the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan
John the Baptist appeared in the very place Elijah had been taken up (see Second Kings 2:6-14). It was Elijah whose return had been promised before the great and dreadful day of the LORD (see Malachi 4:5-6). This was no coincidence, for Jesus himself confirmed that this prophecy was fulfilled in John (see Matthew 17:11-13). He was not, therefore, in the desert to do his own thing or to follow his own initiative, but rather he was there in obedience to God's word. John received the word of God in the desert, not merely as a nice inspirational quote to hang on the wall in his house (or cave, as the case may be), but rather as a mission and a message.
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord"
His message was precisely one of Messianic hope, referencing as he did the beginning of a section of Isaiah that was replete with all of the promises associated with the Messiah. The first and summary of these promises was the coming of the Lord himself, the one whose paths John commanded to be made straight. Yet John would later recognize himself as the forerunner of Jesus, the lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. By recognizing in Jesus the fulfillment of this promise John was identifying Jesus with the Lord himself.
Those who awaited the coming of the Messiah were not meant to be mere spectators. They were meant to recognize their own need for the Messiah by receiving the baptism John offered for repentance. They were to signal their own desire that his ways be made straight by recognizing in themselves the places were the they had heretofore frustrated the work of God, by only engaging him through indirect, roundabout, and winding paths, hiding from his presence on hills of pride and in valleys of despair.
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
To receive the blessings of the Messianic age people would need to recognize that this landscape described not only the civil order but also the condition of their own inner lives, winding, uneven, and rough. By receiving the baptism of John they expressed their desire for the water that could eventually wear away a smooth path for God to come and dwell in their hearts. Yet it was not ultimately through the baptism of John nor the effort of those who came to him that this would be brought about. They were called to prepare and to will that the paths of the Lord be made straight. With this disposition they would be ready when the Messiah himself, by his very coming brought this about.
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly (see Luke 1:51-53).
If the uneven terrain of human hearts was a hindrance to the Messiah's coming, so too was the uneven landscape of the civil order. Jesus came first to address the disparity in our hearts with the expectation that the larger world would of necessity follow suit. Those who were last would become first as inequality was addressed at every level.
Jesus did come and yet the landscape of our inner lives and that of the world around us still seems to be anything but a direct and straight path by which God can reach us. After all these years of history, after all of our years walking with the Lord, this can be a temptation to despair. Rather than give in to discouragement we hear the words of Paul, giving us confidence that God is still it work.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
We believe, with Paul, that no created thing can separate us from God's love (see Romans 8:39), that no thing outside of ourselves has the power to thwart his purpose in us. It is God himself who desires to lift us out of the valleys of our despair and bring us down from the mountains of our pride to a new and level ground where we are no longer isolated from our brothers and sisters, no longer alienated from the presence of God.
We all have parts of hearts that are still rough, that are unpleasant for others when they run up against them, that even cause hurt and sadness. But God himself, in Jesus, provides us with the living water of his Spirit to smooth and soften us. He fulfills the promise to take away our stony hearts and give us hearts of flesh.
We do well to listen to the voice of John the Baptist as he calls us to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, or better, to set ourselves in agreement with and open ourselves to the way in which he himself will prepare his way to us. We are more than spectators in this, but only Jesus himself is capable of the massive piece of civil engineering, of terraforming, that is needed with us. But it is for this purpose that he came. By that coming we have all we need for it to brought to completion.
Even before they received the power of the Holy Spirit the people who heard John the Baptist were able to step away from the normal day to day routines and make an arduous journey into the desert. They did this because of their belief that God was faithful to his promises. If we also believe this it should allow us to go forth from our own lives this Advent to a place where we are free to respond to God. We not only believe in the promise of his coming and the grace he will give, but we have already experienced it. That said, he is not done with us yet. Knowing how faithful God is to his promises, let us in turn be faithful to him so that we can come to know the fulfillment of those promises spoken, about which Baruch writes.
Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
put on the splendor of glory from God forever:
wrapped in the cloak of justice from God,
bear on your head the mitre
that displays the glory of the eternal name.
For God will show all the earth your splendor:
you will be named by God forever
the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
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