Matthew 11.1-19

DOUBTING JOHN

Matthew 11.1-19

'Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?' (Matthew 11.3)

If only Herod of Antiphas of Galilee had not visited his brother-in-law in Rome, John the Baptist would not have finished up in prison.

But he did. He did visit his brother-in-law in Rome, and, whilst there, fell head over heels in love with his brother-in-law’s wife. This was no brief holiday fling but a burning passionate affair that was to grow. So when he returned, he got lid of his wife and eventually married his sister in law.

But that was not the end of the affair. They had not bargained on John the Baptist. He simply could not keep his mouth zipped up. He insisted on condemning Herod's behaviour in public. Obviously, this could not be allowed and so Herod had him arrested and put into prison in order to silence him. He would have preferred to have had him killed, but since John, who was regarded as a prophet, had such a popular following, this would have been political suicide.

And so our Gospel reading for today finds John sitting alone in his prison cell where he begins to have doubts as regards Jesus being the Messiah. So he sends his disciples to Jesus to ask the question: ‘Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?'

After all, they had already waited many hundreds of years, during which various people had put themselves forward as the Messiah. What is one more in that long line of would-be Messiahs?

Like other orthodox Jews of his time, John expected the Messiah to usher in a new age of peace and prosperity. He expected the Messiah to free the Jewish nation from the captive hands of the Roman authorities.

Whilst Jesus had shown promise at the beginning, by attracting a wide range of followers and preaching a radical message of freedom, somehow he appeared to be growing stale. Things were not happening as John had expected. Perhaps therefore, he might not be the Messiah. So doubts began to arise, accentuated by his isolation in his dark prison cell. 'Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?’

In his reply, Jesus does not say either that he is, or that he is not. He merely tells John's followers to hear and see - to hear and see the evidence and then to arrive at his own conclusion.

'The blind receive their sight' and we recall how Jesus gave back his sight to blind Bartimaeus.

'The lame walk' and we recall how Jesus healed the lame man who was lowered through the roof to him in a certain house.

'The lepers are cleansed' and we recall how some ten lepers on one occasion were healed, though only one returned to give thanks.

'The deaf hear' and we recall the deaf mute into whose ears Jesus placed his fingers and thereby enabled him to hear again.

'The dead are raised and we recall how Jesus restored to life his old friend, Lazarus.

'And the poor have the good news brought to them', and we recall how those who were powerless, those whom society ignored and disowned and marginalised, were given back their self-esteem and enabled to walk tall again.

Yes, go and tell John what you hear and see for yourself. Here is the evidence that God, through Jesus, is ushering in a new age. There is no need to wait, it is already happening.

You and l may not find ourselves in a prison cell, but I suspect we do sometimes, in the solitude of life, find ourselves having secret doubts as to whether we have backed the winning horse.

After all, we are assured that our prayers will be answered, yet we seldom get what we want. We are assured that God is in control of the world, yet natural disasters causing untold misery and hardship continue to occur. We are assured that God loves us yet he allows some people to become helpless victims of, as yet, incurable illnesses. We are assured that God will provide for our needs, and yet some people lack the most basic necessities for daily living.

Yes, such experiences of daily living can easily cause us to doubt and wonder whether we should 'wait for another.'

Yet, every stomach filled, every ceasefire negotiated, every disease conquered, every lost soul given a new sense of purpose, every person inspired to realise their full potential, these are all signs of the power of God breaking in upon this earth.

True, things may not happen as quickly as we would wish. At such time we must remember that the way God chooses to act is through ordinary human beings, and being human, those channels of co-operation can become blocked through self- interest, ignorance and, alas, through deliberate refusal.

Furthermore, we need to remember, God does not force himself upon us. He respects our free will. He waits until we are ready to co-operate and in so doing, often suffers more than those we are seeking to help.

And finally, we must never forget that our life upon this planet is essentially provisional. In other words, before the vision. We all have a personal vision of how life can and should be. Yet we live in the present seeking to make that future vision a present reality. This means that there must always be a degree of tension in this life between what is, and what is to be. Everything is in a state of becoming.

Like John the Baptist we sometimes find ourselves doubting in the existence of God. I cannot give you a copper based guarantee. What I can do is to say ‘look and listen’.

Look and listen to those glimpses of the divine breaking in upon this world of ours, and decide whether to believe - or to wait for another Messiah.