Mark 1:1-8.
Dear Friends, The Season of Advent is a time of hope. We long for the coming of the Lord. In the first three weeks, we put the focus on Jesus coming for us personally and coming to bring the final victory in the battle of good and evil, to deliver us from the consequences of a truly broken world.Isaiah is the herald for the Church’s proclamation of this longing for the Lord. A central event in Isaiah’s message is the liberation of the people from their captivity in Babylonia. Much of his teaching flows from the deliverance from exile and the return home. This beautiful description shows God making the way clear. “Make straight the wasteland, a highway for our God. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low.” (Isaiah 40:3-4)
This is the poetic description of how God is going to remove all obstacles for the people to return to Israel. At a deeper level, it is a description of how God will bring the final and total deliverance of all people and all creation from the dominance of the devil and all evil: car-jackings and climate change, rebellious children and hostility to the stranger, nuclear threats and d
omestic violence and the rest. Ultimately the stuff of the evening news needs to lead to the transformation of the human heart on the journey to freedom in the footsteps of Jesus.
Isaiah’s proclamation of the new day of hope, the end of the exile, was the good news. This gospel of Isaiah was the predecessor of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a deliverance from a much greater exile.
Through these initial verses, Mark is building a bridge. It connects the hope of Isaiah’s gospel and John the Baptist who prepares us for the Good News of Jesus.
Today’s readings are all about liberation and hope. We are given the way out of our wilderness of confusion and despair. John made clear the true wilderness of our bondage is in the human heart. In Mark, John’s core teaching is to point to Jesus as the Way. Today’s message is clear: Jesus will show us the Way to freedom and salvation.
The evil which is so evident in our world is rooted in human selfishness. Jesus invites us to participate with him in the transformation of the world. This is the call to conversion, a plea for radical open-mindedness. This new view helps us to see the extent of our self-absorption and the need for the loving mercy of God. Jesus, as the Way, is more desirable than ever. Liberation and salvation are gifts which demand our participation. We need to move away from the destructive road of our self-centeredness and false idols and fix our eyes on Jesus.
Our prayer in this Advent Season is for Jesus to come with the good news of freedom and healing, the good news of justice and reconciliation, the good news of hope and peace. Life is a grace of God’s coming in our daily failures and the big stumbling blocks, in our simple gestures of kindness and the fearsome burdens that so often are our fate. We can be sure that God is in all of life, both joys and sorrows. God continually comes with a gentle but passionate love. We emphasize this coming in Advent, but it is the reality every day of the year.
Come Lord Jesus is a yearning that says it all. We know life can be so much better than what awaits us each morning. We need salvation. Our heart hungers for the words of Isaiah, “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to them that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.”(Isaiah 40:1-2)
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