3rd Sunday of Advent

A MAN NAMED JOHN WAS SENT FROM GOD
(Jn 1:6-8, 19-28)

A man named John was sent from God.
John means "God has given grace". God gave a great grace to Zechariah and Elizabeth, John.

He came to testify to the light.
John would bring others to believe in Jesus. The first two disciples of Jesus were John's disciples. John would say: "Look, there is the Lamb of God!"

He (John) was not the light.
True, yet according to Jesus, John was a burning and shining lamp.

When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, “Who are you?”
The Jews here refer to the Jewish religious leaders hostile to Jesus.

He (John) admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.”
The Hebrew for Christ is messiah. He is the expected Savior. Hence, Jesus Christ means "Jesus the Savior".

So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?”
Because of the prophet Malachi, the Jews believed that Elijah would come back and prepare the Messiah's coming. They identified John the Baptists as Elijah because his clothing and his character was similar to Elijah's.

“Are you the Prophet?”
Based on Deuteronomy, the Jews also expected the Messiah to be another Moses. And Moses was considered to be THE prophet. Hence, the Messiah was to be the Prophet who woul repeat on a greater scale the wonders of the exodus.

He (John) said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord."
The Jews were exiled in Babylon. The prophet tells the people that as in the time of the Exodus when he led his people from Egypt through the desert to the Promised Land, God will now lead them from Babylon through the desert back to the Jerusalem.

John is now the voice preparing God's people for a new Exodus--from slavery to sin to freedom as children of God through the leadership of Jesus, the new Moses.

But there is one among you whom you do not recognize.
The Jews were spiritually blind. Hence, they do not recognize the Messiah.

Whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.
Jewish servants do not do this. Only slaves. Hence, the humility of John the Baptist. Later he would say: He (Jesus) must increase. But I must decrease."

MESSAGE

“I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord.'"

How do we prepare for Christmas? John the Baptist tells us how. Let us put our lives in order. Let us set things aright. Let us turn away from sin and turn to God. Let us return to the right path.