3rd Sunday of Advent 2022. Matthew 11:2-11 ‘Are you the one who is to come?’
John the Baptist's question from prison is really the question for hearers of every age. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” It is the question. It sort of leaps off the page and lands in our laps. What are we to make of this Jesus for whom we wait? Is he real? Could he really be ‘God with me?’ When John preached ‘Repent! For the Kingdom of God is nigh,’ what did he even mean?
When we pray the Lord’s pray, we pray “Your kingdom come,” but what are we praying when we say this? Jesus himself says “the kingdom of God is very close to you.” Much has been written about what this phrase means, but I think Jesus was talking about himself. In him, is the Kingdom of God. Referring to the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther wrote "God's kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us"
Luther also said it is not enough to preach the works, life, and words of Christ as historical facts; rather Christ needs to be preached so that he becomes Christ for you and me.
John’s question then becomes the big, deep question of faith, the leap from unbelief to belief, and the mystery of God's kingdom at work in us.
John's question is also the great "why?" John is in prison at this point and about to lose his head; is this Jesus really the good news of God promised throughout the whole Old Testament? If this Jesus is really the good news of God, then why is there still so much suffering and pain, evil and destruction, or hurt and brokenness among God's creation? The answers lie in our imagination and vision. What do we expect to see in this Messiah? And what will we make of him?
Jesus says, "Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me" (11:6). To hear and see in this way is to acknowledge that Jesus is indeed the one who is coming as God's Messiah. It is to believe that there is power for new creation in God's call to each of us as disciples, to be transformed by repentance to bear fruits of love and mercy.
It is to know that the deeds and words of renewal and hope that take shape in our world because of him, through us and through others, are marks of God's salvation.
All of these are ways of talking about the "blessing" of God. "Blessing" is an important theme in the gospel of Matthew. It is a code word for the heart of God's good news of mercy and grace. Such mercy is not just metaphorical expression, but is real in the life changing and world changing power of Jesus and his disciples among whom we are included.
"Blessed are the … blessed are the, " is Jesus repeated refrain at the beginning of his sermon on the mount (Matt 5:1-11). The words of beatitude are not, first of all, a call to be up and doing something, but rather words of assurance, to know the blessing that is ours in the call and promise of God.
"Blessed are your eyes," Jesus commends his disciples when he uses parables to help them envision the new ways of God's kingdom (13:16). "Blessed are you, Simon," he responds to Peter's central confession of him as God's Messiah (16:17).
If blessing is the key mark of discipleship, then its flipside or opposite is "offense" (11:6). Offense is taking the position of unbelief. The key question in today’s gospel, and for the whole Advent and Christmas season, is whether the good news of God's blessing in Jesus will take root in us and produce the fruits of faith; or whether it will be the cause of our turning away.
In the narrative of Jesus' birth we are reminded of the two different ways of receiving the “good news” of Christ; either as King Herod or the magi. Herod the Great wanted to kill him, the wise men worshipped him and brought him gifts.
So John’s question morphs into "How will we receive him?" Is Jesus for us "the one who is come" or do we keep looking for another, or other things, that will fill our expectations of what we would like our God to be? Before we answer that question too quickly, we should take another look at John in our gospel.
At the beginning of the gospel John seemed so confident in his preaching about Jesus as the one who was to come. So his questions now seem at best a bit puzzling. John’s question raises matters of expectation and fulfilment. As much as Matthew paints John as the forerunner who proclaims the kingdom of God, still John remains only on the threshold of the kingdom. He did not live to see the completeness of the life of Jesus; his death, resurrection and ascension to the Father.
To judge from his preaching, the Messiah John expected will come with fire and brimstone, with winnowing fork in hand, to exercise judgment. Instead what John hears and sees is one who brings forgiveness, healing, and mercy. Only in the gospel of Matthew does Jesus explicitly state "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," not once but twice (9:13; 12:7).
Is this a Messiah that John or we can live with? Do we really like a God who insists on coming to forgive, to show mercy, to call even the unrighteous to repentance? To say we must love our neighbour as ourselves and not gossip about them? To actually love our enemies? Many find this offensive.
“Doesn’t God know how hurt I have been. If he loved me, he would hate them too!”
How great a promise does God hold out for you and me this Advent season? The answer is a promise so great that even the least person in the kingdom of God is greater than John. It is a promise so radical that even one as great as John the Baptist can miss it as he looks for the mercy and justice of God in the wrong key, so to speak.
So back to John’s question of Jesus; ‘Are you the one who is to come?” When we accept Jesus’ implied answer of ‘Yes, I am he.” We open ourselves to fully understanding what Jesus means by the full blessing of God pouring into our lives. A veil lifts from our eyes and we finally see; we are cleansed just like the lepers; and we who were dead in our sins are given eternal life. This is our source of Joy in our expectation of the coming of the Christ Child. God with us and we with God, for eternity. Amen. Let me pray …