Christ’s Leadership — 2nd Sunday of Advent (Cycle A)
✝️ Christ's Leadership
2nd Sunday of Advent (Cycle A)
Christ is the answer to life’s most troubling questions. When a nation’s leaders are corrupt, its people inevitably suffer. Humanity faces many problems that stem from a lack of true leadership.
In the days of Isaiah (c. 800 B.C.), the Hebrews longed for a leader, an ideal king who could restore the nation and bring back the peace and prosperity of King David’s time. Jesus Christ is the God-given Leader who came to establish God’s kingdom on earth — “a kingdom of truth and life… a kingdom of justice, love, and peace.”
The Spirit of the Lord — a Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and reverence — rests upon Him:
“The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD.”
“Justice shall flourish in His time, and fullness of peace forever.” While we know the perfect society envisioned by Jesus will not be fully achieved here on earth, the world would be far better if all followed His guiding principles. Let us Christians lead by example!
🌄 Messiah of Peace (Isaiah 11:1–10)
The setting of this reading is Jerusalem of Isaiah’s time, the eighth century B.C. The king is Ahaz, a weak young man. Though a ne’er-do-well, he is of the royal family of David, whose father was Jesse. Ahaz has brought the royal family and his country to such ruin that Isaiah compares the leftovers with the stump of a tree. But from the root of that stump a bud shall blossom:
“But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.”
From this seemingly dead stock God will bring out a shoot, a prince, who will prove himself an ideal king. It is the yearning of the people that walk in darkness for an ideal king (leader) to come! Christians see all of this yearning fulfilled in God’s Anointed One, Jesus of Nazareth. The Spirit of the LORD rests upon Him. He has established an ideal kingdom (reign) of peace and justice that is already partially realized now on earth and will be fully realized in the world to come.
“The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.”
📖 Instruction from Scripture (Romans 15:4–9)
Paul tells us that Scripture was written for our instruction, that we might derive hope from it:
“For whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”
In Christ is the yearning of the people fulfilled. Accept Jesus Christ as your leader and heed His great commandment to accept one another! Like Christ, become one another’s servants! Then you will be working toward the realization of that seemingly impossible dream of Isaiah and Jesus: a society where “the wolf [is] a guest of the lamb.”
“Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
⏳ Prepare for the Lord (Matthew 3:1–12)
Preparing for the Lord’s coming and fully accepting Him may require a change in lifestyle. John the Baptist speaks clear language not just to the Jews of his time but to all of us. You should not delay a decision:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
John warns that the Lord’s coming is decisive:
“His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Make sure you do not end up with the chaff that will be burned up in “unquenchable fire.” Instead, prepare your heart to welcome Christ as the true Leader and Messiah of peace.
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