The coming of John the baptizer

It’s the 2nd Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day comes ever closer and closer. As we already wrote, Advent is the time for us to anticipate the coming of the Messiah so we need to prepare our minds, our souls and bodies for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and the best way to prepare ourselves is to seek the sacrament of reconciliation or confession and rid ourselves of our sins and restore our sonship with God. Our gospel reading today comes from Luke 3: 1-6.

“1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was Tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip Tetrarch of the Region of Ituraea and Trachnonitis, and Lysannias was Tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.

3 He went throughout (the) whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as 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, make straight his paths.

5 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 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

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Today’s Sunday gospel heralds the coming of John the Baptist. So why is it that the Evangelist St. Luke mentioned the names of Pontius Pilate, Herod and his brothers who were also rulers? I can only reckon that St. Luke was trying to establish a timeline when all this was happening and it is best to establish the time by mentioning the famous rulers of that time.

I read somewhere that in ancient times when a Ruler or King goes to visit parts of his realm, the King never goes directly to a place without being announced. He usually sends an official crier or a court official ahead to that town to herald the coming of the King. This person just do not announce the coming of the King, he also acts as an inspector to check out the place whether it is clean or suitable for the King’s visit. If the place being planned for the King’s visit isn’t clean or suitable… the King often cancels his visit.

Well, we don’t even have to look far for an example that we can use. A couple of weeks ago the Philippines played host to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit and a huge time and effort was spent to clean up the City of Manila where even the DSWD removed the street urchins or beggars off the streets so that the many Presidents, Prime Ministers belonging to the APEC nations can see Manila as a city that was clean and suitable for their eyes. The same thing happened nearly a year ago when Pope Francis came to visit the Philippines.

Well, that’s almost exactly what God himself wanted mankind to do before sending our Lord Jesus Christ our savior. So he chose the son of Zechariah to herald the coming of the Messiah. Apparently the coming of John the Baptizer was also prophesied by Isaiah, “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

 As we will later find out, these are the exact words that John the Baptizer used when he started preaching in the Jordan River. Remember we just celebrated Cristo Rey or Christ the King and therefore we should look at the coming of John the Baptizer as God’s messenger or crier who warns the people of the coming of the Messiah or the King and therefore we must all embrace the message of this man whose cry is heard from the wilderness exhorting us to repent our sins and make the paths of the King straight. This is at the very heart of John’s message to the people.

As today’s gospel pointed to us, “ during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.” If you recall earlier in Luke Chapter 1, the Angel came to Zechariah to tell him that God has answered his prayer to have a son even in his olden years with his wife Elizabeth. But Zechariah doubted the Angel’s words so his tongue was tied until John was born. It was then that his family realized the important role of the son of Zechariah in God’s salvific plan.

During the Annunciation when the Blessed Virgin Mary told her that she would bear the Son of the Most High, she also heard from the Angel Gabriel that her cousin Elizabeth was six-months pregnant. Hence she run in haste to the Hill Country, which is in Ein Karem in Israel, which in those days was at least a five day’s journey from Nazareth. After the visitation, the Blessed Virgin Mary stayed with her cousin Elizabeth for six months. When it was her turn to give birth in Bethlehem, we recall in scripture that the choir of angels sang the halleluiah and the shepherds near the cave where our Lord Jesus Christ was born knew that the King has indeed come.

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