It’s Good to be Home. I bring you greetings from St Peters Lutheran Church in Clinton
While only a few weeks have passed liturgically between Jesus’ baptism and today’s Gospel, in Matthew’s narrative several events have happened in Jesus’ ministry between then and today. For one thing, John is now languishing in prison, and he asks his disciples to go ask if Jesus is the one that Israel has been waiting for. Given the assurances that John proclaimed Jesus with in Chapter 3, this seems a little bit of a shocker. John is supposed to be a prophet after all. Why would he be asking if Jesus is the One, if it was John himself who declared Him to be the One. Perhaps this is a reminder that prophets too are human. Let it also serve as a reminder that a prophet in Biblical times was not a fortune teller but a critic of systems. John surrendered to Jesus’ request that John baptize him despite John’s insistence of his unworthiness. Jesus certainly overturned John’s expectations in the moment of Baptism. John had to be asking, what kind of Messiah is this? Who is this Messiah who bends to the scruffy honey and locust eating, Value Village wearing long haired freak in the wilderness?
I think that given John’s display of doubt today along with Jesus’ insistence that this very Spirit driven, but very human John will baptize Him serves as example of the types of tools Jesus has to work with. It isn’t so much us but Jesus’ constant faith in us to somehow get the Good News Out. It’s not about our worthiness, but it is about God’s initiative, the initiative we are waiting for come Nativity.
But again, why is John doubtful? Well, he’s in prison and he’s wondering why that would be if the Messiah is roaming about doing Messiah things. Human John is wondering why he is languishing in a cave somewhere when he knows from today’s Psalm and from Isaiah’s proclamation that the Messiah will “Proclaim freedom to the captives.” That certainly describes John’s predicament does it not?
So, John being a curious sort and wanting to believe sends emissaries to Jesus. Are you the One I proclaimed or has my whole life been a lie up to this point? Friends, do you not think that John wants Jesus to open the doors of his cell and invite him out into the fresh air and into freedom? But Jesus sends the emissaries back with this …. Tell John what you have seen…. “The blind receives their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” Let’s put a pin in that last part for the moment. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are made clean, the deaf hear and the poor…. The poor have good news brought to them. But there is one piece of the pie, the big important piece to the one marking his days with a piece of dirt or a stick on the walls of his fetid cell…. freedom for the prisoner.
Well thanks a lot Jesus! I googled this so it’s not scientific, but freedom for the prisoner is mentioned Twenty-seven times in scripture. John knows what the Messiah does. He’s staked his life on it. And now, he’s being told no. Nope. Not today. John, this devoted servant with grand expectations, has been told no. He must feel a bit like the Son who stayed around while his brother wasted his inheritance, spit in their father’s face and still received a warm welcome…. Even if he didn’t say it, if you were John and all these other folks were getting the good news wouldn’t you be asking… What about me? Where’s my Freedom?
Now let’s unpin that last clause… “and blessed is anyone who does not take offense at me.” It is extremely easy when we don’t get what we want, or what we think we deserve to give up on God just a little bit, or to question if God is real, or the Messiah legitimate. With Jesus’ reply to John, we’re assured that we’re not going to be punished for questioning Him, but it may not go the way we want, and we should be open to any change of plans the Messiah might have in store.
Blessed is anyone who does not take offense at me. If we might bump forward to Maundy Thursday and listen in on Jesus’ prayer in the Garden “If it be your will, may this cup pass. But not my will, your will be done.” Jesus won’t even allow the free the prisoners narrative to include Himself and so Jesus is going to baffle our expectations just as he baffled John. It may be that like John, freedom is not in the books and that it is God’s desire that we give up our life for His sake. I’m not saying we will, but isn’t the point that we be ready to do so? If it is our life that Jesus asks us to put on the line, and if we accept that……Jesus tells us we most certainly have been blessed. Dare we accept the mystery or do we insist our Messiah conform to our expectations.
It is easy for us humans to try and get ahead of God, to try and see where God is headed when in fact, we are told repeatedly to be patient. Sometimes our eagerness leads to mistakes, and we are encouraged that our mistakes are never the end of the story. God may need to come in and clean up the mess, but God will still use us, Philip Yancy wrote in Vanishing Grace, “The Bible tells of flawed people-people just like me- who make shockingly bad choices and yet still find themselves pursued by God.” Two weeks ago Jesus pursued John to baptize him.
Here is the point folks, at least as I see it…. We may be told no, or we may be told to wait. The writer of the Letter of James, tells us right away….”Be patient.” I have to admit, patience has never been my strong suit, but there it is. It is in today’s gospel it is in today’s epistle and it is threaded throughout Scripture. There is nothing the prophets have said that has not been fulfilled, but maybe not in the way that we expect. On the cross, Jesus sets the entirety of humanity free from sin. That doesn’t mean we don’t go on sinning. Our Order for Confession and Forgiveness is a reminder of our fallenness, just as even John was fallen. Yet John was told by God to prepare the way…. As best he could. Of course, we should try and do better, but we’re not barred from sharing the good news because we’ve got a little bit of dirt in our past, or in our present either. John speaks for us in our weakness and doubt. John speaks for us in our expectation which to be fair as it was for John, the Messiah is supposed to overthrow the enemies of Israel, and at this point it appears Jesus is teaching and performing a different kind of Messiahship. Jesus tweaks John and He tweaks us with our patent and ready scriptures. He upends the apple cart. Let us not be too zealous about John who was a great man to be sure, but he didn’t get it all right. John is much like us. He is an archetype of the human tendency to get a little taste of Truth and then run off without fully understanding or listening to the inconvenient parts.
Jesus’ Message is different, and I think it wise for us to really understand this.
As we journey through Matthew we will get to the “You have heard” sections, followed by the “but I tell you to…” These reports have reached John in prison, and he must be wondering at this cousin of his who is not really acting like a Messiah.
What are our expectations of the Messiah?
Jesus tells John and He tells us…. blessed is anyone who does not take offense at me. Are we ready to deal with the unexpected?
Prepare the way and be ready to be surprised.