The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me and sent me to proclaim a day of vindication by our Lord. The above words, which anyone familiar with the Gospel accounts will readily recognize as having been quoted by Jesus at the beginning of his ministry (cf. Luke 4:16-21), were originally pronounced by the prophet Isaiah as he “prophesied” the restoration of Jerusalem which was lying in ruins. It was a proclamation of hope that couldn’t have come at a better time for the prophet’s community. Jerusalem epitomized not only the identity but also the existence and the glory of this community. The fortunes of the community were tied to, and dependent on the fortunes of the city. As such, the destruction and collapse of Jerusalem became reflected on the declining fortunes of the community as she found herself captive to foreign and pagan nations. Israel, a nation that had prided herself in being the Lord’s favorite, suddenly found herself held captive in her own land. It was a critical time for the nation, and if there was a time when they needed to hear the reassuring voice of the Lord, it was now. That good news came in prophet Isaiah’s oracle on the restoration of Jerusalem. It was good news for the community because a restoration of Jerusalem also meant her being restored to her former glory. 
Whereas we cannot divorce from the beautiful and hope-laden words of Isaiah the context in which they were pronounced, on this Third Sunday of Advent, as we get closer to celebrating the commemoration of Christ’s birth, I would like us to “hear” them in relationship to the testimonial proclamation of John the Baptist. As the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the anointed one, John was tasked with being the herald of the good news of the dawn of the much awaited Messiah. Like the prophet Isaiah, the Baptist’s responsibility was that of announcing the good news of the imminent arrival of the world’s Savior. As it were, his was the task of “leaking” to the world the goodies that Messiah was bringing with him. 
As the Baptist himself would later testify, he was not the bearer of THE good news per se. He was not the Messiah. He was not the one for whom the world was waiting. However, he had a very important task to perform, a task that put him in the “mix” and perhaps led some to think that he was the Christ. John the Baptist was not the Christ, but he had to prepare the ground for the arrival of the Christ. As we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel, his was a responsibility of preparing the way for the Messiah by calling on the people to ready themselves for the good news that was in the offing. He was the voice crying out in the desert, alerting the world on the imminent arrival of the savior. 
John was not THE anointed one of God (the Christ), but the spirit of the Lord was upon him. It is this spirit of God that was moving him to make the loud “cries” as he announced the year of the Lord’s favor. Even though Jesus Christ whose coming he was announcing was the one to inaugurate the year of the Lord’s favor, it can be said that in the proclamation of John the Baptist, the wheels had already been set in motion. It is true the news about something can never be equated to the thing itself, but the excitement that the news causes is also important. In the loud cries of John, the year of the Lord was already being inaugurated, even if not fully. For John’s proclamation was accompanied by baptism because those who heard him believed in his message. 
The coming of the Messiah was good news for those who were awaiting it. It was the moment of their vindication by the Lord. The poor, the broken hearted, the captives and the oppressed looked forward to this day because this day would mark the fulfillment of their hopes. It is a moment of rejoicing for those who never gave up on the promise that God never forsakes the lowly and humble of heart. In the proclamation by John the Baptist, they saw the dawn of a new day, the dawn of their salvation. In the proclamation by the Baptist, the lowly of heart were already being clothed in a robe of salvation and were ready to meet their savior.