Today is the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist. The gospel reading is taken from Luke and describes the scene when the child is born and, against the custom of the day, receives not his father’s name, but the name “John” as earlier commanded by the angel Gabriel in Luke 1:13. Scripture is clear that John was to be the herald of Messiah. The angel Gabriel also announced to Zechariah that his son, “…will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.”
I don’t think it is possible for us to completely understand how shocking this last statement must have been to Zechariah. Hearing that his long hoped-for child would come in the spirit and power of Elijah is not just to recount the amazing stories of the Prophet Elijah, but to also know what had been promised in the Book of Malachi.
Malachi 3 predicts a day of divine judgment and salvation but indicates that this day will be preceded by the ministry of a forerunner: “I am sending my messenger — he will prepare the way before me.” (Malachi 3:1). The identity of the messenger is later made clear: “Now I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the day of the LORD comes.” (Malachi 3:23) As the second reading makes clear that mission was fulfilled: “John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.” (Acts 22:24)
The life and mission of John is a fulfillment of the “Servant Song” of Isaiah 49, our first reading. When you read commentaries on Isaiah 49, you’ll find all manner of scholarly debate on the identity of the servant. Is Isaiah speaking about himself, the entire people of Israel, a messiah to come, or some other prophecy? Many things can be true at the same time, but I would suggest that it is especially true of John the Baptist. The words of the prophet Isaiah outline the life of the Baptist.
- The LORD called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name (the story of Zechariah’s encounter with the angel)
- that Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him (the mission as described by St. Paul in the second reading)
- Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the LORD, (rather descriptive of his efforts in his own mind as he waits in Herod’s prison cell)
- It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth (and despite John’s own doubts, the Lord used him in powerful ways, to a great end, and all for the glory of God.)
And so, we honor the life of John the Baptist on this solemnity. And we pause to remember that John came in the spirit and power of Elijah – but we are sent in the power of the Holy Spirit. We too are called from birth, claimed and named by God in our Baptism. We are sent by Jesus just as the Father sent him with the same mission: to be a light to the nations, that…. salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
John had the power. We have a greater power. May we let the Lord use us in powerful ways, to a great end and for the greater glory of God.
Image credit: Saint John the Baptist Preaching to the Masses in the Wilderness | Artist: Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1638) | Galerie de Jonckheere, Paris | PD-US