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Friends,
today's Gospel reflects on the absolutely pivotal figure of John the
Baptist. It's fair to say that you cannot really understand Jesus
without understanding John, which is precisely why all four evangelists
tell the story of the Baptist as a kind of overture to the story of
Jesus. John sums up Israel, and without the Israelite background, the
story of Jesus becomes opaque.
The
story of John's birth brings his parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, into
focus. Both are strongly priestly personages. Elizabeth is a descendant
of the family of Aaron, the first priest of Israel, and Zechariah was a
practicing temple priest.
What's
important for our purposes is that John was of very priestly stock. So
why, when we first hear of him in his adult life, is he out in the
desert and not in the temple? Well, there was a long prophetic tradition
that criticized the temple for its corruption. In John's time, the
temple was mired in very messy, vile, and violent politics. So what is
he doing in the desert? He is offering what the temple ought to be
offering but wasn't, due to its corruption, namely, the forgiveness of
sins.
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