Second Sunday of Advent, Dec.

5, 2010
(Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-9; Mt. 3:1-12)

Jesse was the father of King David. The shoot from Jesse’s stump would
likely be some king in the line of David. The Hebrew word for stump can mean the
stump of a fallen tree which would mean the dynasty of David had already ended.
Or it could also mean the stump of a living tree, which would mean the dynasty of
David was still alive.
Whatever the case, the ideal king envisioned by Isaiah is one who will possess
qualities that moderns hardly ever look for in a leader. Clearly people who run for
office in today’s world rarely (if ever) run on a platform of “judging the poor with
justice or deciding aright for the land’s afflicted,” although striking the ruthless and
slaying the wicked seem to be always popular.
But modern elections are far removed from Isaiah’s vision. He looked for an
entirely new order to creation where the animal world and the world of nature
would be transformed (“creatively redeemed” some might say). What is not yet will
one day be...just not yet.
If this ideal leader were to come with all these hopes pinned upon him and
with nature itself being transformed at his coming, it leads to the inescapable
conclusion that this points to the end time Messiah of the Lord. Even Jewish
commentators see this prophecy as looking for the Messiah. Christians see its
fulfillment in the person of Jesus, even if the vision awaits completion in the end
time.
In the Gospel, John the Baptist appears out of nowhere. Prior to this we have
not heard of the Baptist in Matthew’s Gospel. He calls for repentance because “the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This is the same message Jesus will proclaim in Mt.
4:17.
There is and always will be a certain tension in the Christian proclamation that
the Kingdom is “at hand” or “is near.” We are always caught in the bind of what
already is but what is not yet completely. By saying that it’s near in the preaching of
John, does not mean that it ever gets much closer in the preaching of Jesus,
although in Mt. 12:28 Jesus says: “ ...if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out
demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” We are forced to wrestle
with the idea that the kingdom has come in some way but not yet completely.
 Matthew identifies John as the one Isaiah had called “a voice crying in the
desert to prepare the way of the Lord.” His clothing and diet made him a prophet
and his baptism was a ritual cleansing marking repentance. John may have inherited
the ritual from others, perhaps even from the Essene community at nearby Qumran.
The Essenes were reformers from within Judaism who actually separated
themselves from the rest of Jews, regarding them as corrupt and in need of serious
reform.
Thus when members of two of the main groups of Jews at the time (Pharisees
and Sadducees) come to John for baptism it shows how widespread the appeal for
reform was. They were apparently insincere in their intention for reform and
quickly are arguing with John who sees through them. Appeal to the ancestral
religion (“We have Abraham as our father”) is not enough to show true repentance.
It must be shown in deeds (“bearing good fruit”).
Yet John points to another one, mightier than he, who will bring about the end
time harvest. We continue to await the harvest even as we seek to repent. Advent
demands no less.

Fr. Lawrence L. Hummer