Third Sunday of Advent (A)
There is something about being confined against our will, even if only for a time, that invites us to stop and reassess our lives. The young Francis of Assisi, captured and imprisoned after a battle; the young Ignatius of Loyola, recuperating after being injured in battle: both of these men were led to ponder their lives and ask themselves if they were moving in the right direction or not. Something similar happens to many of us: an illness, a time in jail, or simply the gradual aging of our bodies, can be occasions to stop and take stock of our lives and how well we have honored our deepest commitments.
In today’s Gospel reading, we meet John the Baptist. When we last saw him (last Sunday), he was boldly proclaiming the need for repentance by the Jordan River, and announcing that this Jesus of Nazareth was the long-awaited Messiah. But now John, in prison, has a question for Jesus. “Are you the one who is to come, or must we wait for another?”
This question may seem strange to us. John seemed so certain before. Why is he asking this now? Is it because he finds himself in prison, assuming that if he was right, he wouldn’t be there? Not necessarily. John saw himself as a prophet. He would have been well aware of how prophets before him, like Jeremiah, had to suffer imprisonment and rejection because of their message. John would have also known stories of the many Jews who gave their lives during the persecutions recounted for us in the books of Maccabees. They died because of their faithfulness to God and God’s laws, with faith in the resurrection of the just as their hope.
John knew all this. His being in prison would not, by itself, have fazed him. Why, then, does he ask his question? Why this uncertainty?
We are told that John asks his question when he “hears of the works of the Christ”. In other words, John is hearing reports of what Jesus is saying and doing. These reports puzzle John. John was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. But what John is hearing is not what he expected. As St. John Paul II once said, John was expecting a different kind of Messiah – or, at least, a different timetable for the Messiah’s works. In last Sunday’s Gospel, John speaks of an axe that lies at the root of the trees, of a winnowing fan, and of fiery judgment. Yet, Jesus isn’t doing anything like this. Not yet, at least. “What’s going on?”, John may have asked himself. “Did I get this wrong?” Hence, his question for Jesus.
We should not be surprised or disillusioned that even a man as great and as highly praised as John the Baptist had a question like this. Many people assume that if someone is a saint, that person must have gotten everything right about God from the very beginning. That isn’t necessarily the case. We all need to grow in our faith, in our understanding of who God is, who Jesus is, and what that means for our lives. Being a saint doesn’t mean being all-knowing from the very start. It does mean a total commitment to the Lord, and hence an openness, a willingness to learn from the Lord. Every saint grew in faith during his or her life. John is no exception. John surely had that total commitment to the Lord. Now he needed to take the next step in his journey of faith.
Well, then, why didn’t Jesus just answer John’s question directly, with a “Yes”? Why didn’t Jesus say, “Yes, I am the Messiah”, in so many words? Why does Jesus tell John’s disciples, instead, “Go and tell John what you hear and see?”
Jesus answers in this way precisely because John’s image of the Messiah needed to grow and expand. If Jesus had simply said “Yes”, then John would have assumed that Jesus was the kind of Messiah that John originally had in mind. Not that John was wrong about the fiery judgment. Jesus would also speak about fire and judgment. But Jesus wanted to expand John’s idea of what being the Messiah was all about.
Jesus invites John to consider these things: “The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them”. On the one hand, this is a nice summary of all Jesus does and says in the previous six chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. But, this description also recalls Isaiah’s prophecies of what the Day of the Lord will be like. These prophecies, as far as we can tell, had not been associated with the coming of the Messiah in Jewish thought before Jesus. However, all these prophecies describe things that God will do on “that day”. Jesus is thus inviting John, who knew his Isaiah very well, to contemplate this. Jesus is saying that He is the Messiah, and more than the Messiah, just as He would later say that John is a prophet, and more than a prophet. Jesus is inviting John to see that God is at work in Him. More than that – that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. This is the faith that John will need to face his impending death.
Well, didn’t John already know that Jesus was the Son of God – and God as well? Again, not necessarily. That might seem obvious to us, but it was by no means obvious for a first century Jew. Jesus’ own disciples needed time to gradually discover who Jesus was and is. John, too, needed to grow in his understanding of this greatest of mysteries. It may well be that John’s time in prison was the opportunity for him to do just that.
Matthew does not tell us what John’s reaction was. Given how John was (and is) praised, we can assume that John understood and believed. But Matthew leaves it open so that we, the readers, can face this same question. Are we ready to truly acknowledge that God is in Jesus, and all that this means? Moreover, do we as Christians, filled as we are with the Spirit, also do what Jesus did? How do we heal the blind, or lepers, or the deaf? How do we proclaim good news to the poor? How well do we witness to the fact that God is indeed in Christ, and that Christ has indeed come – and will come again? Are we willing to put our lives on the line for Christ, as John did? Are we open to keep growing in our faith and knowledge of God, as John was?
Finally, picture John the Baptist as a patron saint for all those who don’t completely understand why the Lord asks certain things of us – but do them anyway. This is remarkable faith. May this faith be ours!
May this be our Advent question for this week. May grace and peace be yours!