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Who Are You Looking For? by Stephen Sours, Minister for Youth and Young Adults 16 December 2001-- Advent 3 TEXT: Isaiah 35:1-10; Matthew 11:2-11; Luke 1:46-55 © 2001 L. R. Kalajainen

John the Baptist asks, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?" What an interesting question from John the Baptist. And this question comes right before Jesus exclaims of him that he is "more than a prophet." The question in and of itself is neither new or interesting: " Are you Messiah, the Anointed One of God to whom the longing and hope of Israel for deliverance has been directed?" The prayers and reflections of the people of Israel had been asking that for generation upon generation, and the Gospels themselves recount that numerous people, even those who followed Jesus, asked this question of him. But we never would have expected such a word of doubt from the likes of John the Baptist-someone who was chosen to prepare for the coming of the Lord.

John, after all, is the forerunner to Jesus' ministry; he prepares the way for the arrival of God's kingdom in person, Jesus of Nazareth. He is the greatest of all the prophets, the greatest human ever-if you look with a human perspective. John lived a life of asceticism in the wilderness, taking on the mantle of the prophets of old, a tradition which had fallen silent for nearly 400 years. He gathered disciples around him who remained faithful to him even after his death; he called Israel to repentance, and throngs flocked to him to submit to his baptism of repentance, even the Lord. What's more is that this status was not self-proclaimed, but was attributed to him by Jesus, who saw him as Elijah, whose return was taught by many would precede the coming of Messiah. Indeed, Jesus ascribes to John the words taken from Malachi 3:1: "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you."

Despite all this, John still asks, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" And we are still left asking, "why is it, how is it, that John found himself asking, doubting, reconsidering, testing the possibility that Jesus was not the One." He had even leapt in his mother's womb before he was born when the pregnant Mary came to visit-which he did not remember; and would himself have submitted to be baptized by Jesus had he had his way-which he did remember. And so here he is in prison for his public condemnation of Herod Antipas and the immorality of the royal palace, and he sends his disciples to Jesus with the question.

We might wonder: was he doubting himself, his faithfulness to God, or God's calling on his life? Was he letting himself be used by God the way he should? Had he read the scriptures; had he understood them rightly? Was he leading his disciples astray; would he be responsible for their misdirection? What of his preaching, his interpretation of events, his ritual of baptism; would they land him in the junk-heap of false prophets? Or was he doubting God? Did God remember his people, or were they still to remain captives? Was this the time of God's salvation, or did they have to wait even longer?

Matthew does not exactly tell us what were all the doubts and fears and second-guessing and conjecturing and worry that was certainly eating away at the insides of the greatest prophet. But Matthew does give us a pretty good indication of why they arose. Consider the difference between the message John preached and the answer Jesus gives to his disciples.

John is out there walking up and down the Jordan telling people to repent. Well that's nice; all good preachers, and especially prophets, are supposed to tell us to repent. But listen to what else John says when the Sadducees come to be baptized. He rightly interprets the politically motivated reasons for their actions and tells them not to rely on their ethnicity, but to bear right fruits. These are his words: "the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." And again: "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Now, it's easy to sit back and say: "Oh, now I see why John was a prophet, look how vividly and accurately he appropriates the language and imagery of the Old Testament prophets." And in doing so, we make the unconscious assumption in our minds of categorizing this language as belonging to the realm of apocalyptic discourse, and we move safely on. But John said these words to people, referring to Jesus, and he meant it. To some he said that God was taking them into the granary, which were words of salvation, but to others he said, "the ax is about to fall-on you-and you are about to be thrown into the fire."

This was the conviction and vision of the Messiah which John had, and of course, keeping with biblical discourse in both the Old and New Testaments it is true. But like the prophets before him; like the Sadducees, Pharisees, Esseenes, and Zealots; like the Democrats, Republicans, Nationalists, and Greens-the manner in which Jesus ushered God's kingdom into the world was expected by no one. He did so not by force or by coercion or out of self promotion, but by taking the form of a slave and by humbling himself to dead, even death on a cross-only to be raised up again, to the glory of God the Father.

Without correcting or revising John's vision and conviction in any way, Jesus upholds John's proclamation about him and affirms John's initial conviction over against his current doubt that he is the Christ by pointing to his own ministry, to his own works, and to his own teaching. Let those with eyes to see and ears to hear, see and listen. The apocalyptic proclamation of John that Messiah is coming and is here is to be seen in the life of Jesus.

Jesus responds to John's doubt by pushing him to take another step of faith, by appropriating this time for himself the messianic imagery of Isaiah 35: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

Jesus' words of blessing remind us of Elizabeth's words to Mary when she came to visit: "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." And Mary, who surely had much to ponder in her heart, and no doubt had many a season filled with doubt, is at this time inspired to burst forth in a hymn of praise in keeping with the Old Testament figures of Moses, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, and the Psalmists.

[read the magnificat…]

No wonder the Magnificat has been a central hymn of praise throughout the church's history and figures prominently in its liturgy in the Advent season. John is looking for an ax and chaff and fire and its implications for Israel vis a vis Rome; rather Jesus points him to the blind, the lame, the deaf, the lepers, the dead, and the poor. John doubted because, for a time, he did not look with the eyes of faith, while in her song Mary shows us where our eyes should look. And Mary points us to lowliness, fear of the Lord, the humble, the weak, and the poor.

The one of whom you sing this Advent season is the one you will receive. To Mary's list I will simply add one more place to look if you are trying to see the Messiah-the children and young folk. Too much of the time I have the mindset of John as he sat in prison, but last weekend I had the blessing of taking 30 middle schoolers on the Winter Retreat, and I tell you that compared with the glitter of the Champs Elysees and crowd who frequents it, our little Centre de Jeunes et de Sports was as humble as a manger. No fame, no media, no power-according to a human perspective. But there was no doubt that last weekend was spent in the presence of the Living Lord. I won't recount to you all the events of the weekend-all the prayers and questions and insights and singing and laughter and games (and let's not fool ourselves, their kids, not angels), but I saw three different young folk stand up in front of 30 of their peers and offer solo musical performances either by way of song of piano. They were received not with snickers and embarrassment, but with applause and compliments.

Who are you looking for this Advent season? Go back and tell John, "the children burst forth with song, and their friends receive them with gladness." Look-but not with a human perspective, but with the eyes of faith-and see the coming of the Lord. Come, Lord Jesus.

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