Gaudete Sunday: John in the Dock

Delegates of the religious establishment arrive to ask John the Baptiser who he is.  His responses require a little unpacking.  First, he says he is not the Messiah.  What does that mean?  "Messiah" simply means anointed person and the Hebrew moshiach is used in Hebrew Scripture for anyone subjected to anointing for some person, e.g. someone being ordained to priesthood or to kingship.  Specialized use of the term really began with King Josiah who sought to reform both the religion and the state, made some headway, but ultimately failed.  Thereafter people began to speak of another monarch in the line of David who might come to straighten things out.  Many thought Messiah would arrive when Jewish fortunes were at a low ebb.

Expectations varied widely, some expecting a Messiah who would become the ideal Davidic king; others looking for two separate political and civil Messiahs.  In any event, all agreed that Messiah would throw off the oppressor (Rome) and restore Jewish statehood, then all of the other nations would see the brightness of Israel and convert to their God, whereupon the Kingdom of God -- a perfect world -- would appear, and the righteous dead would rise to join the party forever.  John the Baptiser makes it clear that he is not the one being awaited.

He is then asked whether he is Elijah.  Remember Elijah was assumed into heaven (the same language applied to Enoch and to our Lord's Blessed Mother).  People in Jesus' time and culture envisioned that to mean that the historic Elijah, never having tasted death, would simply return, in advance of the messianic age.  The Baptiser disavows that identity as well.

Finally he is asked "Are you the Prophet?"  That means the biblically-foretold Prophet like Moses.  John the Baptiser likewise disavows this identification and goes on to stay who he actually is:  a voice crying out in the desert, as foretold by Isaiah, a forerunner of the One the world awaits.  We understand in that identity a charismatic prophet sent to pave the way for Jesus, whose appearance comprises God's decision to reach out to humanity by sending one who will manifest the Divine, showing how God loves, lives, serves, and suffers with us.  It is all about divine initiative.

Two stories relating to Saints in the Episcopal Calendar to illustrate the point.  First, the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who resisted Nazism, denounced the Lutheran Church's support for Hitler, and was imprisoned.  Fortunately he was able to have writings smuggled out of the concentration camp.  In. 1943, he wrote a reflection on Advent saying that it was like his prison cell.  He said that he prayed and hoped and pottered around the room but eventually realized that the cell door could only be opened from the outside.  So, with our salvation.

Second, Saint C. S. Lewis, Anglican theologian once compared Advent to a time when faithful partisans are sitting in a hidden place listening to the wireless [radio] when the hearers learn of a rescue mission afoot.  Their king is going to parachute into their enemy-occupied territory to personally lead his followers.

The world today is in darkness, but the Light comes with Christmas, to open the door, to lead his people to liberation -- to set us free, so we can begin to set the world free.