The reality of the cross never disappears from Christian life. Even now, during Advent, this time of expectant longing for the coming of Jesus, the cross appears, as in today’s Gospel reading, a passage which immediately follows the transfiguration of Jesus. Here the disciples ask Jesus about the rabbinical tradition that Elijah would precede the Messiah; Jesus responds by linking Elijah to John the Baptist. And with John, the cross appears: just as the authorities did whatever they pleased to John the Baptist, ultimately beheading him, so also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.
This placement of the cross in the middle of Advent is a helpful reminder to us that although we experience Christian life in discrete moments and seasons, each having their own proper character, the redemptive mission of Jesus is always at the center. Even as we contemplate Jesus’s birth as a child and his coming again in glory, the focal point is Jesus’s complete gift of himself to the Father for us as the crucified and risen one.
As we close this week, let’s reflect on the way in which the redemptive work of the cross and resurrection of Jesus colors this season of Advent. And let us ask the Spirit to teach us to offer ourselves in love in union with Jesus.