salvation that “comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”