A look at the gaps in the lectionary.

This week: the gap between Proper 8A and 9A
The text: Matthew 11:1-15

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This is a small jump this week.

But any is significant.

What we miss is pretty simple.

The first verse changes the focal point of the story. All of chapter 10 was Jesus preparing his newly-dubbed Apostles for their sending out into the world.

Jesus now heads from city to city teaching. This is the first major focus away from followers and crowds since the start of chapter 5. Now he is turning his attention in a different direction.

It is also notable that, unlike Luke’s sending of apostles in Luke 9 and 10, there is no direct reference to their going out and coming back here. We have a whole chapter of Jesus preparing them to go away and nondescript reference to Jesus going to cities. The departure, therefore, is implied.

The other thing: John the Baptist.

John sends his disciples to check out Jesus. And Jesus receives them graciously and sends them back with a generous message.

What marks this moment as significant is how generous Jesus is being with John’s witness. He places them in context together. Rather than other gospels’ obsession with ranking them and establishing Jesus’s necessary superiority, Jesus declines such an opportunity. Instead, he demonstrates both humility and grace in painting them as parts of a bigger project.

This may be an interesting thing for some, but it demonstrates a relative sense of place that speaks louder. That even the Messiah sees himself as part of the process: not the figurehead for the process.

This is the lead in to Proper 9.

And it serves as the contrast for Jesus’s relative contempt for “this generation”. Recall how Jesus and John are part of a grand system that requires people to play their parts to transform the world?

And what does he criticize this generation for? Sitting there and wanting the Messiah to do all of the work.

For people of faith, this challenge might run deep.