3rd Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11

In today’s gospel John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask a simple question — are you the one? — and what did Jesus say?  I’ll tell ya what he didn’t say, he didn’t give a straight answer.  Have you noticed that Jesus rarely gives a straight answer?  A friend of mine says that she prefers it when God uses the 2x4 method of communication.  I’m with her!  I like it when God is clear and straightforward, no interpretation required.  But in the gospels Jesus is constantly giving these round about responses. 

Why does he do that?  Well, maybe he doesn’t know the answer?  Probably not.  Maybe he’s just having fun with people?  Possibly.  Maybe he was asked the wrong question and he’s trying to steer us toward the right one. Maybe. Or maybe there is something of greater meaning that he’s trying to communicate.

There was a time when if the Church said something, everybody believed it, most everybody.  There was a time when if the government said something, everybody believed it, most everybody.  Those days are gone. If you want to change somebody’s mind, you can’t quote Church teachings or government statistics.  People don’t find that compelling.  I’ve done a lot of teaching around this diocese and I’ll tell that if I quote the bishops or even the Vatican, minds aren’t changed.  If I quote government statistics, people don’t find that very convincing either.  Sometimes if I quote Scripture that will sway people. But if I tell someone’s story, the room hushes and people listen. If we are looking for compelling authority, the kind of authority that can change hearts and minds, nothing beats personal experience. 

I wonder if Jesus was using that kind of authority with John.  When Jesus was asked if he was the one, he could have said, well the church leaders say I am, relying on their authority.  But he didn’t.  He could have said, the king, King Herod, says I am, relying on the government’s authority.  But he didn’t.  He could have answered on his own authority and just said, “yes.”  But he didn’t do that either.  Instead, he relied on the greatest and most consistent authority — the personal experience of people.  He said, what do you see?  What is happening? Open your eyes.  What does your experience tell you?  What does that authority that resides within your own heart have to say?

The gospel of Matthew was written so that John’s disciples’ question could be our question.  Jesus, are you really the one?  Haven’t we all wondered at some point in our lives, is Jesus really the one?  Should I really be committed to this Catholic faith, or can I just treat it as one good thing among many and not think about it too much, the way most of America approaches their religion?  Or is Jesus really the one and the worship I do here is the most real thing in my entire life?

The evidence was everywhere that Jesus was the one.  He was curing the blind, the lame, the deaf and the lepers, the dead were raised and the poor were hearing the good news.  Evidence was everywhere, and people still had trouble believing it.  They knew the answer but didn’t know how to believe it.  They wanted confirmation, someone with authority to tell them.

My kids do that sometimes. They already know the answer but they ask me anyway, especially if it involves a sibling doing something they shouldn’t.  As the authority figure, I give the expected and known answer and then the day can move on.  The truth is that I do it too. You know, when you go to the store with a flyer that something is on sale, but it’s not marked, so you ask the clerk if it’s on sale, just to make sure that they know. 

Do you think they were asking Jesus if he was the one to make sure that he knew?  It wouldn’t be the first time in the gospels that people were telling Jesus what kind of Messiah he should be. 

Jesus’ response did more than answer a question.  It pushed faith back on his listeners.   If our faith comes from someone else telling us, then it’s only as strong as that person and only lasts until they tell us different.  Jesus wanted a faith much stronger than that.  He wants people who can fully claim their own experience, who can see things for themselves, and stand on their own authority as they name Jesus as the one, the Messiah.  That kind of faith means that we have to pay attention, and that can be work. It means we have to think, and that can be work.  It means we have to stand up even if everyone around us sees things different, and that can be real work. 

As evasive as he was the John’s disciples, Jesus was worse with the crowds after they left.  He extolled what an amazing prophet John was, “among those born of women,” ...that’d be everybody... “there has been none greater than John the Baptist.”  He was greater than Samuel who crowned King David, he was greater Elijah, the greatest of all prophets, he was even greater than Moses, that most central figure of all of Judaism.  John the Baptist was greater than all of these people, “yet, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” 

The kingdom of heaven is one of those things that Jesus talked a lot about, but never very concretely, probably so that we could go on learning and entering the kingdom our entire lives, without ever having the false sense that we  have it all figured out.  But there are a few things can we say about the kingdom of heaven — it is ruled by Jesus as king and it is inaugurated by his reign, a reign coronated in the crucifixion and resurrection.  It is a kingdom of those who live and profess themselves as subjects to Jesus, as faithful followers.  At this point in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, in the middle, that coronation hadn’t happened.  The reign had not yet come.  That kingdom would be so great that even the least citizen would be greater than the greatest before.

But today, the reign has come.  We are people after that coronation.  We are ones who can proclaim ourselves citizens in the kingdom of heaven, but doing so means more than signing up, establishing residency (sitting in a pew), or even paying taxes (tithing).  Being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven is an orientation toward Jesus, to a way of life so that if people ask us if we are Christian, we can answer the way Jesus did.  What do you see?  Are people being healed?  Are they freed from their afflictions?  Are the poor rejoicing?

Our life as a Christian is orientation toward Christ. During this Advent season, we can ask Jesus the same question as John’s disciples.  Are you the one?  And Jesus will answer us the same way.  What do we see?  What does your experience tell you?  What does your heart say?  And then on Christmas we can celebrate with a renewed faith.   We can celebrate that we have seen the signs, we can claim our own experience, and we can stand on our own authority as we proclaim Jesus as the One.