Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday in Advent

Now, this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said: “I am

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Make straight the way of the Lord,

as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:19–23)

[John] quite naturally, therefore, proceeds in the first place to remove any false impressions they might have taken up about him, and declares publicly the true state of the matter, “I am not the Christ.” Their second question, and also their third, show that they had conceived some such surmise about him. They supposed that he might be that second in honor to whom their hopes pointed, namely, Elijah, who held with them the next position after Christ; and so when John had answered, “I am not the Christ,” they asked, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” They wish to know, in the third place, if he is the prophet, and on his answer, “No,” they have no longer any name to give the personage whose advent they expected, and they say, “Who are you, then, that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What do you say about yourself?” Their meaning is: “You are not, you say, any of those personages whose advent Israel hopes and expects, and who you are, to baptize as you do, we do not know. Tell us, therefore, so that we may report to those who sent us to get light concerning this point.” We add, as it has some bearing on the context, that the people were moved by the thought that the period of Christ’s advent was near. It was in a manner imminent in the years from the birth of Jesus and a little before, down to the publication of the preaching.… Thus the coming of the Messiah was more warmly expected and discussed, and it was natural enough for the Jews to send priests and Levites from Jerusalem to John, to ask him, “Who are you?” and learn if he professed to be the Christ.…

John came for a witness. He was a man sent from God to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. He was that voice, then, we are to understand, which alone was fitted worthily to announce the Logos. We shall understand this rightly if we call to mind what was adduced in our exposition of the texts: “That all might believe through Him,” and “This is he of whom it is written, Behold I send My messenger before your face, who shall prepare the way before you.” There is fitness, too, in his being said to be the voice, not of one saying in the wilderness, but of one crying in the wilderness. He who cries, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” also says it; but he might say it without crying it. But he cries and shouts it, that even those may hear who are at a distance from the speaker, and that even the deaf may understand the greatness of the tidings, since it is announced in a great voice; and he thus brings help, both to those who have departed from God and to those who have lost the acuteness of their hearing.

Origen, Commentary on John VI