Today’s readings: Isaiah 11, 1-10; Romans 15, 4-9; Matthew 3, 1-12.
John the Baptist started his preaching in the desert, and it is with the desert that he is identified in the way he dresses, eats and preaches. Probably this is what made of him a major theme for iconographers.
Among other icons, the so-called Deisis (meaning prayer and supplication) icon is found in practically every orthodox Church. It is a representation of the glorious Christ, the Pantocrator and judge, with Mary the Mother of God on his right and John the Baptist on his left.
Christ is the judge, and the mercy of wisdom is represented by two intercessors, Mary and John the Baptist. They are the two last prophets, one “the servant of the Lord”, the other “the bridegroom’s friend”. They are both dominating figures during Advent, Mary through her maternal womb and John by preparing the way and eventually identifying Jesus as the Christ, the lamb of God.
The picture is completed in today’s liturgy, with Isaiah’s imagery of the shoot that springs from the stock of Jesse and of the harmony between animals unusually living peacefully together. This imagery strongly portrays the birth of something new, so characteristic of Christmastime. Jesse is David’s father, and by referring to him Isaiah reminds us of the great messianic promise. From an unfaithful generation, an unexpected new beginning emerged.
John the Baptist’s preaching is radical in view of the birth of a new world from the Spirit. From the desert he urges people to “prepare a way for the Lord” and this makes him resemble significantly the prophet Elijah, the founder of biblical monasticism.
The Baptist’s mission is a brief rite of passage marked by impatience. His warnings are mainly against false imagination and perceptions. His charges against the Pharisees and the Sadducees are characteristic of Matthew’s gospel and continue to be repeated as the gospel proceeds. The themes that the Kingdom of God is at hand and that the time is short remain major concerns for Matthew and his community.
How many times and in how many circumstances we long for a new beginning that remains out of reach. Life very often turns into routine, and we lose the strength even to dream of what we long for.
We often describe our big crowded cities as modern deserts of solitude. Isaiah speaks of the “spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the lord” that can put rhythm back into our lives.
Things change. As Martin Buber writes, the worst of Israel’s experience of exile in Babylon was that the people learned to endure it. Evil, injustice and all that brings discomfort in life can become routine to the point of leaving us unaffected. Christ entered history so that we may not remain negatively immune to all that kills the spirit in us.
Even today, as at the time of the Baptist, we need to be made aware of the crises we are in so that nothing takes us unawares. As today’s gospel says, John the Baptist enters the scene at a moment of routine crisis for God’s people. The Baptist’s role was to shake the foundations of a false religion, to bring people to their senses, to provoke people to think and look at reality in the face.
Maybe we need the Baptist type of Christians today. We need the capacity to know and acknowledge reality in depth and for what it means. The words of the Baptist that “the axe is laid to the roots of the trees” are an explicit warning against superficiality. Yet, in so many aspects of daily life today, we tend to live on the surface, believing that that gives us freedom to move on in case of boredom.
Life needs to be anchored in the truth, rooted in justice, and governed by integrity. What Isaiah mostly highlights among the characteristics of the promised Messiah is that “He does not judge by appearances, He gives no verdict on hearsay”.
Appearances and hearsay are the order of the day for us. That is what makes our life superficial and that is why the Baptist’s crisis is ultimately our crisis today.