THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS

The ministry of John the Baptist provides the prelude for Jesus’ public ministry, and Luke carefully specifies the historical setting.  Some of the names of rulers may mean little to us now, but they make the point that Jesus lived at a definite moment in history, in a definite place.

John preached repentance and baptized people in water as a sign of cleansing and repentance.  John the Baptist came to prepare the people of Israel for the Messiah and point him out to the people as the “Christ.”

The Jewish people’s homeland was occupied by the Romans.  There was oppression.  The procurator was Pontius Pilate.  Herod the King was brutal and ruthless.  Ananias and Caiaphas were not the most revered high priests.  The world that Jesus was born into was a difficult one.

John was a prophet.  He prepares the way for the Messiah.  He  fulfills the prophecies of the Old Testament.  One prophecy in particular is associated with John, that of Isaiah Chapter 40.  In that prophecy we hear about the “voice” who calls out in the wilderness the to prepare for God’s coming back to His people.

Certainly John’s location in the Judean wilderness by the Jordan would evoke great hope and expectation from the Jews of his day.  The specific location was where Joshua led Israel across to enter the Promised Land.  The Jordan was the threshold of the promise, and John’s summoning Israel to return to the waters of the Jordan for the forgiveness of sins meant that he was asking the people of Israel to make a fresh start.  He invited them to a new beginning. Once again, at the Jordan, a new Joshua (Jesus) would lead them to the longed for promises of God.

God Bless

Msgr. Powell