Advent as Good News for the Marginalized

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Advent as Good News for the Marginalized

Herb Montgomery | December 19, 2025

If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:

Our reading this weekend is from the gospel of Matthew.

When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written:

  “‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way before you.’ 

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

(Matthew 11:2-11)

For years, I was a preacher of the gospel in a pretty fundamentalist tradition. At the same time, the gospel I preached never even mentioned the poor. This week’s lectionary passage continues to remind me that good news to the poor is how we know whether Christianity’s gospel is the same as the one Jesus’ preached. Audience members used to often remind me that if it’s not good news it’s not the gospel. Today, a better reminder would be that if what we are preaching is not good news first and foremost to the poor, if it’s not accessible by the poor, than it’s at bare minimum not the same gospel that the Jesus of the stories preached. 

A reliable litmus test for the gospel is whether it is truly good news to the poor. Jesus announced a kingdom where the last are made first, the hungry are fed, people’s humanity is restored, and the poor become the blessed. If our message comforts only the privileged, it drifts from Jesus’ own proclamation in the gospels. The gospel becomes tangible when it addresses hunger, oppression, exploitation, and injustice with practical compassion and material, concrete hope. Good news to the poor is not just charity. It is solidarity. It is justice. It stands with those who are overlooked by the status quo and affirms the intrinsic worth of those presently being disenfranchised and made vulnerable. Today, it doesn’t matter whether we define those communities as migrant, trans, or  the people in Ukraine or Gaza. The gospel Jesus preached challenges systems that crush people and inspires us to create societies shaped by generosity and justice. When the marginalized including the poor hear the gospel and recognize it as hope, freedom, and belonging, its authenticity is unmistakable.

In the spirit of that justice and hope, I want to begin this week by addressing the other recipients of Jesus’ gospel in the statement to John’s disciples. When it comes to people who live with disabilities and how we tell the Jesus story, I believe we can do better today for them. The gospels contain ableist elements. Many healing stories frame disability primarily as a condition needing correction. Jesus’ miracles often present disabled people as objects through whom divine power is displayed, rather than as full participants with agency. This narrative pattern has unintentionally reinforced the idea that a meaningful life requires being “fixed.” Additionally, disability is sometimes used metaphorically for moral or spiritual lack, such as blindness for ignorance and lameness for weakness, which can deepen the stigmatizing, negative associations of having a disability with being “less than.” Many disability theologians also note subversive moments in the Jesus story where Jesus centers marginalized people, restores them to community, and challenges social exclusion (see Nancy Eiesland’s The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability.) 

Acknowledging ableist elements doesn’t disqualify the gospel stories. Rather, admitting the truth about these stories invites us into deeper reflection on how we can interpret these texts today as faith communities endeavor to uphold the humanity and dignity of all, including people who live with disabilities. 

Next in our reading, Jesus addresses his audience regarding John the Baptist. John the Baptist was born into a respected priestly family; his father, Zechariah, served in the Temple State system, and his lineage offered him the social, political, and economic benefits of that path. Yet John chose a radically different calling. Rather than serve within the structured Temple State system—deeply intertwined with political and religious authority—he withdrew to the wilderness. He chose a path of challenging the status quo, calling his society to repent for complicity with Rome and to return to the practice of justice toward one another, all of this outside of institutional control. John’s voice in the desert was a contemporary return to the Hebrew prophetic justice tradition and was in tension with the institutionalized and co-opted-by-Rome priesthood. John confronted corruption, preparing hearts for a just future brought about by a God who would respond to the people’s repentance and return to justice. He reminded the people that their future directly depended on what they chose to practice toward one another: continued exploitation or a return to the Torah’s justice. 

In the gospels, “the wilderness” symbolizes the margins of society. It represents those places far from centers of power, wealth, and political/religious control. It is in these edges that God’s presence is revealed most clearly. John the Baptist preaches there in the wilderness, showing that divine truth arises outside the institutional authority of his time. Remember, Jesus is also tested in the wilderness, therefore identifying with the vulnerable and the unseen. The wilderness becomes a space where God meets those who are overlooked, oppressed, or displaced. By locating revelation in the margins, the Gospels declare that God is not confined to centered places of power but stands in solidarity with the marginalized and offers them hope, reclaimed humanity, and new beginnings rooted in justice.

In his book Say to This Mountain, Ched Myers writes, “The experience of wilderness is common to the vast majority of people in the world. Their reality is at the margins of almost everything that is defined by the modern Western world as ‘the good life.’ This wilderness has not been created by accident. It is the result of a system stacked against many people and their communities, whose lives and resources are exploited to benefit a very small minority at the centers of power and privilege.” (Say to This Mountain: Mark’s Story of Discipleship, p. 11)

Myers goes on to say, “While the margin has a primarily negative political connotation as a place of disenfranchisement, Mark ascribes to it a primarily positive theological value. It is the place where the sovereignty of God is made manifest, where the story of liberation is renewed, where God’s intervention in history occurs. (Say to This Mountain: Mark’s Story of Discipleship, p. 12)

John the Baptist’s ministry, as portrayed in the Gospel of Luke and illuminated by Josephus, centers not on offering assurances of heavenly reward but on demanding concrete, ethical transformation in society. Luke presents John as standing in the Hebrew prophetic justice tradition with a message focusing on action-based repentance in contrast to the complicity that elites engaged in with the Roman empire. When the crowds ask John what repentance requires, John does not speak of greater fidelity to the Temple State, but of earthy, concrete, social practices and preparation for an approaching end to unsustainable social practice. He instructed them to share resources: “Whoever has two tunics must share with the one who has none, and whoever has food must do the same” (Luke 3:11). John’s demands also addressed tax collectors and soldiers. He calls tax collectors to economic honesty, to refuse to collect more than prescribed, and calls soldiers to non-violence and contentment, forbidding extortion and false accusation (Luke 3:12–14). These calls reveal his vision of repentance as social and economic justice embodied in everyday life.

Josephus corroborates this image, describing John as a teacher who urged people to practice justice toward one another as an expression of their devotion to God. In Antiquities 18.5.2, Josephus states that John commanded his followers to exercise justice in their dealings and piety toward God, emphasizing the practice of social justice as the true preparation for baptism. This portrait aligns with Luke’s emphasis: John’s baptism symbolizes a commitment to transforming present social reality, not a ticket to a later heaven.

Taken together, Luke and Josephus portray John as a prophetic figure calling Israel to ethical renewal. He insists that genuine repentance manifests in equitable economic practices and compassionate treatment of neighbors. His message is a summons to rebuild society on justice, not a promise of post-mortem security.

Advent rituals remind and call us, like John’s preaching of old, to return to the social justice practices of our various faith traditions, and to renew our commitments to shaping our present world into a just, safe, compassionate home for us all.   

Discussion Group Questions

1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.

2. How are you taking a stand for justice this Advent season? Share and discuss with your group.

3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone? 

Thanks for checking in with us, today.

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My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.

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I’ll see you next week.

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New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast

A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice. 

This week:

Season 2 Episode 50: Advent as Good News for the Marginalized

Matthew 11:2-11

Advent rituals remind and call us, like John’s preaching of old, to return to the social justice practices of our various faith traditions, and to renew our commitments to shaping our present world into a just, safe, compassionate home for us all. John chose a radically different calling. Rather than serve within the structured Temple State system—deeply intertwined with political and religious authority—he withdrew to the wilderness. He chose a path of challenging the status quo, calling his society to repent for complicity with Rome and to return to the practice of justice toward one another, all of this outside of institutional control. In the gospels, “the wilderness” symbolizes the margins of society. It represents those places far from centers of power, wealth, and political/religious control. It is in these edges that God’s presence is revealed most clearly. This narrative details speaks to every person who finds themselves doing justice work along the edges of our communities today.

Available on all major podcast carriers and at:

https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/advent-as-good-news-for-the-marginalized

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Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.

 

by Herb Montgomery

Available now on Amazon!

In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.

Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.

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