Is 11:1-10; Rom 15:4-9; Matt 3:1-12
The Desert Preparation for the Arrival of the Era of the New David.
Jesse is the father of David, the king of Israel. David is taken to be the ideal king of Israel, and the reign of Israel (especially Judah) is Davidic. However, some other kings who come from Davidic lineage were not like David (e.g Ahaz, Is 7:9, 13). From Jesse, a king after God’s heart came (David), but the kings who are traced to David did not behave like David. Hence, a stock will rise from Jesse, is God’s plan of going back to the root that produced a
good fruit. This is a plan of God raising another David for his people.
This prophecy of Isaiah came in the time when Judah is suffering both bad governance from its leader and the external attacks from enemies (Is 7-10). As the spirit of the Lord rested on David, so will the spirit of God rest on this new David. With “the spirit of God” ( ה ), he will reward righteous ness
and punish wickedness. This spirit of the Lord includes: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD (v.2). With these qualities which will characterize both the person and the actions of the king, he will achieve something, which not even David achieved: He will take the world of humans and animals back to the garden of Eden. That is, he will establish a world of the original
plan of God at creation. He will take the world back to the Genesis, where no one fears another for anything, where everything lives for and with other things; where there will be no distinction of persons or ranks.
In order to be ready for the arrival of this king and his peaceful reign, John the Baptist quotes the same Isaiah who gives the prophecy of this Godly king and says: Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.'” (Matt. 3:3). John presents himself as the voice in the wilderness which stands to help the people to prepare for the coming of this king. This Johannine preparation of the people takes two forms: the action of John (baptizing the people), and the people’s response (confessing their sins) (Matt 3:6). For this preparation, the people were going to where John was residing in the wilderness. The imagery of John staying in the wilderness and the people going to him there, shows a return to Israelites desert experience which serves as God’s preparation of them and forming them into becoming his true heritage who are to possess the Promised land. After many years of staying in Egypt, the land of their slavery, God’s time to free the people came, and he sent them Moses. There were two steps in God coming into the life of the people of Israel.
The first was to free them from Pharaoh and Egypt. The second was to form them into his people. None of these steps was easy. It was not easy to free the people from the bondage of Egypt in which they have lived for several years. What is important here is that the people wanted to be liberated and they called to God for help (Ex 2:23). And then God, relying on their cry for help (Ex 2:23-25) came to save them (Ex 3:7-10). He led them through the Red
Sea, and by so doing, gave them a new birth. We can be in bondage of sin and error, in bondage of injustice and war, in bondage of corruption and disease, but unless we begin to be dissatisfied with it, and begin to struggle to be liberated, and then recourse to God through our sincere cries
for redemption, we would not blame God for keeping quiet on us. In most times, God allows us to first say no to things keeping us under bondage and open ourselves up for redemption, and then he comes in to save.
The second stage is God acquiring the people as his own. Having freed the people from their oppressors, God decides to form Israel into his possessed people. In order to do this, God takes them into a wilderness. Wilderness has the plan of helping the people to shade off all the bed lives they have lived or learnt to live in Egypt. In the wilderness, the people were to learn how to trust God fully and surrender themselves entirely to God. They were to learn to discard every other loyalty they have for any other deity and recognize God as the only true one. They were to learn how to live as one family of God, with God as their Father. Through the wilderness, the people entered into covenant with God. The desert experience became very important in the lives of the people of Israel because it became a moment of formation that will
help to prepare them on how to live in the Land which God has promised them. The aim was that when people of Israel finally get to the Land, where they will live with other nations surrounding them, the way they live will be different from others, such that anyone who sees them act, would recognize immediately the difference in their beliefs and in their way of life.
Hence, when John the Baptist invites the people into the wilderness for baptism and confession of their sins, he aims to re-enact the mystery of the redemption of the people and their moment of formation in the wilderness for forty years. As God led the ancient Israelites through the Red Sea (Ex 14), thereby giving them a new birth, so is baptism of John in Jordan (Matt 3:5-6) bringing them again into God’s people. And as people learnt to renounce their evil ways and learn to live for God in the wilderness, so is the confession of sins of the people (Matt 3:6) preparing them for the era of the new David. So also for us, we are called to have this desert experience where we allow ourselves, and open ourselves up for God to chisel us into his true children. The Church has provided this Advent season to be a desert moment for us,
when we reject the bad lives we have learnt in Egypt, and learn to live again as God’s children.
In this desert, we have to face ourselves, our evils, our egos, our sexual appetites, our bad human relationships, our unforgiving spirits, our excess love for material things, our neglect for things of God, our lukewarmness to holy life etc.
To the Pharisees and the Sadducees who think that it was enough that they were descendants of Abraham, John the Baptist reminds that what saves is not who one is but what one does. Descendants are God’s precious gift to Abraham (Gen 17:4-6because of Abraham’s faithfulness and total submission to God (Gen 12:4-6; 15:6). To be a descendant of Abraham, therefore, is not just to be one by birth but also, even more importantly, to live as he did. John
reminds them that unless they bear fruit (καρπὸν) worthy of repentance, their Abrahamic ancestry will not save them. To prepare for the coming of the peaceful reign of this King, our lives must bear witness to whom we are. We must be active in doing good. Holiness of life, or life in Christ does not only mean avoidance of sin or constant plea for God’s mercy. It even all
the more requires giving out good qualities.
Holiness is not an absence of sin, but the presence of good acts in love of God. That one does not commit sin does not make him/her a saint. What bears witness to what we are is what we do. That is, an active testimony with good qualities in our relating with others. If we keep on deceiving ourselves that by being Christians, we are already members of God’s kingdom, and we fail to bear good fruits by living in ways that justify what we are, then we shall be cut down and be thrown into the fire (v.10). How can we say that we are the children of the peaceful King who makes Lion and Ox to eat together, when we cause wars and enmities with the words of our tongues? How can we say that we are living in expectation of the coming of the Messiah when we constantly support evil going on in the society? How can we say we are the true inheritors of God’s kingdom of peace and love when we are only Christians inside the church on Sundays? Our way of living must bear witness to whom we are.
This is not an easy task. It is not something we do today and hope to achieve an immediate result. It is a life that calls for continuous renewal and steadfastness. This is why St. Paul, in the second reading (Rom 15:4-9) emphasizes the importance of not giving up in doing good. When God sees us refusing to surrender to our weaknesses; when he sees us falling and getting up; when he sees us making sincere effort everyday to be a better person; when he sees us remaining steadfast to the holy teachings we have received even when things are becoming more difficult for us; when he sees our resolution in not getting a result through bad means, even when the whole world is doing it, then, as St Paul says, he will come to help us because of our steadfastness in goodness.
May God lead us through the desert and give us the courage to stand up tall for him, in a world where evil is becoming celebrated and honored. May He make us worthy to be called citizens of his peaceful kingdom, Amen.
Fr. Chukwuezugo Nnamah