“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:4b-6)
At this season of Advent, we are reminded that Jesus came into the world to save all human beings from sin, chaos, and death, to make all of us right with God. Consequently, Jesus ardently desires to lead all men and women to faith so they may share in His peace, comfort, and joy. But many if not most reject the fact that Jesus is God. They denigrate and malign the Word of God, considering it but the words and thoughts of primitive men who were unaware of the secrets of the universe that science has uncovered over the last centuries. They reject God Himself and His authority, and set themselves up as the supreme authority in the universe. No wonder the world is filled with violence and chaos for we live in a society dominated by millions of self-proclaimed demigods.
Perhaps we need a prophet like John the Baptist to arise and warn people of the coming return of Christ and with it, the judgment of all human beings. We need such a warning because even though we who have faith can rejoice in the assurance of eternal life, those who do not have such faith, who are offended by Jesus, His words and His sacrifice of atonement are doomed to spend eternity apart from God in eternal darkness. And we have such a prophet: the Church. We believers who compose the Church have been commissioned to fulfill the calling of Jesus, the call for sinners to repent. We are called to bring the message of spiritual life and wholeness to those who are spiritually blind, deaf, lame corrupt and dead and do not know it. We are called to tell others that forgiveness of sins is granted to all now through Jesus Christ.