“John the Baptist Baptizes People” – Nicholas Poussin (1635c)
My next door neighbors got married years ago. As a wedding present, I promised to make them a cheesecake. All they had to do was to tell me when they wanted it, and I would bake it and bring it over.
The busy years have come and gone. My neighbors have never taken me up on the offer of that cheesecake.
That unbaked, undelivered wedding present feels to me like a promise I haven’t kept, not quite a broken promise, because I could still bake it and take it to them.
But this promise does remain unfulfilled.
Maybe my neighbors think about that cheesecake once in a while and wonder whether or not it’s too late to ask me to keep my long ago promise to them.
Or maybe, which is most likely the case, they’ve just completely forgotten that I ever made such a promise, and they would be shocked to find me on their doorstep with a cheesecake.
Unlike my neighbors, the Israelites never forgot promises.
The Israelites were dogged people with very long memories. Although no prophets had spoken directly to them for over four hundred years, and God seemed to be silent, the Israelites remembered that God had promised them something.
“God, you promised us a Messiah, and we have NOT forgotten your promise!”
They may have been discouraged. Their hopes may have been burning low, like a bank of ashes in the fireplace at the end of the evening, when the roaring fire has almost burned itself out, but despite their discouragement, the people kept waiting and praying.
So no wonder they were electrified by the fact that suddenly, after all this time, a real live prophet had appeared and was proclaiming that God’s long ago promise of a Messiah was about to be fulfilled.
The people knew that John the Baptist was someone special.
When John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, had gone into the Holy of Holies for the only time in his life, as part of his priestly duty, Zechariah had been struck dumb by a message from God.
God was about to fulfill the promise that the Messiah would actually show up.
And the message that Zechariah had received from the angel had not only been about the Messiah, but also about a son for Zechariah and Elizabeth, an old and childless couple. They were going to have a son, and their son would go before the Lord to prepare the Lord’s way.
Isn’t that typical God, generosity beyond imagining!
Until the baby was born, and his parents named him John, and Zechariah had gotten his voice back, the people who had waited outside the temple that day for Zechariah to come out of the Holy of Holies could only guess at the divine message that had struck Zechariah dumb.
But they KNEW, just KNEW that the message was about God keeping God’s promise, and that promise must have to do with the Messiah since the person who went into the Holy of Holies every year was supposed to pray for the Messiah’s arrival.
The people must have gotten chills when they heard Zechariah proclaim as he held his newborn son, that the Lord, the God of Israel, had raised up for them a mighty savior, born of the house of God’s servant, David. Yes, they had been right!
The message HAD been about the Messiah!
They must have felt like laughing and crying when they heard that the Lord was about to keep the promise of mercy made to their ancestors, that the Lord was about to keep the holy covenant of promise, that the Messiah was on the way.
The Lord WAS, after all this time, going to save them from their enemies. They were about to be set free, for the Messiah would set them free.
They must have felt like leaping up and down in joy when they heard that they soon would be free to worship the Lord without fear, that they would be holy and righteous for the rest of their lives because the Messiah would be with them.
And then, Zechariah tells them that the little son in his arms is a prophet, a prophet who will prepare the way of the Lord, a prophet who will speak to the people, a prophet who will give them knowledge about their salvation, a prophet who will call them to repentance and the forgiveness of their sins, a prophet who will help them get ready for the Messiah’s arrival.
A prophet, speaking God’s words out loud, after over four hundred years of silence.
Zechariah tells them that they, who knew what it meant to dwell in the darkness and death dealing power of Rome—they were about to see the light of a dawn straight from God, light about to break out around them, the light of the Messiah who was on the way.
And sure enough, time flew by and before they knew it, some of these same people who heard Zechariah cry out with the good news at his son’s birth, were now going out to the wilderness to listen to Zechariah’s son, this John the Baptist, grown up into the prophet who was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
“Prepare the way of the Lord!” John preached.
Picture John the Baptist standing in the River Jordan, feeling all the history of prophesy flowing in those waters down around him, almost knocking him off his feet, those words swirling with the promises God had already spelled out through prophets like Isaiah.
Picture John the Baptist gazing toward what would be, the salvation of God realized for ALL PEOPLE!
No wonder masses of people came out into the wilderness to hear the prophet, John the Baptist. His words, washing over them, brought God’s ancient promises alive once more, and filled them with hope.
No wonder that they wanted to get in the water with John the Baptist and to be baptized, to be immersed in God’s promises, to be brought up out of the flowing water of the Jordan washed in God’s love, and dripping wet with hope that God’s promise of a Messiah was about to be realized.
Today, we stand downstream from those days. Two thousand years of history have washed over us. And so we have the gift of knowing more of the story than the people on the banks of the Jordan knew that day. We have the gift of knowing that God did fulfill the promise of a Messiah, for unto US and to all people, a son is born. Unto us, and to ALL PEOPLE, a son is given.
And because of this gift of Emmanuel, we enter the waters of baptism, just as the people on the banks of the River Jordan did all those years ago, thankful for God’s fulfilled promises realized in God’s son, Jesus. And at our baptisms, we make promises to God in gratitude for God’s gift of the Messiah, God with us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So today, on this second Sunday of Advent, as we think on these things, the words of Baruch ring true. Like the people who heard Zechariah proclaiming the good news when his son was born, like the people standing on the banks of the Jordan, hearing John the Baptist preach, we listen too.
But we listen with the knowledge of the fulfillment of God’s promise, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who has come to us, and has lived and died as one of us and is our King of Glory.
Now we too stand up and look toward the East, for we are watching for the fulfillment of the rest of God’s promise to us; Jesus, our King of Glory, coming again in glory and completing God’s everlasting reign of peace and love on this earth.
So as we wait, let’s promise to take off the garments of our sorrow and afflictions, and exchange all the misery in which we clothe ourselves for the beauty of the glory from God.
Let’s promise to put on our robes of righteousness, being right with God and with one another. And let’s put on our crowns that shine with God’s everlasting glory.
Baruch says, “Look East!” See all the people from all over the world gathered together, moving in a mighty stream toward God, rejoicing that God has remembered them.
And like those swirling waters of the Jordan that washed around John the Baptist, this swirling rejoicing crowd washes over and around us, and we are caught up and carried along with them. Let’s join in their joyful song, for God leads us, in the light of God’s glory, mercy and righteousness, toward the final realization of God’s reign of love and peace in us and on this earth.
We rejoice because we know that that God keeps God’s promises.
So people, look East, and sing today, for we see and know that Love the Lord is on the way.