This reading starts today with the crowds asking questions of John. Many at this time believed that John was the messiah, and while his message of charity to the poor, and ministry to the sinful is consistent with Jesus’ and the that of the messiah, John never once allowed anyone to assign to him the role of the messiah, He always pointed to the one that would come after him, as we see in the last portion of todays reading. Thus, John then is the perfect embodiment of the “voice crying out in the wilderness” and completely fulfills the prophesy of Isaiah in Chapter 40 of his book.
Many believe that because of the old age of his parents that John was sent as a very young boy to live in the wilderness with the Essenes. There were several religous sects in practice during this time. We hear about the Scribes, Pharisees, and Saducees, in the bible, and there were also radical sects like the zealots, but there was at least one other we know of (from the dead sea scrolls) called the Essenes. The Essenes, were what you would call today, religious fundamentalist. They believed that the temple had been completely corrupted by the Pharasees, and Saducees, and so they lived in the desert, and litterally lived out the words from Isaiah, waiting for the signs of the coming of the messiah.
The Essenes were a cloistered society of men. They would prepare all of their own food, they would carry their own water, and they would do all of the things that were traditionally done by both men and women. In community, they wore white like the temple priests, and ate only food that was provided from the community in which they lived. But when outside of the community, they would only use what was provided by nature, wearing animal skins, and eating things like locusts, and wild honey.
It is believed by scholars though that John did not agree that the essenes should be totally insular, and not preach to the people about the truth of the temple and the coming of the lord. The average jew was left with only the temple, and the corrupt leaders running it. And the Gentiles had no one to preach the truth to them. So John began teaching and proclaiming outside his community, and as such it is beleived that he was excluded from the essene community, sent out into the desert alone. But because of his pius faith, he maintained his essene religious practices and was thus forced to wear animal skins and eat locusts and honey.
John began his ministry, by setting up camp in the northern area of the dead sea near the Jordan river. This location was pilgrimage route for many jews coming to the temple in Jerusalem. It was also a major trade route, that gentiles of all kinds would use to trade with the romans and jews in Jerusalem. So John began proclaiming the coming of the lord, and preparing them all for that moment through baptism.
The essenes had a daily practice of washing (baptizing) for forgiveness, but what John offered in the desert was different, He gave a one time baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. A clear precursor to our current sacrament of baptism. But this was a big deal, for a jew to wash his whole body in baptism, because it meant your whole body was ritually unclean… not something many jews would readily confess to a stranger in the desert, because it required a humiliating public display of guilt and a similar public admission of sin. This kind of ritual washing was only ever done by a jew at the temple, and was performed with a temple priest, and only done so that one could enter the temple, and obtain forgiveness of sins through ritual sacrifice. But John was offering this same forgiveness, as a stand-in for the priests at the temple.
Nevertheless, many flocked to John, and sought his baptism. I think that this points to the fact of how corrupt the Pharisees and Saducees actually were, and to how much the average jew yearned for the temple sacrifices of old, and it also points to the general understanding that the coming of the messiah was imminent. The people knew the truth, even if the temple leaders refused to recognize it. And it is this difference that clearly show why those temple leaders were so upset with John for doing this, and ultimately killed him because of it.
Lastly, I want to mention the line from the end of this reading “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” This has always been a really confusing thing for me. Our church says that our baptism is not valid unless it is in the “name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” But John only says “the Holy Spirit and Fire.” Was John mistaken, or was this a translation error. Greater insigt can be found on this line in the Haydock bible commentary. And in that, he says that Fire was used in many places of the Bible to refer to both the Holy Spirit but also the divine love of the Father. So since John mentions both the Holy Spirit and Fire, and since the one that will come and offer this new baptism is Jesus, then the baptism that He will offer will be in the name of all three persons of the holy trinity. I know that it is a small thing, but for me it is another example of the inerrancy of scripture and proof of it’s divine inspiration.
So what is the message for us today. Simple, that the lord is coming symbolically at christmas, but also bodily, when he comes back to render his final judgement. The question is, are you ready? Are you prepared to welcome Him when He arrives. That is what we need to ponder during this season of advent, and to make straight the paths in our own lives for Him to come into our own hearts. Start today, the time is growing short, He will be here before you know it.
