Advent 3

Advent 3 (John 1:6-8;19-28)

“Among you stands one whom you do not know.”

There is an old saying: you can’t see the forest for the trees. Sometimes we are so close to a problem we can’t even identify the problem. And. Sometimes we are so close to the solution we can’t accept it.

A skeptic once discussed the challenges of faith with a priest. The priest was having difficulty understanding the skeptic. The priest gently asked: are you concerned that God is not speaking? The skeptic replied: No, I’m worried that God is speaking but we are not listening.

The Bible records that most people most of the time do not listen to God when God speaks. The kings, aristocrats and merchants of Israel even hired false prophets to contradict the message of the true prophets.

Certainly, King Herod did not like what John the Baptist had to say. Herod recognized that John was indeed a true prophet of God. John, as with all of the prophets, observed the world around him. He spoke the truth of human experience. He held his generation accountable for their rebellion against the natural, moral and spiritual laws God had revealed through Moses.

Many people came to John out of fear. They feared punishment. They accepted the outward and visible sign of repentance but lacked the inward and spiritual commitment to personal transformation.

Others simply found John exciting. They viewed him as someone new and different and for the moment entertaining. King Herod enjoyed listening to John in much the same way modern people enjoy listening to popular radio or TV evangelists. Sadly, Herod was not willing to act on John’s call to repentance. He feared his people, his nobles, the Romans and perhaps significantly- his wife- more than he feared God. In the end, at the moment of choice, Herod chose to kill John.

As with John, as with all of the true prophets of God, so with Jesus. John declared that the one the people had expected God to send was already among them. Sadly, Jesus was not who the people expected and not what they wanted.

John issued the call to repent and prepare. He announced the real presence of God with us in Jesus Christ. People missed the prophetic message. Some were not willing to listen. Their minds were made up and nothing that John said could change them. They were lost in the inherited beliefs of their culture.

Some people listened, found the message curious and interesting, but could not hear the reality of divine grace. They were lost in their own demands for God to do their will not His will.

And some people listened, heard but could not accept the prophetic proclamation. Like Herod, they were lost in fear- fear of losing what they valued more than a personal relationship with the living God, fear of losing money and power, fear that following God would mean giving up what they really wanted.

John the Baptist, the last of the prophets warned his generation “Among you stands one whom you do not know.”

This warning echoes throughout history in all cultures including our own. Jesus is God with us. Jesus is the Way of being human that brings us the greatest possible happiness. Jesus is the unknown real presence of God who invites us to know him personally at all moments of our lives. Jesus is God telling us: I want to be known. I am real. I am here. I am Jesus.