Matthew 12:2-11
Are We to Wait For
Another
Are you the one who is to come,
or are we to wait for another?
I began to ask this question when
the first round of sale fliers came in my mailbox. I am looking for that particular gift which I
know will eventually be on sale in one of the stores that regularly distributes
such inserts. I keep looking through
them and tearing out pages and trying to decide if now is the time or if I
should continue to wait.
What if I settle for the option
which was in last week’s flier and then next week a better offer comes
along? I have three criteria. Some of the offerings meet two but not the
third. Others have scored so well on one
criterion that I was tempted to compromise on the other two. Tempted, but not convinced. I am sure that sometime between now and
December 24 just the right product, for just the right price, with just the
right features is going to show up. And
so I wait, and watch and hope – and occasionally I tear pages out of the flier
and I ask - Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?
I do not mean to trivialize this
question nor do I want to suggest that looking for right Christmas gift can in
any way be the same as looking for the correct Messiah. But all week I have been struck by the
similarities between John’s question and my search. All week – actually for the past several
weeks – I have been struggling with this reoccurring image of a checklist and
repeated evaluation as to whether this or that has met the criteria. I think there are some parallels between John’s question and the way that far too
many of our contemporaries approach the question of Christology. Far too often, in the public discourse, we do
hear persons elevating or devaluating this aspect or that part of Jesus and
Jesus’ message. We approach our Christ
as we would approach the purchase of a new automobile. We look around until we find the one that
fits our needs and makes us feel comfortable.
It is an easy trap to fall
into. I mean, even John the Baptist
seems to have succumbed to this temptation.
John’s words, as recorded for us in
the earlier chapters of Matthew’s Gospel, seem to indicate that he knew his
role. Remember from last weeks’ gospel
reading that John speaks of himself as the forerunner of the one who is to come. He says that the one for whom he is preparing
the way is more powerful than he. He
says that his not worthy even to carry the sandals of this one to come. “I, John, baptize you with water,” he had said,
“but he who comes after me will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit.” John seems to have known that Messiah was coming
and coming soon. But in his words
recorded in today’s lesson, John isn’t sure if he was ready to accept that this
Jesus was the One.
He should have known. Jesus has been active for quite a while. He has preached his great Sermon on the
Mount, he has healed many sick individuals.
He must have healed some in the presence of John’s disciples for he
tells them to report to John “what you see.” Jesus has begun to call his own disciples and
in the 10th chapter (remember that today’s lesson is from the 11th)
he sends out the twelve. They preach,
teach, heal and return to report to Jesus how well it had gone. Obviously John had heard about this. If not all of this, then enough of this to
have given consideration to Jesus and whether he might be the one of whom John’s
message had spoken.
John knew that the Messiah was
coming. He had observed and had reports
on what Jesus had been doing. And yet,
he seems reluctant to accept that Jesus is actually the one for whom he had
been waiting.
Are you the one who is to come,
or are we to wait for another?
What was it about Jesus that left
questions in John’s mind? What was it
about his message that failed to convince?
Where was the disconnect between what John was hoping for and what Jesus
was doing? John seems to be attracted to
what he sees, but he is yet to be convinced that he should buy.
Author Marva Dawn refers to this
tendency (which she sees in far too many church-goers) as the “commodification
of the faith.” We look at Jesus and
Jesus’ teachings and Jesus’ Church and we pick and choose what parts are going
to be applicable to us and what parts we are going to ignore or devalue. We approach church and faith as if it were a
commodity to be purchased, rather than a life to be lived. We look around until we find that group of
persons whose reading of the Bible reinforces our own conclusions and then we
grace that gathering with our presence.
Should something be said which disrupts our assumptions we begin to
question whether we truly found the right place. We might even begin to search for another.
John sends his disciples to ask
Jesus point blank – “Are you the one?”
No more of this pulling punches; they want a straight answer. Does Jesus give them one? Jesus responds to their direct question by
saying, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive 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.”
I don’t think Jesus is giving John
a direct answer. But what I think
doesn’t matter. I don’t think it matters
what John thinks, or believes or accepts.
Jesus isn’t in some contested election, popularity vote or sales
campaign. Jesus is doing the work that
God sent him to do. John can decide
whether he will accept Jesus or if he will continue to look a little longer,
hoping to find someone who is a better match for what he had in mind.
Christ is not a commodity. The church is not a marketplace. We are not at liberty to design or create or
accentuate what pleases us or satisfies us or meets some deep seated desire or
longing. We are given the opportunity;
we are repeatedly invited; someone else pays the admission price – all of this
so that we might join the throng who have come to know that Jesus is the long
awaited and desperately needed Messiah of God.
We are given the opportunity, we
are invited inside - and once here we set ourselves about the task of learning
more about our Messiah and how to work together with the rest of his followers. There will be messages that we don’t want to
hear and there will be lessons that we don’t want to learn. But we are not free to choose and pick.
Christ is not a commodity; the
church is not a marketplace. When we
find ourselves engaged in disagreement we can allow the minor point in question
to destroy us – or - we can see in the argument our never ending resistance to
accept the Lordship of Christ. We can
come to understand that being God’s children is more important than determining
who among us remembers correctly what Daddy said.
“Are you the one who is to come
or shall we wait for another?” The
wait is over. Christ has come. It is time to get on with the proclamation of
his message.
Amen.
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