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Second Sunday of Advent

December 9, 2018

Luke 3:1-6

Next week and the week after we shall hear of this one called: “The Baptist.” With great precision, Luke puts him into history – into time: Tiberius in his fifteenth year, Pilate is in Judea, Herod is in Galilee. It is Roman time. Annas and Caiaphas are High Priests. It is also Jewish time. What Luke reveals is real. It happens in time and is a matter of history. It is not a matter of the future. John emerges from the desert where trial and danger have prepared him and clarified his mission. He is strange and wild saying the same thing over and over: “Prepare the Way of the Lord.” His image of this Lord is wilder than he is. It is an image of wrath and punishment reflecting more the expectations of the time and these people oppressed by the Romans than the truth. The fact that people rally around him would suggest they liked the image of wrath. As is often the case, it was probably the “wish” of the people – that God would “give it to them” -those oppressors, those enemies, but not to them! And who comes? Jesus. It’s as though John suggests that Ivan the Terrible is coming, but a gentleman with a tennis racket comes instead! This is history, not the future. The spirit of anticipation in this season is not about what God is going to do. It has already happened. The spirit of anticipation in this season is about what we are going to do because of what has happened.

Fr. Tom Boyer