WHAT ARE YOU SEARCHING FOR?
The Third Sunday in ADVENT
14 December, AD 2008
TEXT: St. Matthew 11:2-15
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
“. . .Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’” (St. Matthew 11:7-10)
So far during this Advent season we have examined the two great themes of Advent: the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ and His second coming in glory, called the Parousia; and we have heard and recalled once again the prophecies and signs contained in Holy Scripture that point to Our Lord’s arrival as the Babe of Bethlehem and our Eternal Judge. Today, we want to take that prophecy one step further and give it a human face and a name.
St. John Baptist, named thusly for his role as the one who Baptized Our Lord, has been thrown into prison for boldly and publicly rebuking Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, for marrying his sister-in-law Herodias. While in prison, St. John might have been having second thoughts about Jesus being the Messiah because, as he understood his mission, he should have been out among the people preparing them for the coming of the Messiah, not shut up in a small, dark prison cell. So he sends some of his followers to Jesus for a sort of “reality check” to make sure that he has discerned his mission from God correctly. When St. John’s followers ask Jesus their questions, Jesus responds simply, “Go back and report to John what you see and hear. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not take offense in me.” In essence, Jesus is saying, “Look to the Scriptures about the coming of the Messiah and see that all that they prophesy is coming to pass before your eyes through my work and go back and tell John these things.” With so much Scriptural and now, physical evidence, Jesus’ identity was obvious. As they were leaving, Jesus then turns to the crowd and begins to teach them about St. John and his mission as He says, “What went ye out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind? Perhaps you went out to see someone dressed in fine clothes? No, I’ll tell you what you went out to see. You sought a prophet! And so John is, but He is more than just a prophet!” What does Jesus mean here? It was obvious to Him and to the people, themselves, if they would have acknowledged it, that they would not have been moved to go out and see something ordinary. The phrase “a reed shaken in the wind” was a common euphemism about some everyday common occurrence and/or person. They wouldn’t even have bothered to walk across the street to see that. They would have, however, maybe gone out to see the courtier of a king dressed, perhaps, in fine linen and sumptuous clothing. But St. John was not any kind of a courtier – dressed as he was in animal skins and unbathed, on a diet of locusts and wild honey. If that’s what the people expected, they were sorely mistaken. But what if word had filtered down and around within the town that there was a prophet in their midst? There hadn’t been any prophets anywhere since just after the return from exile and none that preached that the Kingdom of Heaven and the Messiah were nigh at hand! So THIS must have motivated the crowd to go out and see John the Baptizer. Jesus continues, “A prophet? Yes, I tell you and more than a prophet! This is the One of whom Malachi spoke when he wrote, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord (read Messiah) whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in (whom you’ve been looking for all this time): behold he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.”(Malachi 3:1) Jesus is telling the crowd, “Look! This John whom Herod has imprisoned is the forerunner spoken of in the prophets. He is the personification of all Messianic prophecy!” Like Moses led the children of Israel to the promised land and showed it to them, John the Baptist does the same for Jesus. He prepared the people, through his preaching, that the Messiah was already here, that He had already been born and that through Jesus, the Scriptures would be and were being fulfilled.
If Jesus only insinuated this in our Gospel lesson this morning, He plainly states it just a few verses later when He says of John, “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. . . For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if ye would receive it, he is the Elijah who is to come. He who has ears, let him hear.” To take the last part of Jesus’ words, first, the Jews believed and still do that the great prophet, Elijah, will herald the Messiah’s coming. In fact at every Passover meal a chair is left vacant for Elijah as the Messiah’s herald in case the Messiah were to come back even today. Jesus plainly states that St. John the Baptist is his Elijah – His divine herald, His divine forerunner, whose duty and responsibility it was to announce and prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. St. John was nothing less than that and, as such, among mankind, none could have had a greater task than that. Yet, with the coming of Jesus into the world; taking on our human flesh and coming into our human history, it was an absolutely new work of God. All the prophets were great. Their message was timeless, necessary, and priceless, yet with Jesus there came something greater and with it the Good News of our salvation. Nothing would ever be the same (in a good way) now that Jesus had come into the world. And there is one thing that all Christians have that St. John Baptist could never have and that is simply and profoundly, the Cross of Calvary. St. John Baptist never knew that while on this earth. He knew the justice of God, the holiness of God, but he never knew the fulness of the love of God that you and I now know. The Love of God that adhered Jesus to that Cross – the one and only event which gives meaning to our life – gives us hope in the life to come. William Barclay said of this point, “The man who has seen the cross has seen the heart of God in a way that no man who lived before the Cross could ever see it; only in the Cross of Christ do we see the full revelation of the heart of God.” Of all the prophets who ever prophesied, St. John is the greatest, as Jesus plainly tells us, but in truth he stands as a signpost to something greater and guides us to what all of us are ultimately looking for – to be loved by God. During the remainder of this Advent season, prepare your hearts for the coming of Emmanuel – God with us; and then at Christmas, as you open your gifts, think about gifting or re-gifting your life to God and see what He can do with it! It’s not so much what we’re looking for at Christmas, but Who. Watch for the signposts and you’ll not miss Him.
And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end. Amen.