Benefits of Believing: Benefits of the Kingdom of God brought by Christ - Thursday of Third Week of Advent

As read om the Gospel Reading of yesterday (Wednesday of Third Week of Advent), Luke 7:18-23, Jesus responded to the question from the two disciples of John the Baptist, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” (Luke 7:19) with these words:

Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me (Luke 7:22-23).

By that time, Jesus has been ministering in Galilee, exposing himself to many with his teaching of the salvific Good News, fulfilling Isaiah 61:1-3, and restoring broken life, fulfilling Isaiah 35:5-6, reflected in Luke 7:21-23. Yet, not all those who had encountered Jesus recognized him as the Christ, whose public appearance was prophesized (Psalm 40:8-10; Malachi 3:20; cf. Luke 1:78; Zechariah 9:9) and announced by John the Baptist as he called people to prepare for Christ’s coming by repenting, being baptized, and converting (e.g. Luke 3:3-18), as the prophesized as the voice calling from the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3), God’s messenger (Malachi 3:1),  and as the returned Elijah to turn people’s hearts back to God before the coming of Christ (Malachi 3:23-24; cf. Matthew 17:12//Mark 9:13). Some people were rather hostile to Jesus (e.g. Luke 4:20-30). And self-righteous people, such as Pharisees and Scribes, complained about Jesus and his disciples not fasting as John the Baptist and his disciples did (Luke 5:30-39). They also complained about Jesus for violating the Sabbath law, not understanding why Jesus is the Lord of Sabbath, resulting in their intention to silence him (Luke 6:1-11).

Following immediately the Gospel Reading of Wednesday of Third Week of Advent (Luke 7:18-23), the Gospel Reading of Thursday of Third Week of Advent (Luke 7:24-30) describes Jesus giving a public testimony to John the Baptist, because those who were unable to see Jesus as the Christ were also ignorant about who John the Baptist really was and his prophesized ministry as the forerunner of Christ.

So, Jesus indicating that those who failed to recognize John the Baptist correctly are like those who see nothing but a reed swayed by the wind and those who would illusorily think of the presence of a person dressed luxuriously where John the Baptist was conducting his preparatory ministry for the appearance of Christ (Luke 7:24-25). Then Jesus asked his audience if even those who recognized John the Baptist only regarded as a prophet, and reminded that John was actually more than a prophet, because he was not only the last prophet in the old covenant but to lead the critical transition from the old covenant era into the new covenant era brought by Christ, as prophesized (Luke 7:26-27), citing Malachi 3:1.

Then, Jesus shifted a gear in his testimony from John the Baptist in the context of the end of the old covenant to the new covenant, for which he was sent. So, he said:

I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he (Luke 1:28).

What did Jesus mean by this statement? Did he try to belittle John the Baptist though praising him as a greater man among those born of women?

This is Jesus’ hyperbolic way to address the Kingdom of God, which he touched upon in his first teaching (Luke 4:43).

The Kingdom represents the new covenant, for which the Word-God (John 1:1) was incarnated to be send to dwell among us (John 1:14), through the womb of Blessed Virgin Mary, the husband of Joseph, by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-35), because God loved us (John 3:16). And everyone worthy to be redeemed into the Kingdom are better than even those who were great under the old covenant, including John the Baptist. In this, John rather represents the old covenant as its greater figure, for Jesus to say that the least in the Kingdom is greater than him. Through this statement, Jesus made it clear what John the Baptist was for and what he was for, in regard to the old covenant, the new covenant, which is for the Kingdom, and the transition from the old to the new.

So, what was the audience response?

Those who were baptized by John the Baptist, such as repenting tax collectors, received Jesus’ testimony to John the Baptist affirmatively while those who were too self-righteous to be baptized by John, such as the Pharisees and scholars of the law, rejected Jesus’ testimony (Luke 7:29-30).  The split between those who believe and did not but reject were also a result when Jesus gave the discourse on the living bread of life for salvation (John 6:64-70).

Do we accept and believe what Jesus said in his testimony to John the Baptist? Do we understand and believe the significance of John in relation to the coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God?

As Jesus said to Nicodemus, those who believe in Christ are not to be condemned but those who reject are already condemned (John 3:18), as those who believe are in the light but those reject are in darkness (John 3:19; cf. Isaiah 9:1-6). And this split remained all the way until the time of Jesus’ Passion into death (i.e. John 12:37-50).

Those who believe Jesus as the Christ, whose appearance that John the Baptist had prepared, and those who believe the words of Jesus, including his testimony to John the Baptist, are with and in the light of salvation (i.e. John 3:18-19). In fact, Christ is the light and salvation, in which we find the refuge (Psalm 27:1; John 8:12), the great light to lighten the darkness of the world (Isaiah 9:1), for he is the sun of justice (Malachi 3:22) to rise (Luke 1:78).

The First Reading (Isaiah 54:1-10), which is taken from the last portion of the Book of Comfort (Consolation), Deutero Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55). And this is for those who believe. To those who do not – those who reject John the Baptist and Jesus, the jubilation in God’s promise will never be experienced. But those who believe shall taste the joy of the new covenant, which leads to the Kingdom, as poetically reflected in Isaiah 54:1-10. And this reminds that it is because God’s covenant love-mercy-kindness, חֵסֵד/chesed/hesed, never fall away from those who believe and remain faithful (Isaiah 54:10; cf Psalm 136).

See what we have been preparing for? We are bound for all the great benefits to rejoice in the Kingdom, which Jesus points to in the Gospel Reading (Luke 7:24-30), as reflected in the First Reading (Isaiah 54:1-10), because we are making progress in our Advent preparation to welcome the incarnated Christ in our hearts, as we have listened to John the Baptist.