Walking In Peace

Imagining Sunday’s Gospel

Click here for the readings for the Third Sunday of Advent

This third week of Advent we get another peek at John the Baptist from the apostle John this time. Priests and Levites from Jerusalem came to where John was baptizing with their questions about who John the Baptist is and we get a good list of who is not. John the Baptist finishes up with a quote from Isaiah as we saw last week. This week the punctuation is different from the synoptic gospels and Isaiah along with some reinterpretation of Isaiah 40:3.  

Next to quiz John the Baptist are the Pharisees. In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees were a religious based group that was part of Judaism and well respected. Pharisee means separate in Aramaic. They observed the Jewish law and traditions very strictly.

In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees had some specific duties. Young Jewish boys were the only ones taught outside the home. First they would meet at the teachers home. They would be exposed to some of the ancient scrolls like the Shema. This was akin to an elementary school. When the boys were old enough to read the sabbatical lessons, they met at the synagogue. Here they would learn from the Torah scrolls. Graduating to “secondary” school, they would meet and ask questions of the Pharisaic teachers.

The Pharisees were not someone to take lightly, so John the Baptist, as he does so well, points to Jesus. 

Pray that when confronted with someone who may be more knowledgable than you, point quickly to Jesus.