WHAT DO YOU HEAR AND SEE

WHAT DO YOU HEAR AND SEE?

THE REV.

JOHN E. KITAGAWA

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SUNDAY, 16 DECEMBER, 2007

THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

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ISAIAH 35: 1-10

JAMES 5: 7-10

MATTHEW 11: 2-11

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There is more to this Gospel than meets the eye. So, I want to loosen the weave of the fabric so we can focus on some of the important elements, and appreciate the richness of the text.

John the Baptist was in prison. Through friends and perhaps guards, he was getting reports about his cousin, Jesus, doing amazing things in the towns and villages of Galilee. Over time, a thought germinated in his mind, until one day, he began to wonder out loud, “Could it be? Could it really be true that cousin Jesus is the Messiah?” He tried to stifle the thought. “No, how could that skinny kid from Nazareth possibly be the Messiah? There’s no way. He’s nothing like the kind of Messiah the tradition has envisioned. He’s nothing like David or any of the great high priests.” But the reports kept coming, and John could not shake the thought that Jesus might be the Messiah. So, finally, one fine day, John asked a couple of visiting friends to do something for him. Imagine what one of his friends must have said:

Let me get this straight. You want us to locate your cousin Jesus. Then you want us to march right up to him, and point blank, ask him if he is the Messiah?

And John might have said,

Exactly. I need to know whether he is One we have been waiting for, or whether we need to wait for another.

So, John’s friends left the prison and did as they had been asked.

Let us pause here for a moment. Some of you have undoubtedly noticed that today’s text is taken from the eleventh chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. Did not John baptize Jesus in the River Jordan several chapters ago? And, didn’t he say to Jesus,

I need to be baptized by you … (Matthew 3: 14).

Indeed, that is true. And, what about the dove and the voice from heaven? The case could be made that John was a witness to the truth without understanding the fullness of what he had seen or said. Another biblical character, Peter, would later declare Jesus to be “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 15: 16) without fully comprehending what he was saying. So, John’s lack of clarity is plausible. We can use it as spiritual precedent for our less-than-clear and less-than-fully-formed faith claims. We make them sincerely, with passion and conviction, but without fully realizing the fullness and depth of God’s claim on us.

Something else is also going on here. Scholars tell us that there was a perceived rivalry between John the Baptist’s followers and Jesus’ disciples. Matthew is trying to clarify who is who, and that Jesus and John were clear about and appreciated each other’s ministries. Matthew shines a spotlight on Jesus as the Messiah. Then, through Jesus, Matthew points to and affirms John for his significant ministry as prophet and herald of the long expected Messiah. As noted previously, at the time of Baptism, John said to Jesus,

I need to be baptized by you … (Matthew 3: 14).

Jesus demurs, saying,

Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness

(Matthew 3: 14).

“Righteousness” is not to be heard as a moral quality, but as “the whole purpose of God for his people”[1] So, as always, the emphasis and focus are on Jesus’ mission of healing, reconciliation, redemption, and atonement which did not fit the

mold of traditional Jewish teaching about messiah ship. Of equal importance, Matthew wants us to understand the unique and significant place of John the Baptist in relationship to Jesus.

All this is interesting, but does it have any value or meaning for our faith journeys today? Today’s Gospel is quite relevant. First, Jesus understood that people were spiritually hungry and seeking a deeper and meaningful life of faith. Remember how he asked the people,

What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? (Matthew 11: 7).

It is in this context that Jesus affirmed the authenticity of John the Baptist’s ministry. Jesus pointed to John as the genuine article. We have to recognize there were many would-be prophets and “wanna-be” messianic heralds in Jesus’ time. Today, there are many loud and insistent voices that purport to be prophetic and to be heralds of the Messiah and his true mission. They vie, often through the media, for the attention of the spiritually hungry and those searching for a deeper relationship with God. It can all be very confusing. So, how do we distinguish among them to discover the prophets and heralds in the John the Baptist mold? I suggest we start by listening for what is said about “righteousness”. Is it a narrow moralistic vision, or is it a broader and more inclusive vision of God’s healed, reconciled, redeemed and atoned people?

Secondly and thirdly, I love the way Jesus responded when John’s disciples asked if he was the Messiah. He never says, “Yes,” or “No.” Jesus trusted them to make their own judgment by looking around for themselves, and listening to the testimony of those touched by Jesus’ ministry. In effect, Jesus said, “You decide, whether I am the Messiah.” He did offer some criteria, which remain valid today.

… 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

(Matthew 11: 5).

So, what is it that you hear and see?

AMEN.