Are You the One Who Is to Come?

Sermon for Dec. 11, 2022

Matthew 11:2-11

“Are you the one who is to come?  Or are we to wait for another?” (Matt 11:3)  That’s the question about Jesus from John the Baptist this morning – and maybe our question, too.

If you were with us last week and heard about John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness, today’s Gospel story might feel like whiplash.  Last week, John was wearing his camel skins and eating locusts and crying out to the crowds, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt 3:2).  And he wasn’t just wandering around raging to himself; hundreds of people were going out to hear him “prepare the way of the Lord” (Matt 3:3), ushering in the One who would restore God’s reign and rule in the oppressive world of colonized Palestine.  The king whom the Jewish people had been waiting for is knocking at the door, John said.  And to the crowds who longed for their liberation from the Romans, John said: Remember, you’ve got work to do, too.  If God is sending a king to save you, you’ve got to turn your life in God’s direction and bear fruit that shows where your allegiance lies: with the kingdom that brings you life, or with the empire that sucks you dry.

And John was calling the people to waste no time in repenting because the time for God’s reign and rule is now: “One who is more powerful than I is coming after me,” John said (Matt 3:11) – one who won’t just baptize with water but baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, saving those whose hearts and lives honor God while judging those who collaborate with the powers of domination and self-interest.  For “the chaff [God] will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matt 3:12)

Well, that was last week.  Today, as we fast-forward seven chapters in Matthew’s Gospel, we hear about a different John the Baptist.  While Jesus has been healing broken bodies and broken spirits, and teaching how God’s kingdom stands in contrast to Rome, and stilling a storm, and casting out demons, and sending his followers out to do this same amazing work themselves – meanwhile, we find that John the Baptist is rotting in prison.  Out in the wilderness, as he railed against the corrupt Jewish leaders, he also took on Herod, the Jewish “king” who was Caesar’s puppet in Galilee.  John critiqued Herod for breaking Jewish law by having an affair with his niece, and Herod had had enough.  Like the ancient kings of Israel whom the prophet Elijah had taken on, Herod shut John down by shutting him up in prison. 

We don’t know how long John had been rotting in prison at the time we pick up the story today.  But his fight is gone.  Dealing with God knows what from Herod’s henchmen, John’s spirit is broken.  In prison, he hears about what Jesus is doing, but he also knows what the Empire is doing, to him and to countless others.  The kingdom of God may be breaking in, but it’s not breaking him out of jail.  Even prophets and true believers come to the end of their rope.  So maybe we can forgive John for sending his followers out to find Jesus and ask, “What the ____ is going on?  We thought you were the one to liberate us, but John is being tortured in Herod’s prison.  Are you the one who is to come?  Really?  Or are we to wait for another?”

A couple of things strike me as important here.  First, there’s this: Even the most stalwart among us run out of spiritual gas sometimes.  St. John of the Cross is remembered for his writings about the “dark night of the soul.”  St. Teresa of Calcutta served the poor for decades, but privately she journaled about her doubts and struggles with God’s presence amid massive suffering.  And apparently even John the Baptist, the one sent by God to prepare the Messiah’s way – even he came to the point where the darkness closed in.

My guess is that some of us run out of gas, too.  And here in this season that’s supposed to be “the most wonderful time of the year,” I think we’re especially prone to it.  Not only do we face the stress of holiday obligations, but we’re expected to be happy through it all.  And we’re expected to be happy despite what we face when the parties are over.  This is the time of year when loss and loneliness can hit hardest.  This is the time of year when the burden of illness and pain can be heaviest.  This is the time of year when our failures and broken places can come to visit us like ghosts who won’t keep still.  If the darkness could close in on John the Baptist, we might take some cold comfort from knowing we’re in good company.

But here’s the other thing that strikes me as important about John’s question to Jesus.  It’s the second half – “or are we to wait for another?”  Even rotting in Herod’s prison, John hasn’t lost his assurance about God’s purposes in the long run.  Absolutely, the time is coming when God’s anointed king will set the world to rights.  Even in prison, John knows it.  The question isn’t “if”; it’s just “when.”  And I take true comfort in that – that God is working God’s purposes out, even if we don’t always see it; that in God’s time, the earth will be filled with the … glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

So, faced with John’s question, and the questions of our own hearts, what does Jesus say?  First, let’s think about what he doesn’t say.  It’s not, “There, there, everything will be OK.”  It’s not, “Get over it and pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps.”  It’s not, “I’m the Savior; how dare you question me!”  Instead, it’s this: He says, look around.  Look around and see the reign and rule of God breaking in, even when you feel like you can’t break out of what binds you.  Yes, Herod is still in power.  Yes, our pain and our ghosts still afflict us.  But look around.  The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.  Children in a village in Haiti are still going to school, even as their country is being run by gangs and collaborators.  Families in need at our partner schools are finding clothes and food and diapers and free laundry.  Friends come to us in our own trying times, and ask us how we are, and actually care about us enough to want an honest answer.  Jesus is there beside us as we offer up the fullness of our lives, broken places and all – not expecting us to have all the answers, not expecting us to be jolly and bright, and not judging us for our own moments of, “Are you really the one who is to come?”  Jesus is there, and his power is there, despite it all.

We find our redemption in these in-breakings of God’s reign and rule, too.  Offering ourselves for service and for healing is what restores our hearts and clears our vision so we can receive our kingdom sight once again.  We offer ourselves as living sacraments of God’s love when we buy an Advent card to pay a teacher’s salary in Haiti.  We offer ourselves when we give a coat or some boots to stock the Free Store in January.  We offer ourselves when we reach out to a friend or neighbor and help heal a broken heart.  We offer ourselves when we come to the healing service this Thursday at 5:30, opening our own brokenness to the God who makes the lame walk, and makes the deaf hear, and makes the dead spots of our hearts rise again.

We’re right there with John the Baptist.  It’s absolutely OK for us to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  But when we ask that question, just be sure to stick around to see God’s answer.