In this Sunday’s passage from Luke’s Gospel (3:1-6), St. John the Baptist features prominently, proclaiming a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” The sacred author reminds us of the words of the prophet Isaiah which he uses to identify John as “a voice crying out in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3). John the Baptist is an enigmatic figure in the Gospel. He is the meeting point between the Old and New Testaments, preparing the way of the Lord as his forerunner and then introducing the world to him. He is an ascetic Jewish prophet – Jesus referred to him as the “greatest prophet” (Matthew 11:11), indeed the last of the Old Testament prophets. His greatness derived most importantly because God chose him for a singular purpose in the Scriptures.
Jesus and John first “met” each other in the wombs of Mary and her kinswoman Elizabeth when John “leapt for joy” (Luke 1:41) at the encounter. Although they are relatives, we are not sure if they ever met again before the Baptism in the Jordan some 30years later. Even then it is not clear that John “knew” or recognized him, at least not until the Holy Spirit descended upon him on the river’s bank and the Father’s voice was heard. John was the “messenger” of whom Isaiah spoke eight centuries earlier, a role he himself described in John’s Gospel (1:23). Jesus was the “message,” the Good News, the Messiah in whom God was “well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22) as John baptized him. And we are not certain if John and Jesus ever met up with each other again.
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