Can you imagine living in the segregated South of the 1950s where African Americans were banned from public facilities; where black schools, hospitals, and neighborhoods were
under resourced; where dissent was silenced by lynchings, beatings, even bombings? And can you imagine, after decades of discrimination, somebody racing down the street shouting, “He’s here! The one we have been waiting for! The one who’s going to mobilize the masses to defy racism, end segregation, and restore the dignity of African Americans. His name is Martin Luther King. His weapons are love and compassion. He’s mobilizing hope. I’m telling you, the time has come. The people are rising.”
Can you imagine the people on the banks of the Jordan who first hear John the Baptist? For generations, the Israelites have proclaimed Isaiah’s hope—in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, for God is coming to restore God’s people. And now, after centuries of suffering, the herald announces that the time of God’s arrival has come! It is happening as he speaks. God, already, is coming down the highway.
John is the messenger Isaiah had promised centuries before. John embodies his role as a prophet. He dresses like Elijah, eats like Daniel, and experiences God’s coming, not in the ecclesiastical and political centers but in the wilderness. And in the wilderness, John speaks Isaiah’s electrifying words. The One we have been waiting for . . . our hope and salvation . . . is coming—now.
Within our contemporary wildernesses, prophets have arisen: ambassadors of hope, mobilizers of transformation. Their voices cry out in the desert, “It is happening. Gather with the faithful. Rise up from oppression. God is coming. Here. Now.” Can you imagine?