Advent 3

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Advent 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 13, 1998

TEXT: Matthew 11:2-11 - When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

ISSUE: Matthew's passage is working at making clear definitions as to who John the Baptist and Jesus are. John is clearly Malachi's forerunner of the Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah described in much of Isaiah's passages in terms of the great healer. In a time of great anxiety and uncertainty in both Judaism and the early church, these distinctions were important. For our age it is a matter of taking the leap of faith that also defines the Messiahship for ourselves. Is it truly Jesus the Christ, and do we embrace him fully in thought, mind, spirit, and action, or do we wait for another?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew is addressing the early church community in a time of high anxiety. The Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed. There was a lot of uncertainty within Judaism as to who or what was the shape or definition of a delivering messiah. Anyone who had taken on some kind of leadership role and who opposed the forces the Romans was seen as a kind of messiah. Matthew seems to be trying to bring some clarity in this time of high anxiety and uncertainty for his people.
Matthew reports an incident when John the Baptist is in prison. Remember last week how John had dared to call the Sadducees and the Pharisees a brood of vipers. He had challenged them and all people who came to him to be repentant, not just sorry, but changing in their behaviors. He challenged the corruption of the priestly cast, the smoothness of the Pharisees, and the oppressive forces of the time. Now this week we find where that led John. He is in prison. Thereby, he appears to be a failure. He sends word to Jesus by his disciples asking if Jesus is the expected Messiah in these anxious and troubled times. Is Jesus the one who will bring about the Kingdom of God? Now Jesus asks the crowd what do you think of John? What did you go out into the wilderness to see?
Was John a mere reed easily broken or bending in the wind? Indeed not. If anyone was easily manipulated and uncertain of themselves, it was Herod.
Did they go out to see someone dressed in soft robes? Of course not, John the Baptist wore coarse clothing and ate the food of prophets, locusts and wild honey. Only the greedy rich like Herod dressed in effeminate clothing and behaved like a "pansie."
What did people go out in the wilderness to see? They went out to see a profoundly honest and straight forward prophet who was calling a confused, anxious, sinful world, a world of greed and injustice and oppression to repentance, to change. John, for Matthew, as Matthew tells this story, was the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. The words: "See, I am sinding my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you." comes from the prophet Malachi 3:1 and continues "Then the Lord you are looking for will suddly come to his Temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim my covenant." Also in Malachi 4:5 it is written: "But before the great and terrible day the Lord comes I will send you the prophet Elijah." Matthew is holding up John the Baptist as the anticipated forerunner of the Messiah who will deliver Israel from its great affliction. For an uncertain community, they can be assured that God is continuing to work in their history and fulfilling the hopes of the prophets. John is seen as that stark contrast to the worlds powers and leadership. He calls for a cleansing, a renewing, and a complete change. He comes with no pretense or facade of royal robes and palaces. He is the rough stone that God has turned into one of his true prophets that honestly proclaims things as they are and demands change before the judgment of the Lord.
In this passage, John is perceived as uncertain as to who Jesus is. Is he the anticipated one? Is he the Messiah? And again Matthew wants to clarify the uncertainties of the time for his newly forming Christian congregation. In the passage, Jesus tells John's disciples to go and tell John what that they themselves are experiencing of Jesus' ministry: "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor (or the wretched) have good news brought to them." This sentence is nothing more than a direct quotation from Isaiah. It incorporates several passages. One from Isaiah 35:5-6, which we just read earlier today as the first lesson, the blind, the deaf, the lame and even the mute or speechless are speaking and being healed. The idea that the dead are being raised comes from Isaiah 26:19, "Those of our people who have died will live again! Their bodies will come back to life. All those sleeping in their graves will wake up and sing for joy. As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth, so the Lord will revive those who have long been dead." The idea that the poor or the wretched are having good news proclaimed to them comes also from Isaiah 61:1, "The Sovereign Lord has filled me with his spirit. He has chosen me and sent me to bring goodnews to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison."
Repeatedly, Matthew in this account is revealing Jesus as the messianic folk healer that is coming into the world to those who have suffered at the hand of injustice and oppression. It is a passage again of great reversals: Blind - see; Lame - walk; Deaf - hear; Dead - live again; Poor outcasts, speechless ones like widow - get a voice. What's more . . . Great as John the Baptist is. . . even the least are greater than he. The last, the least, the lost are reclaimed by the Messiahship of Christ that comes among the people.
John had called for repentance. John had called for people to turn around, "turn over a new leaf" is the modern expression. For those who are ready to turn to Jesus as the Messiah as the Christ that shall find themselves reversed; from silence to joyful voices; from darkness into the light; from deadly lives to lives of renewed hopes; the dirty untouchables are being made touchable and restored to fullness of life again. The age of injustice and the slandering of the poor and the oppressed is coming to an end (Isaiah 29:18-21), "My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame." The new age of reversal and hope has come. Matthew is proclaiming this to a people who live in an age of fear, anxiety, oppression, and injustice. He is clarifying that the forerunner Elijah in the person of John has come and Jesus is the messianic folk healer who dares to come among his people, to touch and reside with them, to bring the healing and hope they need. Physicians (doctors) in this time rarely came near their patients. They talked of healing but avoided contact with people for fear of retribution by families if they injured a patient. But folk healers were different; they mingled with the sick, the dying. Jesus was the folk healer who came to his people in their great distress and becomes the great messianic healing hope. Matthew clearly defines who John the Baptist and Jesus are for a bewildered community, that they might take hold of the hope in their time of great distress, that they might see themselves as beginning to step into the Kingdom of God.
This is not merely about healing. It should not be taken too literally in our time. It is clearly a defining message of hope. The world and the church today has its severe problems. The problems of the affliction of the poor: homelessness, hunger in the face of great affluence in certain quarters of the world. It suffers enormously from violence in the streets and internation terrorism around the world. Our family life in so many instances has severe problems. Honesty is not always a top priority value whether it is in government or on the sales floor of your local car dealership. The world needs changing, our lives need changing. Sometimes in the face of great need we standseemingly helpless, apathetic and unconcerned. The message of John the Baptist is quite relevant. We need changing, and we stand under the judgment of God.
Yet at the same time coming into the world is the messianic healing hope. It is the Christ in this story who helps the blind to see new things in new ways, deaf are opened to hear new ways and the message of love. The dirty and unclean can find forgiveness in the mercy and compassion of God realized in Christ Jesus. People who are stifled, unable to move with their lives can find themselves challenged by Christ. Things that have grown old can be raised up and made new, and the least, the last, the lost can be made great in the eyes of God.
Honest people may well know that we stand under the judgment of God. It's a troubled world. We belong to a troubled church, and God knows we all have various troubles in our lives. We know we need changing and redemption. How can we be changed and in what direction do we turn? We need like John to ask, "Is in fact Jesus the one who is to come, or do we look for another?" There is that time when we must make the leap of faith. For all we know John the Baptist may well have expected a much more militant messianic figure as opposed to the healing messianic hope revealed in Jesus. People today look to various philosophies and fads as their hope and salvation. Even today people look to strong military leaders. Economic wizards as their hope. Strong political leaders and those who like to play everything safe, and keep things all the same. We look to strong characters who see rigid rules and regulations and laws as the hope of the world. But before us too is Jesus, the one who expressed a deep profound mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and love. Where we turn to whom we seek for salvation and hope is ours to choose and that decision effects the depths of our souls.