Advent 3A – George Yandell
The story goes that John the baptizer was born on the summer solstice. Six months older than his cousin Jesus, John is a dynamic figure, a man of judgement and light. John burns bright- he lays peoples’ sins bare, his prophecy calls down fire. Yet in today’s gospel passage, John is alone in a dark prison cell. He who recognized Jesus as the Messiah now seems to have doubts. “Are you the one to come,” John asks through his disciples come to Jesus, “or are we to wait for another?” [Adapted from “The Christian Century”, p. 22, November 23 issue.]
John might well have doubts since the deeds of the Christ are acts of compassion rather than the fiery judgement of the anticipated Messiah John had preached about. (That was in the gospel for last Sunday.) It seems John had backed off his earlier confidence that Jesus was the expected one. [Adapted fm The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol.8, p. 266]
In ancient prisons, prisoners were cared for by friends and family. Their needs were not provided for by the state, but by supporters of prisoners. News traveled freely. Witness the letters Paul wrote from prisons. In the chapters preceding today’s reading, Jesus has cleansed a leper, made the lame to walk, restored sight to the blind, and raised the dead. John must have known these stories. And he must have known that these miracles followed a pattern traced by Isaiah hundreds of years before– we heard those miracles attributed to God as described in the Isaiah reading today. The immediate historical context for that Isaiah passage is a prophecy concerning the return of Israel after the exile in Babylon, in which God will provide safe passage through the barren wilderness. They are obviously important for those who heard and witnessed Jesus doing what Isaiah had described– they were living through the oppressive occupation of their ancestral home by the Roman Empire, the most overwhelming empire of all time.
So when John’s disciples come to Jesus to deliver John’s question from prison, “Are you the one who is to come?”, Jesus was generous with John in his reply- “Tell John what you hear and see- the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news (gospel) preached to them.” And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” [Above two paragraphs adapted from “The Christian Century”.]
Jesus was already aware that many would not accept his words and deeds. Thus he goes on to bless those who take “no offense at me”- i.e., those who do not misunderstand his ministry. As the Gospel of Matthew repeatedly illustrates, such misplaced expectations by his followers and adversaries alike would ultimately lead to his rejection.
As John’s disciples depart, Jesus turns to the crowd and begins to speak to them about John. He sees the Baptist as austere and uncompromising— not like a reed that bends and changes direction with the wind. Nor is John like a spoiled prince lounging in his palace, as evidenced by his rough clothing and life in the wilderness. John is clearly a prophet; indeed, he is “more than a prophet”. He is the messenger foretold in the Scriptures who was to prepare the way for the Messiah. He is the one who ushers in the new age of the Messiah, even though he wouldn’t live to see it come in fullness.
However, despite John’s stature as the greatest prophet of his age, Jesus proclaims, “The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”. This statement is not a rebuke of John, but an indication of the radical transformation in the age to come. Those in the Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus will be “greater” because they will have experienced the glory of God in the light of the Resurrection—an understanding of the future beyond anything John envisioned. Thus, today we too are called to tell out the things that we have seen and heard, and to do our part to prepare the Lord’s way. [Above adapted from Synthesis Advent 3A.]
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) wrote about the nature of the Kingdom Jesus ushers in. He said, “We have come to know a threefold coming of the Lord. The third coming takes place between the other two. They are clearly manifest but the third is not. In the first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among Galilean Jews in the days when, as he himself bears witness, they saw him and hated him. In his last coming “all flesh shall see the salvation of our God,” and “they shall look on him whom they have pierced.”
“The other coming is hidden. In it, only the [ones close to him] see Jesus within themselves and their souls are [transformed]. In brief, his first coming was in the flesh and in weakness, this intermediary coming is in the spirit and in power, the last coming will be in glory and majesty.
“This [hidden middle] coming [of Jesus] is like a road leading from the first to the last coming. In the first coming Christ was our redemption, in the last he will appear as our life, in this intermediary coming he is our rest and consolation. Do not imagine that what we are saying about the intermediary coming is simply our own fabrication. Listen to Christ himself, “If a man loves me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him” (John 14).” Where, then, are they to be kept? Without any doubt they are to be kept in the heart. ….. Keep the word of God in that way…. Let it pierce deep into your inmost soul and penetrate your feelings and actions. …..If you keep the word of God in this way without a doubt you will be kept by it. The Son with the Father will come to you.”
Once Rabbi Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk surprised a group of learned scholars in the 19th century by asking them: “Where is the dwelling place of God?” “What a thing to ask!” they replied. “Is not the whole world full of God’s glory!” they exclaimed. “Yes,” the rabbi said, “but God dwells wherever people let him in.”
Indeed that is so. And that is the question of Advent: whether it is the coming of the End, and/or the coming of the Christ in the Incarnation: Are we ready to let God in? Are we ready to entrust our lives to Christ? To unclench the fist of willfulness and open the hand of trust, believing somehow that God’s creativity is not exhausted in the past, but is alive and at work in ways more than we can ask and imagine—if we simply turn our lives over to it.
When Gandhi was once asked by a reporter what was the secret to his happiness, the holy man replied, “Three words. Renounce and enjoy.” Renounce control, and embrace grace. Breathe a little easier. Take yourself less seriously. Soar, and leave the results to God. Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding “Christ is nigh,” it seems to say; “Cast away the works of darkness, O ye children of the day.” Advent’s leap of faith awaits us all. [Adapted from King Oehmig in “Synthesis”, Advent 3 2019.]