How the birth of Jesus happened begins today’s gospel’s passage.

Matthew emphasises the intervention of the Spirit from the beginning of his story to avoid a misunderstanding that Jesus may have been generated through the intervention of a man.

Educated by the prophets, Israel had been waiting for the saviour for centuries. But when he came, even the more spiritually prepared and well-disposed struggled to recognise and to welcome him. The Baptist also remained indecisive.

In the first part of today’s gospel we see that John is imprisoned. Not getting news about exciting interventions from Jesus, the Baptist’s faith begins to waver. 

Every year on the second Sunday of Advent, the liturgy offers us the preaching of John the Baptist, who prepared the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah.

Today, as then, the most difficult step to accomplish is understanding that it is a must to get out of the land where we are settled and move away from false theological security that we construct so we can welcome the newness of God’s word.

The language used in the gospel passage today can lead to extravagant interpretations (or even rants) on the end of the world and the punishment of God. It can also be reduced to the invitation to be always ready, because death can take us unprepared.

These interpretations stem from a lack of understanding of the apocalyptic literary genre that was widely used at the time of Jesus, but that is alien to our mentality and culture.

The Israelites were expecting a great, rich, strong and eternal king, who would decimate the enemies of Israel. Our gospel reading for today presents a response to these expectations.

Luke wrote his gospel around the year 85AD. In the fifty years that had passed since the death and resurrection of Jesus, tremendous events occurred. There were wars, political revolutions, catastrophes and the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed.

Christians became victims of injustices and persecutions. How to explain these dramatic events?

The first reading speaks of seven brothers. They had an imperfect concept of the resurrection. They imagined it as an extension of the life of this world, nothing more. 

The Pharisees, who firmly professed faith in the resurrection of the dead, continued to interpret it in a rather crude way.

Zacheus had everything in life and yet is deeply dissatisfied. He has participated in many banquets and is still looking for food that satisfies.

The need he experiences is so compelling, so irresistible that to satisfy it he is willing to challenge the taunts of the crowd that did not sympathise with him.

The parable in today’s gospel is directed at Christians of all times. The idea of gaining merit before God is profoundly rooted in our thought patterns. 

From the outset, we dislike the hypocritical, disagreeable, proud and presumptuous Pharisee. Our sympathies are all with the publican who, poor guy, did something wrong, but has a heart of gold. 

We can run the risk of reducing the message of today’s gospel to a lesson of good manners, to remember to say thank you to those who help us. 

The 10 lepers of the gospel represent all the people, the entire humanity far away from God. All of us—Luke wants to tell us—are lepers and need to encounter Jesus. No one is pure; we all carry on our skin the sign of death that only the word of Christ can cure.