Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
(Isaiah 54:1-10; Luke 7:24-30)
When John’s disciples came looking for Jesus in Luke’s
gospel, they asked if he was “the one who is to come.” They wanted to know if he was the one to bring
about God’s kingdom. Jesus told the
disciples to report to John the cures he was performing, the dead he was
raising, and the poor whose hopes were being uplifted by his preaching. With the report, John must decide if he will
accept Jesus as the Messiah for his works.
Today’s gospel announces that those who repented of their
sins and were baptized by John accepted Jesus as God’s righteousness. This appears to be another way of calling him
the “anointed one” or Messiah. It also sees these people standing in God’s
favor. The Pharisees do not repent of
their sins, nor are baptized, and much less acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. They, of course, stand outside God’s favor.
The passage calls us to do two things. First, we must repent of our sins –
constantly. All of us have faults that
need correction with the help of God.
Second, like Jesus, our leader, we must work to cure others, perhaps not
of physical hurts but of emotional ones.
Likewise, we must raise people from the dead; that is, we must work to
bring people back from the spiritual death of serious sin. And we must preach to
the poor words and deeds that uplift their spirits.
