“Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Matthew 3:4-6)
The simplicity of John’s clothes and his humble ascetic lifestyle indicate that he had turned his back on the world and its enticements and was prepared for the Messiah. His mission: to preach the comforting news of the Messiah’s appearance. He was to prepare Israel, indeed all people, to receive Him.
John also spoke boldly to the Jewish religious leaders. Neither their positions of power and leadership nor their heritage as Jews would be enough to make them right with God. They needed, just like others, to repent, and to produce fruits of righteousness to demonstrate their commitment and faith. If they made merely a show of righteousness without a change of heart, they would be lost. Mere good works without faith are dead.
John reminds us that Advent is the time to look at our lives, to repent of sin, to forsake living for self and turn one’s heart to God to serve Him alone, a hard thing to do in the midst of a world that bombards us at this holy season with the lust for material goods, gluttony and overindulgence. Yet we can turn from such with the help of the Lord. With one’s focus on Jesus we can live according to God’s will.