Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River. If that doesn’t strike you as strange, then you need to think a bit more about what John’s baptism meant. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. Of what did the sinless Son of God need to repent? John’s baptism was for the forgiveness of sins. Of what did the sinless Son of God need to be forgiven? John was the lesser; Jesus the greater. John’s baptism was with water; Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Yet here, in the baptism of our Lord, the greater is baptized by the lesser, the sinless One is treated as a sinner. And when you comprehend this, you have comprehended the Gospel of your salvation.

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Can you imagine losing the Son of God? It’s bad enough losing your car keys, your wallet, some important papers. But losing the Son of God? You parents know the anxiety all too well. You turn around at the grocery store, and your child has wandered off. Or your attention is diverted for just a moment at the mall, and you lose your kid in the crowd. Well, Mary and Joseph lost Jesus for an anxious three days in Jerusalem. That is one of several paradoxes in today’s Gospel, and they all revolve around the great grand mystery of the eternal Son of God come in human Flesh to save us.

It’s been just a couple of days since we celebrated Jesus’ birth and now the Sunday readings ratchet forward forty days to His presentation in the temple. This is the first of many appearances Jesus would make in the temple, culminating with Holy Week. But this one is His first and it is filled with prophetic fulfillment and significance. If you run the numbers from Luke, it’s been 490 days since the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah the priest to announce that he and his wife Elizabeth were going to conceive a son in their old age and name him John. 490 days later, Jesus makes His first appearance in the same temple. 70 weeks.

Today, on this fourth and last Sunday of the season of Advent, the Gospel takes a kinder and gentler tone than we’ve had over the last two weeks with John the Baptizer. Today we have two very unlikely women meeting in a town of Judah. Two expectant mothers get together, which isn’t all that unusual in and of itself, especially considering they are related. But consider this for a moment: one is in the third trimester of her pregnancy even as she’s in the senior years of her life. And the other has just begun her pregnancy as a virgin. Nothing is impossible with God.

“I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:18-28)

The world’s measure of greatness and God’s measure of greatness are two completely different things. The world measures greatness in terms of power, prestige, influence, celebrity, fame, fortune. As we come to the end of the calendar year, we will get the inevitable greatest lists: the sexiest men, the sexiest women, the most influential people, the richest people, the most powerful people. The movers, the shakers. That’s who the world labels with the word “greatness.”