“After they had set a day to meet with him, they came to him at his lodgings in great numbers.  From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.  some were convinced by what he had said, while others refused to believe.  So they disagreed with each other; and as they were leaving, Paul made one further statement: ‘The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah, ‘Go to this people and say, you will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn—and I would heal them.’  Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.’  He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.”—Acts 28:23-31

This passage encapsulates what we try to do every Advent with the chosen readings, messages, and songs.  We do a survey of the law of Moses and the prophets and use the words to proclaim the fulfillment of both in the coming of Jesus Christ.  Masterpieces of exegesis from theological treatises to Handel’s Messiah try to persuade us that the one who would bring salvation to God’s people indeed has already come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  And he shall reign forever and ever!

Even for many Christians, though, forcing Jesus into all the words of the prophets and the law of Moses is an exercise of mental gymnastics and contortion art.  We pick and choose that which seems to fit our various images of Jesus and discard that which does not.  Most of us are guilty of supercesssionism, disregarding thousands of years of Jewish wisdom and tradition and declaring our own beliefs superior.  In the end we do a disservice to the person of Jesus, to our Jewish neighbors, and to the Scriptures themselves.

Should we read the law and the prophets with an eye towards illuminating the life an mission of the Messiah?  Of course!  We should not, however, decontextualize the texts and separate them from their authors and settings.  The coming Messiah is prophesied through many different visions and portrayed in many different images.  At times the Messiah is a mighty king and at times a suffering servant.  At times the Messiah is exclusive to the Israelites and at times for all of humanity.  At times the Messiah is a fierce warrior enacting violence and vengeance, and at times the Messiah is the Prince of Peace.  This is because people have had different needs throughout history, and the words of Scripture reflect the needs of the people at any given time.  It is no wonder that the Jews in Rome had contentious debates over Paul’s teachings.  How could this one person who was executed by the Roman Empire be the answer to everything that was ever written, especially since that Empire was still going strong and attacking Jerusalem?  It is also no wonder that the Gentiles would be more open to Paul’s teachings, as they did not have the history of tradition to define who the Messiah should be.

This reflection is in no way meant to belittle the role of the Hebrew Bible and tradition in preparing the way for Jesus of Nazareth.  Instead, it is meant to encourage those of us who believe he is the Messiah to accept him on his own terms in his own context.  The gospel of John ends by saying, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”  Jesus was a Jew born in a stable in Palestine to unwed parents.  Jesus was miraculously conceived and came to be known as the Son of God and the Human One.  Jesus performed miracles of power over bodies, spirits, weather, water, food, air, and even death.  Jesus was a rabbi to twelve named disciples and a teach and friend to countless others.  Jesus taught and embodied radical principles of justice and equality.  Jesus started communities that exhibited alternative social realities which were in open defiance of the Roman Empire.  Jesus flipped the tables of economic injustice.  Jesus gave sermons on mountains and plains that shocked the people with their messages.  Jesus was publicly executed by the State.  Jesus rose again from the dead, defeating death itself.  Jesus walked on the earth again.  Jesus ascended into heaven.  Jesus did so many more things that the world itself could not contain their record.  

This is the one we call Messiah.  This is the one who we believe initiated the Kin-dom.  Perhaps he did fulfill the Hebrew law and prophecies, and perhaps he fulfilled many other laws and prophecies that are not even in our awareness.  What matters for us, though, is who he actually was, the life he actually lived, and the context in which he existed.  And when it comes to judging people for not understanding the person of Jesus as we do, we should remember that the final words quoted from Isaiah by Paul are words of healing.   

“‘And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.  By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.”—Luke 1:76-80

And so the Holy Spirit filled Zechariah, father of John the Baptist.  His mouth, which had been miraculously closed up was miraculously opened up.  He prophesied about the coming savior, but he also prophesied about his own son.  It is this son, so intimately tied to Jesus throughout his entire life, who inspires this reflection.

One of today’s other readings comes from Malachi, the very last book in our Hebrew Bible.  Malachi’s final words are, “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.  He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6).  Then, as the angel of the Lord declared to John’s father, “With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17).

It was John, son of Elizabeth, who received the mantle of Elijah.  It was John, son of Elizabeth, who fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi.  It was John, son of Elizabeth, who prepared the way of the Lord.  Who better is there to teach about Advent than John—the prophet, the fulfiller of prophecy, the preparer of the Way?

Over the past three months I have been learning the sacred principle and necessity of interdependence.  I have had to rely fully on people in Zambia and at home to support me.  I have experienced a deepening of relationships to extents that I never imagined possible.  Distance from home has created challenges for me that have in turn made me to value the people from home all the more.  The amazing welcome I have received here has made me to continue to expand my idea of family.  I am imbibing and absorbing the Zulu principle of umuntu—a person is a person because of people, or I am because you are.  Our existence, our life, our thriving are all dependent on the existence, the life, the thriving of others and indeed of all humanity.  Most people here in Zambia live into that principle daily, practicing radical hospitality and care, viewing family as inclusive of anyone even tangentially touching one’s biological family, and sharing resources whenever humanly possible.

I bring up umuntu because the more I read about John the Baptist and Jesus, the more I see how intricately their lives were weaved around each other.  I have come to the conclusion that they were so dependent upon each other that they could not thrive without each other.

Indeed, the nativity story of Luke is really presented as a double nativity.  Two births are foretold by angels of the Lord.  Both births are miraculous.  There is a mere six months between the two conceptions.  Both are heralded with prophecies from a parent.  

From the beginning, John and Jesus are in relationship with each other.  When a newly pregnant Mary visits a six-months pregnant Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s child leaps with joy.  From that point forward their lives are narrated in parallel and intersecting ways.  We know nothing of their lives from childhood to around the age of thirty.  Then, they both enter the scene at the same time with their public ministries.  John comes out of the wilderness and begins to prepare the way for Jesus with baptisms.  Jesus receives one of these baptisms and immediately goes out into the wilderness from which John came.  Thus began the ministry of Jesus upon which our faith, our very lives stand.  Then, although they are fulfilling their ministries in different places and with different disciples, they check up on each other’s progress and wellbeing.  They refer to each other’s lives and mantles as examples.  In short, they remind each other of who they are and what they must do.  Then, they are both arrested and executed by officials of the Empire for daring to challenge the authority of the powerful.  They were so connected to each other that some people even believed Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected after his death.

Just like any other human, Jesus needed other humans to survive.  We see it in his love for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.  We see it in his partnership with the disciples.  More than anyone else, though, we see it in his deep-rooted bond with John.  They respected each other and trusted each other enough to do their own thing to bring about the Kin-dom, with each stream of ministry being absolutely essential.  Yet, I am sure they maintained a life-giving spiritual connection even in physical absence.  It is this life-giving spiritual connection between people that is at the heart of umuntu, and it is this type of connection that I am coming to understand in my own physical absence from the places I call home.  

It is not recorded, but if Jesus openly wept at the death of Lazarus, I can only imagine the magnitude of his grief at the loss of John.  In Luke, in the same chapter that we learn about John’s death we see the narration of the transfiguration.  Moses and Elijah stand on the mountain with Jesus, preparing him for his journey to Jerusalem and his “departure.”  I am sure that Jesus was once again seeing John in that encounter, as John and Elijah are forever bound together.  I am sure that Jesus was once again ready to move forward with what he had to do, because he had the assurance that his way was prepared by the other human to which he was most connected.

As we do our own preparing for the coming of Jesus this Advent, may we honor those connections that give us life.  May we strengthen those connections.  May we truly understand that we are because others are.  For, this is the way of the Kin-dom.