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Advent III

Matthew 11
2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 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 proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 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. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’[c]
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.


Suddenly my son has become a cranky old man.

Oddly, the words “cranky old man” is the dictionary definition of the term ‘Dutch uncle’—just one of many English insults to our people—so I suppose you could say my son has become a Dutch uncle. See me later if you want a catalog of other insults. I keep lists.

And it’s also a case of ‘looks like my son and sounds like my son, but is it my son? His latest complaint is workmates who make a mess: don’t organize their tools, don’t clean up after themselves, and generally don’t take a lot of pride in their work.

Meanwhile, there is a certain professor who has spent the semester making the same kinds of complaints. Spelling, grammar, footnotes—I could go on—and the general sense that these young students (some as young as 17 at the beginning of the term) are struggling with the transition to adulthood.

And so the theme of this season of discontent seems to be something like ‘don’t they understand their job?’ An organized workspace is part of the job, double-checking your paper rudimentary errors is part of the job, and it would seem kvetching about others has become part of the job. Isaac’s summary of this whole conversation is “does spelling count?” To which the answer is always “of course it counts, it’s part of the job!”

Speaking of kvetching, did you hear John’s question? Before I get to that, though, I should tell you about the neutral voice in reading. When we open our Bibles, we tend to read it in a neutral voice. Adding emotion or motive slips into the realm of interpretation—always a much larger question—and so we adopt a neutral voice. Case in point, John’s question:

“Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Without looking at the full context, we tend to allow this question to stand as a question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” But John the Baptist is the original Dutch uncle, shouting at the religious ones: accusing them of fleeing the wrath to come, suggesting that they have asked the moral equivalent of “does spelling count” and generally failing to produce the fruit that matters in the divine economy.

So when he asks the question that matters here, it might read more like “tell me Jesus—if you can—are you the one we’re waiting for, or should we start looking for someone else?” Ouch. Yet even the ouch John delivers is understandable if we recall the context of his waiting, the context of the hope that John describes in his own unique manner back at the beginning of the story:

11 “I baptize you with[b] water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

In other words, if this is the job description of the messiah, then maybe it’s time to ask Jesus when he’s doing: are you the one we’re waiting for, or should we be casting about for someone else? Now even someone with the confidence of the son of the Most High might smart a little at this question, and feel compelled to take up the challenge of a proper reply, and he does:

4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 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 proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

I think you can see the tension here. John was a smart guy, a minor prophet, a leader with followers who were trying to keep a foot in the John camp and the Jesus camp. He knew exactly what Jesus was doing from the Galilee to Judea, from the early days of selecting disciples to the latter days of crowds and growing fame. He understood that there was very little winnowing happening and even less of the unquenchable fire.

Instead, we get a snapshot and a dig. The snapshot is somewhere between a travelogue and job description, a list of every kind of vulnerability and Jesus’ cure. Everything lost has been restored, every infirmity has been addressed, and the poor have received the Good News of God’s unique regard. And then the dig: “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

Now, I may be wrong here. Maybe this is not a dig at John, but it sure has all the hallmarks of a clever comeback. John’s own unique approach (“you brood of vipers”) was equal parts compelling and repulsive. I’m sure it functioned as a bit of a personality test, whether John’s preaching drew people in or drove them away. So some would have stumbled near the river, close to accepting a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, but never getting wet. Again, I may be wrong about Jesus’ rejoiner, but it seems to fit.

Now, before I return to Jesus’ job description and why this is an Advent reading, I want to take a brief trip down memory lane. When I was a child, there were a few things you knew for certain: you knew, for example, that if a Minister of the Crown made a mistake, he or she would take responsibility for the mistake and step-aside. And you knew (if you lived at my house) that Robert Stanfield was the greatest Prime Minister that Canada never had. And you further knew that the work of government was much like making sausage—you trusted in the outcome but you didn’t really want a lot of detail about how it was made.

Fast-forward to today and the world has changed. No one steps aside without being pushed. The opposition (of every stripe) is considered the enemy rather than the loyal opposition or a ‘government in waiting.’ And whatever mystery or trust that existed between the people and their government has been replaced with something called the “mandate letter.” I’m never sure if we’re supposed to read them or simply know they exist, but I guess if you want to know what the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity is supposed to do, you could read her mandate letter.

Obviously government is easy to mock, so I’ll leave them alone (for a while). But the impulse to write a mandate letter is similar to where we started: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Are you doing everything we expect you should do, or should we name someone else the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity? There is nothing new about accountability. Trust in our leaders tends to ebb and flow, but accountability remains a concern in every era.

This is why Jesus gives such comprehensive response. The job description of messiah was very subjective, and could be found in any number of texts or teachers. So Jesus decides to settle the argument before it gets out of hand: “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 proclaimed to the poor.

And this is why we wait: we spend Advent longing for a time when everything lost is restored, where every infirmity has been addressed, and where God’s unique concern for the vulnerable becomes Gospel in our eyes. We don’t wait as the world waits, we don’t put our trust in princes or presidents or prime ministers, and we don’t long for prosperity unless it’s to prosper in forgiveness and love.

May God bless our waiting for a world made new: where hope is restored, where the last become first, and where the merciful are blessed. Amen.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 6:22 AM