Advent 2, Dec. 7 2014
Is 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8
Brookdale
A voice proclaims: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!”
Many Christians think that the prophets of ancient Israel were focused on predicting the arrival of a coming Messiah, who was of course Jesus. But in fact, ancient Israel had its own problems, such as taxes, middle-eastern superpowers, disastrous wars, and foreign captivity. About 2400 years ago, ancient Israel experienced a calamity that must have seemed like the end of the world. The kingdom of Israel, which had already lost most of its territory to foreign superpowers, was conquered by the Babylonians, and in 587 BCE the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and reduced the temple to rubble. They took the sacred ark of the covenant back to Babylon as a souvenir. The last king in the dynasty of David, which was thought to have ruled for 400 years and was supposed to rule forever, was taken prisoner, blinded, and killed. All the people with leadership potential were marched to captivity in Babylon. For about 50 years Jerusalem was a ghost town. It was a time of nothing but bad news.
And then Isaiah began to prophesy good news to Israelites in exile in Babylon. They would be freed to return to their homeland and they would rebuild. Of course, it’s 540 miles from Babylon to Jerusalem as the crow flies, and they were not going to fly. They would have to walk about 900 miles along the caravan route. But Isaiah promised that God would help them on the way. In the wilderness and the desert of the caravan route, it would be as if God leveled the hills they would have to climb and filled up the ravines. Indeed, they did rebuild and even built a second temple, but the monarchy was never reestablished. The Babylonian rulers were succeeded by the Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans. The people of Israel had only a memory of the kingdom and a hope for their own king someday, an anointed one: “messiah” in Hebrew, translated as christos (meaning anointed one) in Greek.
The Gospel of Mark appropriated Isaiah’s prophecy and saw in John the Baptist the voice crying in the wilderness. John baptized people out in the desert wilderness and preached the coming reign of God. He was much better known than Jesus in their day, and he is even mentioned in contemporary chronicles of major events and people. Jesus probably started out as a disciple of John and then left to preach the kingdom in Galilee, either before or after John’s death.
John emphasized the importance of personal change to get ready for the kingdom. He urged people to turn their lives around, and he symbolically dunked them in the river to clean away their past bad actions. You may know that our word “baptize” comes from the Greek word meaning “dunk”—like the donuts. If John were around today, he’d be called Dunkin John.
Isaiah’s prophecy goes on, “Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!” Isaiah’s good news was the end of exile, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the restoration of Israel. But if we fast-forward 500 years to the first century CE, “good news” was the term used in official Roman proclamations to announce imperial news, such as a visit from the emperor or the crowning of a new emperor. For the first Christians, these two meanings of “good news” came together in Jesus, who came to begin God’s rule on earth.
John the Baptist lived 500 years after Isaiah, and we live 2000 years after John, but their good news is still fresh as we prepare for Christmas 2014. Both of them told us that now is the time to prepare the way of the Lord. He comes with power and a message of comfort. “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”