THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Cycle “A”: Mt 11, 3 – 11
Down
in the dumps
“Are you the one who is to come or have we got to
wait for someone else?” (Mt 11, 3)
It was the year 28 or thereabouts. Summertime, and
the heat was stifling. John the Baptiser was finishing his 6th.
month as a convict. His dungeon was located in the fortress of Machaeus
overlooking the Dead Sea in southern Palestine. His jailor was the loony King
Herod. John’s crime was that he had correctly and publicly accused the king of
seducing his brother’s wife and walking out on his own. The king, like most
royalty, was not amused and threw him into a maximum-security prison. Down in
solitary lock up, the Baptist was as restless as a caged lion. His home had
been the desert that knew no boundaries. Yet it was more than claustrophobia
that caused him sleepless nights. John the Baptist was the “prophets’ prophet” -
strong, fearless, unstoppable - but from his prison cell he, too, seemed to be
undergoing a “dark night”; a silence heavy with doubt and possible
self-loathing and recrimination.
Amazingly,
he was having disturbing thoughts about Jesus, the supposed Messiah whom he had
introduced to the multitudes, the one for whom the Jews had longed for
centuries. He had promised his vast audiences that this Messiah would enter
their lives not with a whimper but with a bang. John was convinced too that he
had even met this Messiah, and amazingly had even baptised him. But, for
reasons not clear to the Baptiser, not even once did Jesus openly declare
himself the Messiah. Besides, he wasn’t putting the axe to the tree as John has
foretold, or wielding the winnowing fan or burning the chaff; he wasn’t
knocking the fear of hell into the people. So could he be the Messiah? Did John
baptise the wrong candidate? Was it all a colossal blunder? Not a sliver of
light from on high. So when next his
disciples were allowed that rare visit to the prison, he told them to search
for Jesus in the hamlets and hills of Galilee, and ask the all-important question:
“Are you the one who is to come or are we to expect someone else?” Jesus would
be compelled to answer that question, as he could not lie.
Well, Jesus didn’t answer by saying, “What cheek!”
or, “I like your sauce.” He did not deny that he was the Messiah but neither
did he affirm it. Jesus’ response is gentle but enigmatic. As is so often the
case, he does not answer his questioners directly; instead he invites them to
open their eyes and ears and hearts: “test the evidence for yourselves - come
to your own decision.”
Signs of presence
As an
answer, Jesus borrowed the beautiful lines of Isaiah, “Go and tell your leader
that the blind are enjoying looking at beautiful colours and shapes, the deaf
are hearing the latest news and hottest gossip, the lame are leaping, and the
dumb are screaming their heads off.” Those who were stumbling now walk with
dignity. Those who walked with shoulders hunched now walk proud, walk
tall. Jesus was transmitting his answer
to John in code. Jesus was telling John that the prophecies of Isaiah had
indeed been fulfilled in himself; so he was owning up to being the
Messiah.
We are not informed how John reacted to the news
in his prison cell, but I suspect he felt relieved that his vocation was
accomplished. He could face his executioner with thankfulness.
We must admire Jesus, the master of his situation.
He would reveal his Messiahship in his own good time and on his own terms. And
there was going to be no substitute for raw faith either for John and his
disciples or for anyone down the centuries. John, like all others, like you and
me, would have to say of Christ, “I believe even though I look through a glass
darkly.”
Deeds, not words
But there is one other important issue here, and
it concerns all of us. You must have noticed that John’s disciples recognised
the Messiah not through verbal bombast and blustering, not by threats of
damnation, but by the signs of humble service to deprived humanity, to the poor
and the sick. Jesus, I’m sure, is telling us that we must make his presence
known and felt by continuing his ministry of mercy to our deprived children,
our brothers and sisters. Those were the signs of his presence in the time of
John the Baptist, and they have not changed since.
As we prepare, this Advent, for the coming of our
Saviour, Jesus’ “signs” offered to the
Baptist can turn into searching questions, challenging the depth and sincerity
of our longing for God. Do the blind see again - do we lead people who are
lost, by our words and even more by our lives, to God? Do the lame walk - what is our attitude to
our sick and handicapped brothers and sisters? Has our sympathy and
understanding supported them in their struggles and helped them to start a new life?
Are the dead raised to life? To those who are near despair have we tried to
bring new hope and meaning in life? Do we try to be open to people who do not
share our conventional standards of behaviour? The weak are in need of courage;
compulsive people, enslaved to drugs and alcohol, must find the power to behave
in a new, freer way.
The answer to these and similar questions can tell
us about the genuineness of our desire for Jesus Christ. Without a real
conversion of heart shown in our attitude towards others, will Advent be
anything more than liturgical play-acting?
PRAYER: (Henry Alford, 1810-1871. Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge, and composer of several hymns)
O Lord, give us more charity, more self-denial,
more likeness to thee. Teach us to sacrifice our comforts to others, and our
likings for the sake of doing well. Make us kindly in thought, gentle in word,
generous in deed. Teach us that it is better to give than to receive; better to
forget ourselves than to put ourselves forward, better to minister than to be
ministered unto. And unto thee, the God of love, be all glory and praise, both
now and forever more. Amen
DEVOTIONAL:
What
did you go out into the wilderness to see?
Jesus
asks this question to a crowd after meeting John the Baptist’s disciples, who
were inquiring about Jesus’ identity. Is he the one they’ve been waiting for?
Is it true the Messiah had come? Jesus’ answer is to ask them to hear and watch
what has come because of his life. The blind see, the lame pick up their mats,
the lepers made clean, even the dead
awakened. He seems to be saying, “If this is what you’ve been waiting for, then
‘yes.’”
Then,
in a whir of rhetoric and analogy, Jesus turns to the crowd and asks, “What did
you go out into the wilderness to see?”
The
wilderness, the place where the Baptist dwelt, was a place that I imagine many
sought out.
John
was a man with disciples,
after all.
The
wilderness was a place of searching — the arena for answers about life,
fulfillment, salvation and prophesy. John lived in the wide-open, strange
spaces away from society and the pull of formalities. He wore almost nothing,
he ate almost nothing, and everything about him was meager by most standards.
His life was so radically weird compared to the standard. Yet, people still
wanted to hear what he had to say, and Jesus really, really liked him. He
called him the best born among women.
That
is, the best. Of all.
Who
John was and the place that John dwelt was mysterious. But his life’s work was
giving God glory and abandoning his own. Jesus commends him, but also says that
anyone who is “least in the kingdom” is even greater than John.
So,
I think about this question, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?”
In
the wilderness — a place that carries us away from our comfort zones and from
material — we find answers. We find the radical kingdom that Jesus desires to
see on earth — one of making ourselves less and God greater.
In
the wilderness, we find God.
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