Messengers from John the Baptist

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent and it is only fifteen days before Christmas and by now, you must have noticed that our gospel readings these days focus on the life and times of St. John the Baptist, the precursor of the coming Messiah. The gospel reading today comes from Matt.11:2-11 about the messengers from John the Baptist.

“2 When John heard in prison of the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to him 3 with this question, “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” 4 Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see; 5 the blind regain their sight, the lame walk; lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. 6 And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

7As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. 9 Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

10 This is the one about whom it is written, “Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.’ 11 Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

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St. John the Baptist had only one role or mission in life as announced by the Angel Gabriel to his father Zechariah when he was making an offering inside the Temple in the Holy of Holies that his wife Elizabeth who was barren would bear a child and he will be named John.

If you read Luke 1:14-17 the Angel said, “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 and power 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.”

This last paragraph from the Angel Gabriel that John will go before the spirit and power of Elijah is very important to the Jews because prophets have proclaimed that before the Messiah would come, Elijah would first return. If you didn’t know, Elijah did not die and was taken up by God to heaven in a flaming chariot. Open the Old Testament to 2 Kings 2:11 which reads, “They were walking along, talking, when suddenly a fiery chariot and fiery horses appeared and separated the two of them. Then Elijah went to heaven in a windstorm.”

The prophesy that Elijah would return comes from the Book of Malachi which said, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.” This is the last time the name of Elijah is mentioned in the Old Testament.

I suggest that you should give some time to read the story of Elijah who is one of the most colorful characters in the Bible. In our visit to the Holy Land, we saw Elijah’s painting in Mt. Tabor because he appeared with Moses during the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, then in Mt. Carmel, he has a statue inside a cave where he proved to the Jews that their worship of Baal was wrong. He even caused the River Jordan to be divided so he could cross to the other side, just like what Moses did.

And in yesterday’s gospel in Matt.17:11 our Lord Jesus said, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things, but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” This was the first prophesy of the passion of our Lord.

So now that we have established that indeed, John the Baptist is two persons in one man as he is also Elijah, then the prophesy of the coming of the Messiah has been fulfilled. As we would read further on the life of John, after he baptized our Lord in the River Jordan, he said “Look at the lamb of God who take away the sins of the world, he must increase and I must decrease” Clearly in this passage, we know that John the Baptist knew with full confidence that Our Lord Jesus Christ was the Messiah who is to come.

Yet in today’s gospel, you will notice that John is having a crisis of confidence that he had to send his messengers to assure himself that his job had been done. Indeed in our spiritual life, God often tests us and withdraws his presence from us. But in today’s gospel our Lord gave his testimony of the greatness of John the Baptist to the messengers he sent and they believed.

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