Advent 3- Mary and John the Baptist preparing the way

 

Isaiah 35:1-10; Luke 1:46b-55; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John the Baptist are probably the two major figures of Advent. And we have both of them featured in our readings today.

Mary’s song is a prophetic call for justice. A ‘prophetic’ call is a call to faithfulness to God and to live in a way that is consistent with that belief. It is to make God's desires known.

Last week we heard John calling for repentance, and to produce evidence of that repentance, as a way of preparing the way of the Lord.



Mary’s song, the Magnificat, is very well known in liturgical churches. In the Book of Common Prayer it is used at every service of Evening Prayer. … It is a song that is much like other songs that we find in the Bible- Like Miriam’s song, Debra’s song, and Hanna’s song. Mary’s song is a part of the bridge of continuity from the Old Testament to the new thing that God is about to do.

The Magnificat has been a rallying prayer for the oppressed in many places. The Magnificat is a song from the lips of a seemingly powerless, marginalized woman, living under an oppressive empire. It is a joyful song that celebrates God, and declares the coming salvation of God that was promised by the prophets.

She praises God saying, 

“For he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant” (v48).

 Perhaps this brings to mind the humble state of God’s servants enslaved in Egypt- the One who heard their cry. This is that same God. The God who has done great things in the past is about to do another great and merciful thing.

Like other prophets, a warning and promise is given to the proud and the poor- 

“He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty” (v51-53).

With Jesus’ arrival, comes both salvation and judgement. They are two sides to the same coin. All that is not aligned with the Kingdom must be judged and realigned. Justice will be made a reality in an unjust world. … Mary has a sophisticated theological understanding of the implications of her child coming into the world. She sees with the eyes of the kingdom. The kingdom judges the value of a person in a very different way than the world does. She sees the tyrants’ fragile thrones in light of God’s eternal throne. And she sees that many who are being stepped-on have God’s attention.



John the Baptist, too, is a prophet. Perhaps the last of the Old Testament prophets. Jesus says he is even more than a prophet. John didn’t minister from the centers of political and religious power. He wasn’t preaching in the temple courts. He went into the wilderness, and dressed like a prophet, calling the people to repentance. He had the words of the prophets on his lips. Like Mary, he is also a bridge of continuity from the Old Testament into the new thing that God is about to do. …

The wilderness was very symbolic. When the people were rescued from slavery in Egypt, they entered the wilderness. It was there that they received the Law. John was calling them to re-enter the Promised Land through the Jordan River, just as their ancestors did. He was calling them to re-orient themselves towards God.

We tend to have a very negative view of repentance. But those who were flocking to John to be baptised did not seem to have such a negative view. In repentance, the people saw hope. The prophets Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah record God as saying, 

“I am the Lord who does not remember wickedness, provided one turn from his evil ways and all his iniquities so that he may live” (Ez 18:21-22); 

“I have no pleasure in the death of anyone… so turn and live” (Ez 18:32); 

“Turn to me, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn to you” (Is 45:22); 

“If you turn back, I will take you back,” (Jer 15:19).

 God desires repentance the way a doctor desires a patient to eat right, quit smoking, and go for regular walks. Primarily, repentance means turning to God. Repentance is the process of turning towards God in all parts of our lives. Repentance is turning to the One who loves us, and created us, and wants the best for us.… And all this was to prepare the way for the Messiah.



Mary and John are also very human. … In Mark chapter 3 we read about the family of Jesus seeming to have doubts about him, and Mary seems to be among them, though we don’t know what she is thinking directly. We read,

“Then [Jesus] went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ … 

 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’” (Mk 3:19-21, 31-35).

 The activities of Jesus seemed to cause no small level of concern among his family members.



Confusion about who Jesus is is a running theme in the Gospels. Jesus asks his disciples at one point 

“Who do people say that I am?” (Matt 16:13).

 And a variety of answers are given. … In our Gospel reading today, John seems to have become impatient and started to doubt. He is in prison. The messiah is supposed to be walking the earth. Justice is supposed to be pouring over the land like a flooding river. Among many other acts of justice that would come to pass when the Messiah comes, those who are unjustly imprisoned are supposed to be released. But John is in prison, and the messiah is walking the earth? Something doesn’t seem right here. He sends word by his disciples to ask if he really is the one.

Jesus tells John’s disciples to consider the fruit of his ministry- 

“the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matt 11:5).

 These are the first fruit of the Messianic Age. We see these spoken about in various places in Isaiah- 

“On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.”; 

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. …“; 

“Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. …”. 

And we read, “… he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, …” (Is 29:18; 35:5-6; 26:19; 61:1-2; 42:7).

 … One of the things that confused many people was that they expected the Messianic age to be all or nothing. It was here or it wasn’t here. Jesus seemed to be bringing it a piece at a time, which wasn’t the expectation. He was going to grow the kingdom like a mustard seed- like a weed, that escapes the farmer’s notice and then spreads through the fields.



We are constantly reminded throughout the Gospels that Jesus doesn’t fit the expectations of anyone but his Father in heaven. He doesn’t fulfill the expectation of Messiah as precisely outlined by the religious leadership of his people. It seems as though he doesn’t completely fulfill the expectations his family had of him. Neither is he going to completely fulfil the expectations of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for him!

Like John, we might feel ourselves trapped in some kind of prison- a prison of loneliness, or sickness, or grief, or any number of other ways that we can feel stuck. And it is easy to doubt at those times. We might call out to Jesus, “are you the one who is coming to help me?” … Christ’s response to John is to ask him to trust him. He is at work. Some of it can be seen, but maybe it is not according to human expectations.

Standing before Christ, there are no experts. Not his mother. Not John the Baptist. They both had to become disciples and be directed by Jesus. No one can direct Christ, telling him what must be done, apart from the One he calls “Father”. To be his disciples, means we follow, without always knowing the way. We can’t impose our ideas on him, about how he should be acting. As disciples, we humble ourselves to his direction. We fix our eyes on him, … Rather than on what we think he should be doing. And he asks us to trust that he is at work. AMEN