The Scripture Readings of December 23 (Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24; Luke 1:57-66) are about John the Baptist. Because Advent Season is the critical period to prepare for the coming of the incarnated Christ, we have been reading and reflecting and meditating on John the Baptist and his teaching on how we are to prepare and to make the way of the Christ’s coming, ever since Second Sunday of Advent. So, we have also read and reflected on Jesus himself testifying to John the Baptist in the Gospel Reading of Thursday of Second Week of Advent (Matthew 11:11-15). This reminds that Christ himself value John the Baptist for what he had done to prepare for his coming as to fulfill Malachi’s prophecy, which is in the First Reading (Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24). And John the Baptist spoke as the voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way of Christ’s coming (i.e. Isaiah 40:3), as in the Gospel Readings of Second Sunday of Advent (Matthew 3:1-12(A)//Mark 1:1-8(B)//Luke 3:1-6) and in the First Reading of Tuesday of Second Week of Advent (Isaiah 40:1-11) .
So, we make sure we really know John the Baptist,
whom Jesus honored as the greatest man of all born of women under the old
covenant (Matthew 11:11a). And it was John the Baptist, whose preparatory
ministry for the coming of the incarnated Christ bridged between the period of
the old covenant, which ends with John the Baptist, and the period of the new
covenant, which was brought by the incarnated Christ. We cannot afford to celebrate the coming of
the incarnated Christ as Jesus being born of Mary without knowing who his
forerunner, John the Baptist is, and to understand the significance of his
preparatory ministry (i.e. Matthew 11:2-19).
Luke tells that it all began with the angel of the
Lord (Luke 1:11), named Gabriel (Luke 1:19)’ s foretelling of Elizabeth’s
pregnancy to her and her husband, Zechariah, a priest (Luke 1:5-25). This
preceded the Annunciation made by Gabriel to Mary on her status of God’s most
favored one and therefore to serve Him as the mother of the Son of God the Most
High, as well as, the miraculous pregnancy of Elizabeth (Luke 1:26-38). Then,
Mary rushed to visit and cared for Elizabeth, and Elizabeth, being filled with
the Holy Spirit, blessed Mary and the fruit of her womb, namely, the incarnated
Christ in Mary’s womb (Luke 1:39-45). In response, Mary praised and glorified
God the Almighty and prophesized how God’s will on love-mercy and justice is to
be done by her son in her womb, as Christ, the Son of God the Most High (Luke
1:46-55), and stayed with Elizabeth and took care of her for about three months
(Luke 1:56).
And the time for John the Baptist to come out of
Elizabeth’s womb has come, six month before the birth of the incarnated Christ
of Mary! So, the Gospel Reading (Luke 1:57-66) is the description of the birth
of John the Baptist and the rest of the world responded to it.
Because she had been barren and already in her
advanced ages (Luke 1:7), her neighbors thought that Elizabeth gave birth to a
son by the great mercy of God and shared her joy (Luke 1:58). And on the eighth
day from the birth, he was circumcised to inscribe God’s covenant with His
people through Abraham (Genesis 17:9-12; Leviticus 12:3) and given the name,
“John”, by his mother, Elizabeth, though his father, Zechariah tried to name
him “Zechariah” after the son’s father, as it was rather customary for a son to
be named after his father (Luke 1:59-60). The name, “John”, which means, “God
is gracious” in Hebrew, had been given by Gabriel when Elizabeth’s pregnancy
was told to Zechariah (Luke 1:13) but not to Elizabeth.
The neighbors who came to congratulate Elizabeth and Zechariah on having a son and his brit milah ceremony were rather surprised to hear Elizabeth naming her son, “John”, because it was an unfamiliar name to this priestly family of Elizabeth and Zachariah (Luke 1:61). So, they wanted ask Zechariah, the father, his opinion. But, because he was silenced by Gabriel for having doubt of a prospect of having a child when foretold by him (Luke 1:18-20), they had to ask him by making a sign. In response, Zechariah wrote in a tablet, “Is name is John”, to their surprise (Luke 1:62-63). Immediately, then, Zechariah became able to speak again (Luke 1:64), as told by Gabriel (Luke 1:20). And, everyone was filled with awe to God’s great mercy upon this aged priestly couple, Mary’s relatives, Elizabeth and Zechariah, for giving a son, named, “John”, and people talked about this all over Judea (Luke 1:65). Meanwhile, everyone who heard about this wondered what this child, the son born to Elizabeth and Zechariah in their advanced ages, was going to become (Luke 1:66).
Obviously, to those who heard about how John was
born to Elizabeth and Zechariah had no idea that he would become the one
prophesized by Malachi about 400 years before, as God’s messenger for the new
covenant to fulfill the unfulfilled old covenant through conversion and renewal
of God’s people to be blessed (Malachi 3:1-21), as the forerunner to Christ’s
coming to called for penance as Elijah the Tishbite called for conversion
during the spiritually dark time of wicked Ahaz and Jezebel (1 Kings 17:1-2
Kings 2:12)(Malachi 3:22-24).
With this, we can better understand why John the
Baptist was the voice calling in the desert for penance to make the way of
Christ’s coming, fulfilling the voice in Isaiah 40:3, and baptizing those who
repent – until the incarnated Christ appeared to him (Matthew 1:1-1//Mark
1:1-11//Luke 3:1-23a). In fact, Zechariah knew pretty much of all this when
Gabriel announced him of Elizabeth’s surprise pregnancy, as he specifically
said to Zechariah:
Do
not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife
Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have
joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in
the sight of the Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be
filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many
of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the
spirit of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient
to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord (Luke 1:13-17).
This announcement of the birth of John the Baptist
to Zechariah makes a parallel to the annunciation of the birth of the
incarnated Christ, who comes after him:
Do
not be afraid, Mary, for you have fond favor with God. Behold, you will
conceive in our womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. And he will
be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give
him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob
forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end
(Luke 1:30-33). The Holy Spirit will come
upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the
Son of God (Luke 1:35).
So, John the Baptist said before Jesus, the
incarnated Christ appeared to him:
I
am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me
is mightier than I. I am not worthy t carry his sandals. He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear
his threshing floor and gather is wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will
burn with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:11-12).
And this statement of John tells that he is the one
prophesized in Malachi 3:1-24.
One interesting on this announcement of John’s birth
to Zechariah is that John was to be consecrated as Nazirite for his abstinence
from wine and other alcoholic drinks (Luke 1:15), to make his total devotion to
serving God (Numbers 6:1-4), as Samson
(Judges 13:4-5) and Samuel (1 Samuel 1:11) were. And this is reflected in these words of Jesus
when he reproached those who did not believe in him, as they did not know who
Jesus really was and who John the Baptist was:
For
John come neither eating nor drinking, and they said, “He is possessed by a
demon”. The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, “Look, he is a
glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”. But wisdom is
vindicated b her works (Matthew 11:18-19; cf. Matthew
9:10-13).
As the arrival of the incarnated Christ is imminent,
in just 2 days, we should know by now who’s coming we have been preparing for.
And it also means to know who his forerunner, whose teaching on preparation
that we have listened and followed, is. And it is John the Baptist. Through
today’s readings (Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24; Luke 1:57-66) and other narratives relevant to these, such
as Luke 1:5-25, help us understand John the Baptist, the Christ’s precursor.
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