Jesus is the visible manifestation of the invisible God. Jesus is the human expression of who God really is. John the Baptist introduces Jesus to us today. Who do you see? Does Jesus meet your expectations or are you disappointed in whom you meet?
The Jewish people were disappointed. The Messiah they were expecting was that of the warrior king who would crush the head of the Roman emperor and who, with great military might, would destroy the Roman Imperial Army, thus restoring the royal throne of David to preside once more over Palestine.
They tried to make Jesus a king, especially after his miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. But Jesus refused to be dragged in to their notion of the Messiah. They then rejected him and with the Jewish religious authorities plotted his execution. Even one of his own apostles rejected him and set him up to be murdered.
Those looking for the fire and brimstone God who destroyed the world in a great flood, who burned to death all those in Sodom and Gomorrah, who ordered the death of all men, women, and children who stood in opposition to the people of Israel, will be disappointed. The Messiah, the anointed one of God, will not be that kind of Messiah.
Mary, his mother, got it right from the very beginning. Mary described accurately the kind of Messiah she was carrying in her womb to her cousin Elizabeth. He is the ageless mercy of God to all people. He will cloud the minds and hearts of the arrogant. He will take away the thrones from the mighty and lift up the lowly and the humble. He will feed the hungry and the poor, and the rich he will send away with empty stomachs. His name will be holy.
Who is the Jesus to whom we are introduced by John the Baptist? Jesus is the living and breathing manifestation of God’s love, compassion and mercy.
We have been baptized into Jesus. We are the living and breathing manifestation of Jesus in our world today. If we are going to live up to our baptismal promises to be Christ to our world, we must put on Christ. If we are to be true disciples of Jesus, we must go forth from this Church today and be God’s love, compassion and mercy to our world.
