ADVENT AGAIN
LUKE : 21:31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 21:32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 21:33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
On boxing days I used to say that the next Christmas is almost here and it is true as we know time is relative, time is a subject of the inner subjective experience of the sojourners. It runs painfully slow, when we are waiting in a bus stop, and the bus, which is supposed to come, keeps tarrying.
However, when we are trying hard to get a hold on the last 20 years wondering where all the Good Times have gone, then we may feel that the last 20 years passed by just like a snap of the fingers. The advent is a yearly recurring festive season. We should not need a yearly advent notice, but maybe we do, because we are so busy with the everyday life of everybody, that we often forget that we not only do participate in the life of our own bubbles, but we are also a part of God's bigger picture, what is used to be called salvation and the progress of redemption.
As the Advent is linked to the Christmas, and it is a waiting or preparation time regarding the appearance of the One, sent by God, appointed to rescue the Human Nation from sin and evil, then it is easily established that there are Two Pivotal Advents to be named.
The First Advent is marked by the word of the Gospel of Luke, quoting:
from the very book of prophet Isaiah, connecting the Old and the New Testament, by saying that "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” The quote is almost all right, albeit it is slightly different from the original one as you could read it in its original place in the book of prophet Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3 as it follows:
“The voice of one who calls out, ‘Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.’ ”
One may ask that what is the difference? The two statements are so close to each other, that they are almost the same. Almost. Nonetheless, it is not anyway, at least in the society of a vanity fair like today, whether a person is proved to be a monkey of the donkeys, or a donkey of the monkeys, as it sounds almost the same, but their meanings are different, at least a bit.
Thus, the prophet of Isaiah is talking about a crying voice, which calls others to prepare a smooth highway to God. However, the preparations must happen in the desert. It means, go or live in the desert, which means exclude yourself from the wicked cities and crowds, go to the desert place, and over there prepare the way of the Lord.
However Luke, the gospel writing physician, fluent in Greek, is talking about the crying voice as it had been already in the desert, which voice was supposed to belong to John the Baptist.
The voice of the prophet , who lives in the Judean desert, calls the people of Judea to prepare the way of the Lord. The difference is really small but it is also really meaningful.
The slogan quote aka go to desert was the chief motto of the so called Essene group in the Judean desert. They were the people of the Qumran, who literally took on the words of the prophet Isaiah, and left the big cities and the small towns for the desert and separated themselves from the mighty and from the crowd. They were the people, who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, who prepared the Way of the Lord in the desert.
That is why the New Testament is able to state that the crying voice is not anymore just calling people to go to the desert, because the called group had moved to the desert centuries ago, and also the calling voice itself had been in the desert already.
Thusly, there is also a slight shift in the New Testament quote regarding the voice.
In the Jewish tradition, the voice of God, (bat kol in Hebrew,) is a "heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God's will or judgment." It is literally a sound from Heaven. This voice differed essentially from the Prophets, though the prophets were delegates or mouthpieces of the Holy Spirit.
When the Voice of God, the Bat Kol, was heard from heaven, according to Isaiah, it meant, that whosoever is able to receive the message, they shall go to the desert to build a pathway for the Lord OR when John the prophet told the people with a loud voice in the desert, that they must repent and turn to God, because the advent of the Kingdom of God is near.
Although the prophets announced judgments on behalf of God, their voice were merely a human voice. However, in the New Testament the Voice of God aka the BAT KOL was also being heard, when John baptized Jesus, declaring that “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Gospel-wise both John’s and Jesus' messages were very similar to each other, both said that listen people, repent and turn to God because the Kingdom is near. No wonder they were close. John and Jesus were cousins, belonged to the same religious fraction called the Nazarenes, and last but not least in a human sense, Jesus was the disciple of John and later he became the very successor of John, as the leader of the Nazarenes.
In this way it is not a coincidence, that the first disciples of Jesus were originally disciples of John the Baptist, namely Peter and Andrew, John and James, fishermen by profession, but otherwise belonging to the Nazarene sect in Galilee.
Without John there would not have been momentum for Jesus. Thus the request in the Gospel to prepare the way of the Lord, is written for a reason, because earthily saying, eevn the Jesus movement needed a forerunner. Also in the ancient tradition a real king was not self appointed, but chosen by God, announced and anointed by a real Prophet, and this was John the Baptist.
As Samuel the prophet anointed and announced David as king so Jesus was baptized and announced by John the Prophet saying: “Behold the Lamb of God.” (...) And then “a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”
It was the first Advent when the people were called by the voice from Heaven to go and prepare the way of the Lord, and the people were called by John to repent, amend your ways, turn to God, because the King is near.
However, we live in the second advent, we are waiting for the return of the King.
We can be very sure that the Kingdom, and the King is very near. One by one, community by community we are called to prepare the way of the Lord, in the second Advent when we are waiting for the returning Lord. It is an unspeakable event, when Heaven descends to the Earth. We are waiting, but we are not to sit idle, because we have to prepare the way of the Lord .
Thus, we have to repent and amend our ways as individuals and communites, because the King is near. May his name be Blessed for Ever. AMEN.
