Fourth Sunday in Advent AD 2023
When John the Baptist was asked who he was, he answered with the words of the prophet Isaiah: „I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.“ This expression – „the voice of one crying in the wilderness“ – has two almost opposite meanings. On the one hand, it indicates someone who is, as it were, in a completely hopeless situation. Either he is lost and cannot find the way to where he wants to go, and there is no one there to help him and show him the way, or he himself tries to lead the lost in the right direction, but no one listens to him.
In adapting this picture to John the Baptist, it is certain that he himself was not lost. However, he saw many around him who needed guidance – and although multitudes came to listen to him and even had themselves baptized, it is highly doubtful how many of them actually accepted his message of repentance and put it into practice. „And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire,“ said John the Baptist to the people who came to him...
On the other hand, the expression „the voice of one crying in the wilderness“ represents an extremely hopeful situation: imagine someone who is lost and can’t think of anything but an imminent painful death – and suddenly he hears a voice calling. Someone is looking for him, someone has given up his comfort, come out into the wilderness, even ready to risk his life for him, to find and save him. Someone cares for him, someone loves him – what happiness and joy fills the heart of one who was just hopelessly lost!
John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. But he was only a messenger. He was the voice – not the word. He announced the coming of Him who is the eternal Word of God, who became flesh to give His life for our salvation. Who came to bring us the message of love from God our Father and make us His children.
No matter how harsh and evil the world may seem to us at times, no one can take away from us the joy of hope, because we know that the Son of God and the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, has come to seek and save the lost.