December 10: 2nd Sunday of Advent

Mark 1:1-8

At the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, we are introduced to John the Baptist, the one who prophesied the imminent coming of the Messiah, the anointed one. 

When we hear John’s name or read about him, we tend to say, yes, that’s the guy who was baptizing people in the Jordan River and pointing the way to Jesus.   

But do we ever wonder why John, a rather eccentric person to say the least, attracted so many people to the wilderness of Judah where he was preaching? Mark wrote that “people of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him…” An exaggeration, certainly, but probably not a huge one. The Jewish people of John’s time were under Roman rule and were also oppressed by the elite classes. There was much unrest among them, and they found John’s message—a call for repentance and the announcement of the coming of one far greater than himself—to be truly attractive. And so they went to the Jordan to be baptized, to be purified in anticipation of the marvelous changes to come.   

There is much misery, unrest and injustice in our world today.  That goes without saying. The story of Jesus himself is used and misused in so many ways, to fit our own agendas. Perhaps during Advent and in the coming year, we can approach Jesus as if we were hearing about him for the first time, as if we were among the followers of John the Baptist. Perhaps we can listen to the words of Jesus, without any presumptions or biases.   

Then we can, like John the Baptist, point to Jesus in our own time and place. But we can do more than John did, for we have been baptized “with the Holy Spirit” and are now truly one with the Messiah. Do we believe this? And will we live accordingly?   

Have a blessed Advent. 

Sheryl Zabel