15*

Sunday 15 December

John the Baptist

By George Palmer

Luke 3:1-6

In Advent, we embark on a spiritual journey, preparing ourselves to marvel afresh at the glory of the incarnation. On any journey, we rely upon steadfast signposts to guide our path. John the Baptist’s life and ministry represent perhaps the greatest signpost heralding the coming of Christ. His was a life of faithful humility which pointed beyond himself to the saviour he proclaimed.

We might be tempted to conclude that the story of John the Baptist is all about the message; God using an otherwise ordinary man to proclaim something remarkable. However, John’s life is itself a remarkable one. The angel Gabriel appeared to his father Zechariah, a priest in the temple, proclaiming that his post-menopausal wife Elizabeth would miraculously bear a son. Struck dumb through his disbelief, Zechariah was unable to speak throughout Elizabeth’s pregnancy (Luke 1.11-20). John’s birth is therefore in itself a miracle. And his faithful, lifelong proclamation of what must have appeared a truly radical message, was itself remarkable.

God’s work in each of our lives is similarly miraculous, whether through truly transformational impacts or merely within the mundanity of our daily routines. In bearing the message of his incarnation, death, and resurrection, we too are called to a remarkable work. It is God at work within each of us that makes us similarly remarkable. Each of our lives is a precious gift from God, each of our callings is to serve as co-creators with God, and in our very being we bear the image of God. In living lives responsive to God’s call and faithful to his will, we too point beyond ourselves and stand as testaments to God’s glory and faithfulness. Yet, we also point to the work ongoing within us, to the miracle of human life, and to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit alive in each of us. Our lives stand, like John the Baptist’s, as both heralds of something already at work and something that is to come through God’s inestimable love and power.

Let us remember, then, that through God, both the message and the messenger are remarkable.

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Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,  make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,  and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,  and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’