Homily: 3rd Sunday of Advent – Cycle A
I can understand why John the Baptist
might have doubted. He spent his adult
life calling others to repentance in order to prepare themselves for the
manifestation of the Messiah. And on
that fateful day that Jesus came out to him, he acknowledge Jesus as that
Messiah, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. After he had baptized Jesus and saw the Holy
Spirit descend upon him and remain with him, John continued to preach
repentance. Now, however, he would turn
those who were coming to him towards Jesus.
But the tables had turned, it seemed.
John found himself imprisoned by the Israelite king, Herod (someone who
should have been welcoming his message!), and none of those things that the
Messiah was supposed to bring forward, about which Isaiah had prophesied, seemed
to be coming to fruition.
Although I’ve never been imprisoned, I
imagine that it affords a person a lot of time to think. And, with one’s freedom removed, I imagine
that it’s probably hard to think positively about things. I can only imagine what John might have been
thinking while he was in Herod’s prison: “Was I doing the right thing?” “What if I was wrong?” “What is Herod going to do with me?” “What if Jesus really isn’t the Messiah?” Then, along come some of his disciples to
tell him of these things that Jesus is doing: miracles of healing and preaching
about the kingdom of God. Perhaps John
felt very confused and conflicted and so I understand why he may have
doubted. He doesn’t want to doubt,
though, and so he decides to send his disciples back to Jesus with this
question “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?”
I also understand why Jesus might have
covered for him. I mean, John was his
number one promoter. John pointed Jesus
out and called him exactly what he is—the Lamb of God—and he told his disciples
to turn and follow him, instead. And so,
when John’s disciples come to him saying “John told us to ask you this
question: ‘Are you the one who is to come?’”, Jesus defended him: telling
everyone that John was a prophet greater than all prophets and even going so
far as to say that no one ever born has been greater than John (presumably
including even himself). I imagine that Jesus
might have thought “If John is doubting, what will keep the rest of these
people from doubting?” And so, I
understand why Jesus might have covered for him.
It’s easy to understand these things,
perhaps, because we can relate. And so
we read these scripture passages and we think “Look, they’re human just like us
after all.” And this is true! They are human! The challenge for us, however, is to look at
this passage and realize that John didn’t
doubt and that Jesus wasn’t covering
for him.
John, as we know, was the great herald
of the Messiah’s coming. He was “the
voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’” He preached repentance because he knew that
the one who would bring judgment was coming.
He leaped for joy at the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary while he
was still in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth.
And after Jesus manifested himself publicly, he boldly pointed him out
and taught his followers to follow him.
His whole life was about “I must decrease, he must increase”, and so it
just doesn’t make sense that, after years of believing in and proclaiming his
coming, John would all of a sudden doubt.
And so, if this is what the scriptures seem to say to us, perhaps we
should take a closer look.
First, they tell us that “When John
the Baptist heard in prison the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to
Jesus with this question…” He sent his disciples… John still had disciples! But John’s purpose was to turn his disciples
to Jesus! In other words, his job was to
work himself out of a job! And so,
having heard of the miracles that Jesus was performing and that he had been preaching
the kingdom of God, John sent his disciples to ask the question for themselves:
“Are you the one who is to come or should we
[like, us personally] look for
another?” Jesus perceived what John was
doing in sending his disciples to him and so he not only told them “yes” or “no”,
but he showed them the proof of his answer: “Go and tell John what you hear and see…” and he preached the kingdom and performed these miracles
before their eyes.
John’s disciples, presumably
converted, went off to share this good news with John in prison. Jesus, far from trying to cover for John,
extolls his praises as one of God’s greatest and most faithful servants. He uses this opportunity to teach them about
who John was so as to shed more light on who he was, because, remember, his
followers were still just starting to understand that he is the Messiah. And so he tells them that John is the prophet
greater than all prophets, because he was chosen to be the herald of the
Messiah’s coming. More than that,
however, he tells them that John is the greatest of all men because of his
extreme faithfulness to God: faithfulness that isn’t deterred by the suffering
caused because of imprisonment. Then he
uses this to teach about how much greater the kingdom of heaven is by saying
that even this great man is as nothing in that kingdom. All in the kingdom are greater even than he.
Okay, but what about us? You know, it’s understandable if we feel a
little bit imprisoned these days. The
world is an increasingly dark place and it is increasingly hostile to our
faith. I can understand if perhaps any
of you might begin to think thoughts like, “What if I was wrong?” and “What if
Jesus isn’t who he says he is?” “The
perfect world that Isaiah promised would come with the Messiah seems to be far
away, and so what are we to do?” Advent,
my brothers and sisters, gives us the answer.
In the second reading, Saint James
wrote to the first generation of Christians and encouraged them to be patient
and to be steadfast in their right conduct throughout these many seasons until
the Lord returns. He exhorts them in
this way because he anticipates the Lord’s return: “Behold, the Judge is standing
before the gates”, he wrote. This same
advice applies to us today and reminds us of why we are in this holy
season. Although we are anticipating our
celebration of Christmas—Christ’s first coming among us—the main focus of
Advent is to remind us of our need to anticipate Christ’s second coming, which
is still to come.
We have come to know Jesus, the one
for whom our hearts long. Our task is to
remain steadfast in faith, even in the face of hostility from the world, and to
work to make the kingdom of heaven known in anticipation of Christ’s imminent
return. Advent is this time of renewal
in which we return to Jesus, like John sending his disciples to him, and see
once again for ourselves the proof that he is, indeed, who he says he is. Perhaps even in our own lives we have seen
him perform miracles: maybe not curing the blind or deaf or making otherwise
crippled persons walk upright, but maybe in healing a broken relationship or
consoling a heart crippled by a loss.
These and many more things are signs that Jesus is, indeed, the one who
was to come and so we have no need to look for another. This very fact is cause enough for us to
rejoice!
Nonetheless, we still have an even
greater sign that Jesus is the one who was to come: his coming to us here at
this altar. May our hearts open more
deeply to receive him here today and so be strengthened in our faith that the
Messiah has come, is here, and will come again; and thus go forth from here
rejoicing to strengthen the hearts of those around us so that all might be
ready to receive him when he comes.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – December 10th & 11th,
2016
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