It sounds strange and out of place to say it, but today's reading from Isaiah is already hinting at the resurrection, even before we come to speak of the Incarnation. In the special and heavenly light that shines around the coming of the Word into the world, all ordinary things are transfigured.
There is strong imagery in the reading from Isaiah where the weariness of a desert journey changes into a festive procession. The prophet is addressing the Jews on their return from exile in Babylon, what we biblically call the second exodus of God's people. The Jews had learned to endure their experience in Babylon, a foreign land. And that was the worst thing about the exile. "They had sunk roots in the foreign soil, and Jerusalem held no allure for them." (M. Frost)
What the Jews went through in the land of exile is exactly what we experience today. Many a time we do not even realise that what apparently makes us feel settled and happy, may become a source of suffering and discomfort.
The prophet Isaiah today invites us to open our eyes and see reality as it is. Christmas is at hand. But Christmas comes to make us feel uncomfortable, because our world cannot believe in peace; it is a world of suspicion, distrust, even of rejection of the prince of peace. Strictly speaking, Christmas is not a time of peace. Because whenever we open our eyes and see that things are not as they should be, we cannot be at peace.
The Incarnation demands that we neither retreat into a holier-than-thou Christian ghetto, nor give ourselves over to the values of secular culture. Christmas is not about the past but about the God who is coming. God assumed our human nature that we may experience salvation and wholeness. And the experience of salvation is depicted in today's readings, particularly in Isaiah and Matthew, through the healing of different disabilities. God's intervention will be accompanied by miraculous healings, which are the blessings of the messianic era.
In Jesus' time there was no single Jewish idea of the Messiah. That is the reason why John from prison sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether he is "the one who is to come". In answer, Jesus reinterprets the messianic expectations of his day. The rejection of John and Jesus by many of their contemporaries provided a parallel and a model for the rejection of the Gospel by other Jews later in Matthew's day. Just as not all Jews accepted the messages of John and Jesus, similarly not all Jews accepted the good news proclaimed in and by the Matthew's community. The same old story with us today.
John the Baptist had gathered a significant following among Jews of his day. At the beginning of his public career Jesus was also part of this movement. The account we have in today's Gospel was meant to help Matthew's community to position itself vis-à-vis the Pharisees and the Baptist movement. It tells us that Jesus performed the deeds of the Christ, and that therefore he is the Christ. The Church is called to undertake a similar identification procedure in dealing with the phenomenon of rejection on one hand, and pluralism on the other.
The Baptist is right in making us ask constantly whether the god we adore and follow is the real God. How can we know that? From what we concretely experience in the flesh; from the inner healings and blessings that change our way of living and make us experience the extraordinary in ordinary life.