John the Vulnerable
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Advent is heating up. Today our gospel fast-forwards us from last week’s tale of John the Baptist baptizing people in the Jordan River, in the wilderness. John’s baptism was a sign of the people’s repentance, their inner house-cleaning to prepare for the One who is to come, their Messiah. Now we move to a very different scene.
John is in prison. He was thrown into prison to await execution. His crime was daring to identify publicly the sin that was being committed in the royal household, a form of sexual impropriety by the ruler Herod Antipas, whose wife Herodias was his half-niece. They were related too closely for a lawful marriage. John told the truth and pointed the finger. And combined with his reputation for being a rabble-rouser, he lost his life for his truth-telling.
Loss is an occupational hazard of being a prophet, one who tells forth the words and feelings of God. John dared to be a whistle-blower on God’s behalf, and he was to die for it. He was beheaded.
So here is John, awaiting death, and wondering if all that work he did to prepare the people for the Messiah was worth it. We can imagine him tired and vulnerable, and incredibly disheartened. He wonders, is Jesus, his cousin, really the Messiah? And so in today’s gospel excerpt he sends his friends over to ask Jesus if he is the Real Thing.
And the answer he gets is the Biblical Code for Messiah—the one who is to be the fulfillment of predictions from Isaiah, and other prophets. Listen to Isaiah:
Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God . . . He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
And now Jesus tells John’s disciples to give him this message: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”
This unequivocally tells John that, yes, Jesus is the Messiah. He is fulfilling the words of Isaiah’s prophecy. John’s work is done; the people are prepared, insofar as they could be.
One way that God confirms that Jesus is the Messiah is by showing that prophecy was fulfilled in him. And it is our role in the Church to continue to be prophets and to point to places in the community and in the world where we can BE the hands of God, bringing the blind their sight, bringing the “lepers” healing, raising the “dead,” helping the disadvantaged enjoy more of life’s good gifts, warming the homes of those who cannot afford much heat, helping people around the world to have a better chance at knowing God and living and dying with dignity.
The Church takes its prophetic role seriously. And in being prophets, in pointing the finger to circumstances that are in want of healing and help, the Church makes itself vulnerable.
Here’s a little story that illustrates what I mean. This past week the diocesan newspaper, out for the first time in a good while, featured a reprint of the House of Bishop’s letter that speaks of immigration reform. The bishops were definitely taking on an issue in our national and local lives about which people on both sides of the aisle feel passionately.
On Tuesday there was a person in my office who used to live in Arizona, near the border with Mexico, and who felt very compassionately toward people who used to cross over their land on their way to find employment. Now and then they would help these people. My Tuesday visitor thought that the Bishops’ letter was wonderfully courageous and prescient, and applauded their stand.
The next day someone else was in my office, sitting in the same chair, and this second person found a good deal of fault with the letter. They identified internal inconsistencies and also decried its oversimplification of issues and misrepresentation of fact.
I thought it was such an interesting contrast in reactions, and a microcosm of how society in general looks to institutions and people who try to be prophetic. Sometimes these prophets get it right, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it seems that what they say is silly, and out of their league; and sometimes it seems that they are taking on issues with a perspective that opens doors and windows for others. Because they are human, it seems fair to say that sometimes, in God’s eyes, they will get it right—and sometimes they won’t.
Nonetheless we in the Church are charged with being prophetic, and with being the hands of God to insure that prophecy will be fulfilled, that the blind will see, the dead will be raised, even though sometimes we will say things or do things that may seem ridiculous. It is a sign that we are trying to follow in the Messiah’s footsteps.
May Jesus, the one who is here and the one who is to come, guide us and help us parse the issues deeply and help us blow whistles if and when that seems warranted. And may he give us courage to do what seems right. May he inspire us with a sound ability to discern, and the energy and time to work to make things better.
Amen.
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