When we find John the Baptist imprisoned, we may be tempted to settle on his doubt. But doubt isn’t his problem. He’s already convinced he was wrong.
faith and the destructive nature of cynicism
Advent 3A
Matthew 11:2-11
Previously…
This gospel reading needs an intro: previously…
‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’
This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.” ’
[Camera pans down to show John’s crazy clothes. Then cuts to show the Pharisees and Sadducees.]
“You brood of vipers!”
“‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’”
Then the screen goes black.
Fade in on a prison cell. The wild-eyed prophet from last week is now pacing. He appears in different positions in different parts of the cell to show the passing time.
Words fade onto the bottom of the screen:
A few months later…
The prisoner is in the corner of his cell, arms tucking around his knees. He’s quiet, despondent, hopeless. Notes, obviously passed to him by guards and visitors, litter the floor. Clearly people are keeping him posted on what Jesus is up to.
A visitor comes, bringing word of yet another healing—perhaps the gentile, the centurion’s servant. Or the leper or demoniac. The paralytic or the girl and the woman. Two blind men and one who is mute. Maybe all of them.
Which was the last straw for him? The one which broke him? Which broke his belief?
First, Repent!
Go back to what John was saying all those months ago, out in the wilderness. Repent! Turn around. Change course. Put yourself in line with God’s vision for creation. Don’t rest on your tribe, your background, your history, who your people are and pretend that’s the same thing as being faithful!
Run with the natural analogy a minute. Don’t be like a millionaire’s kids, expecting inheritance. Confusing inheritance with worth, dignity, value to the world. Don’t sit on the wealth someone else has handed you.
Apostles, that’s a spicy word for the church, isn’t it? Oh, but he’s got plenty more zest in this kitchen.
John says that he is baptizing them right then with water. But another will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Maybe he’s saying I’m washing you clean, but he will purify you. This is both exciting and scary stuff. Because purifying us might take away some of the rough edges we kind of like. Maybe it’s the swearing or the drinking or the complaining or the gossipping. Stuff we like to do.
Christ
John was arrested soon after baptizing Jesus. So he’s been stuck there for months while Jesus is only just getting started.
Here in this prison, John is full of doubt. But I’m not sure that’s the best word for it. He is full of cynicism. Doubt isn’t a problem. Nor is being a little skeptical that maybe things won’t go the way we hope. Cynicism, however, is something else.
- Doubt is saying your 75% chance isn’t a sure thing.
- Skepticism is saying you might be in the 25%.
- Cynicism is saying that regardless of the odds you might as well have a 100% chance of failure.
When we’re cynical, we’ve already chosen defeat. We’re not objectively seeing our chances, we are closing off the possible.
John isn’t doubting Jesus may be the one. He’s already halfway down the road to believing he’s not.
And in the midst of this, the evangelist we call Matthew gives us a sense of perspective John refuses to have.
Look at that first line again:
“When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing”
Pause on that. Messiah, or Christ.
John doesn’t send someone to check on Jesus. He sends them to check on the Christ.
The Anointed.
Matthew has only up to this point referred to the Christ in chapter 2: when Herod asks the Magi where the Christ was to be born.
These two are not asking about Jesus, an itinerant rabbi and faith healer. They’re inquiring about the Christ. The Messiah. The general, liberator, king. The one who would free Israel of Roman tyranny and rule benevolently.
There is little doubt from where John’s disappointment comes. Jesus has no army. He isn’t even persuading the religious leaders. How is it possible that this nobody, this zero, this total square is God’s anointed? For John, those odds are dropping to nothing.
It’s about God
Thankfully we don’t just get John’s perspective. While he’s rotting in a cell, where he’s been since chapter 4, Jesus has been doing the same work of inviting the world to repent: turn around, change course.
And I think the thing we take for granted is actually the part of the story Matthew is most interested in revealing to us.
Because for us, these words: Lord, Messiah, Christ are all synonymous for the incarnate one. Our theology is too well baked into our minds that Jesus is both Son of God and part of God. It is easy to skip over the revelation because we’ve made it common.
John and Herod both inquire after the Christ because they are looking at this human Jesus and saying is this really what God is up to? A baby? A healer? This doesn’t look like the weather forecasted.
But if we are reading this story Matthew tells, we aren’t looking at Jesus like he is supposed to be a Superman. We are looking at the human one through whom God does super things.
In the chapter right before John gives up on Jesus, Jesus calls the twelve apostles and literally gives the powers of God to them.
This isn’t a simple misunderstanding. This isn’t a difference of opinion or two people looking at a common moment and drawing different conclusions. God is bursting into the world and John is saying but he’s not doing it right.
They are seeing God at work and John is focused on Jesus. He’s looking at it wrong. And he’s giving up because he can’t see it.
Jesus responds
So let us hear Jesus’s response to John, apostles! He sends a message back: Look at the work, John! This is God in our midst! Don’t be offended by me.
But the one for us is the one he gives the crowds, many of whom had been baptized by John.
“What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?”
Was it about a man? Were you drawn to his charisma? Or were you hoping to see a king: people who give other people orders and wall themselves in palaces?
When you went out to the middle of nowhere, did you expect to find a wealthy tycoon with more money than God? More power than Rome? More certainty of winning than the house at a casino?
Did you leave the comfort of your homes, trek out to the holy river because you were pinning your hopes on a single, fragile human being? Someone who can be bought by the wealthy and pushed over by the powerful?
Is this why you did all of this? Is this what you hoped to find there?
Or did you go to find God in your midst? Present, empowering us to transform the world.
This isn’t about John’s fragile ego or whether he was a good servant of God. Nor is it about the doubt he casts on Jesus’s identity, as a cynical jerk at the end of his rope. Which, by the way, is a voice that should not be treated as equally true.
Turn Around
In fact, this isn’t even a story about Jesus. Not at its heart.
Because every story about Jesus points us to the real center of every story. God.
God is transforming the world through imperfect, improbable, importantly fragile vessels, swayed, and pushed by arrogant forces; demeaned and abused by terrifying powers; but in the end, beautiful, simple, human beings seeking the love of God.
In our midst.
And isn’t that why we wait? And watch?
Because we know that God is up to something. We’ve seen it. In the miracle of life and our incredible capacity to love each other. We’ve seen it and we know that God is up to something.
Something that includes us. Something that requires us to share in that love.
That’s why the point isn’t to keep the Christ in Christmas if it means the empire vision of the past or the muddled affect of cultural heritage.
It’s to find that Christ is present among us now. Present in our generosity, and hope and determination and especially in our joy!
We’re out there seeking and searching and waiting and hoping. Hoping for Christ’s return: to be present with us, loving us, reminding us to love, showering us with hope.
But God is with us! And joy is always here! Here like a regular dinner guest for these cold, lonesome nights. Bringing the wine, true joy, and the best stories to warm our hearts.