Are you the one?
Honister Pass 30 May 1979
NB. Sermon recorded at the Arts Centre Fatfield Durham 30 September 1998
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17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
Jesus and John the Baptist
18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy[a] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 23 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
24 After John’s messengers left, 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? 25 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. 26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’[b]
28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
29 (All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. 30 But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)
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Personal
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The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God,
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“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Setting the Scene
One of the Highland Chieftains of the McDonald clan was confined in a tiny prison cell in Carlisle Castle. In his cell was one tiny window. Today if you visit Carlisle Castle, you will see the imprints of his fingers and feet on the sandstone windowsill where he jumped up and clung to the ledge day by day to gaze into the open spaces, freedom, the Galloway hills and valleys, the beauty, the wilds where he would never walk again.
It is a scene and a mood which will help us enter the mindset of John the Baptist in the Gospel passage in Luke 7:17-30. John was in prison for speaking out against Herod’s recent marriage. Herod had divorced his wife to marry his brother’s wife who was also his niece. John (also a cousin of Jesus) had spent most of his adult life living on the edge of the desert like a wild man, (he wore camel hair clothes and a leather belt). He had become a public figure, speaking in the desert. He called people to turn from following their own ways to follow Jesus. John was known for baptising people in Jordan with a startling message “repent (turn around) and be baptised.” Jesus said of John the Baptist there was no one greater than John. But I don’t think John the Baptist was the kind of guy you’d invite to a party. Jesus summed up John's character by saying ‘he sang a dirge and you didn’t cry,’ Jesus continued ‘I played a lively tune and you didn’t dance.’ In other words, John the Baptist was a bit of a misery-guts, Jesus was one of the lads, a friend of sinners. Of course, the point Jesus was making was not that you shouldn’t invite people in camel hair clothes to parties, but that God had called the people to follow Jesus through the sombreness of John and the vibrancy of Jesus and either way they still wouldn’t respond to God’s call. And that’s as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago.
That was a whistle-stop tour of John the Baptist. We pick up the story with this wild man of the desert in prison and John sends two of his disciples, his heavies to Jesus to ask, “are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else?”
Two questions arise from this encounter; firstly, how did John the Baptist expect the Messiah to behave and secondly, what did John mean in asking, “are you the one?”
What did John the Baptist expect of a messiah?
If we look back to some of the things John the Baptist said about Jesus in his desert talks, we will see that Jesus was at a tangent to the Baptist’s expectations of the Messiah. In Luke 3:17 John said,
‘the one who comes after me will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, his winnowing fork (pitchfork) is in his hand… he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’
This was two thousand years ago and before the days of Combine Harvesters. The pitchfork would shake the harvest to separate the chaff from the grain. John the Baptist clearly believed Jesus would dish out judgement.
Remarkably, Jesus responds to this in Luke 4:18 by reading aloud in the temple, words from the Old Testament scroll Isaiah 61:1-2.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Notice that Jesus stops mid-sentence. Why did he do that? The second part of that sentence in Isaiah 61 speaks of the “day of vengeance of our God.” It is as if Jesus was saying, this is the time of God’s mercy …judgement (and vengeance) are not yet.
This is the in-between time, the time to turn to Jesus, to follow Jesus, to receive his forgiveness and mercy and experience his grace and favour, this is our time to respond.
John the Baptist’s expectations of how the Christ, the messiah, would behave was different from the good news which was spreading about Jesus in the surrounding country.
Are you the One?
* Some months later John the Baptist in is the prison cell. He is thinking I said Jesus would burn the evil ones with unquenchable fire and his pitchfork is in his hand and here I am in jail and the evil is still out there. What is going on? So John sent two of his heavies to Jesus and asks, “Are you the one who was to come.” This question has been greatly misunderstood as John the Baptist’s big moment of doubt and wavering in his faith in the solitude of that prison cell. But I do not think that fits with the character of the wild man we read about earlier and it doesn’t fit with Jesus’ response to his question. This isn’t a question of doubt. Doubt leads to withdrawing or pulling back but this is John reaching out, longing for a clearer sign, this is part of John the Baptist’s ongoing relationship with God, a vital part of his own spiritual journey.
* We need to remind ourselves that it is OK to question God in this way. In Church we are very good at glossing over our crises and saying, all is well. We have become masters of the cover-up. But for John the Baptist in prison, all was not well and so he sends a message to Jesus “are you the one … or is there someone else.” Perhaps the question will seem a bit more relevant if I say in the aftermath of the Omagh explosion and 28 dead (plus two unborn twins) and many still critical in hospitals. Can you see where I am coming from if I say to God, “are you the one who was to come”
When we need a visible, audible, touchable, anythingable sign of the presence of Jesus suddenly it all seems a bit quiet and distant… and (you need to know Jesus are you the one) It is OK to ask “Jesus are you the one?” And there are people whose lives will never be the same because of 3.10pm 15th August 1998 and they will be counselled by priests and vicars and ministers and not one of them can answer the question - Why? But crazy as it seems, each of those ministers through prayer and care will bring Christ’s comfort to those who mourn, he will bind up the broken hearted, give gladness for mourning and beauty from the burnt-out ashes of their lives.
For those who reach out to Jesus when reaching out doesn’t make sense they find - yes he is the one, yes he is right there. It is a mystery of our faith, in the depths of despair, Jesus says yes ‘I am with you always…’ (Matthew 28:20).
Strangely there is no question of lifting them (or you) out of the traumatic situation, there is no question why was it allowed to happen in the first place and still Jesus says:
“Come to me all you who have heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” —Matthew 11:28)
Wrestle all you like with the awkward and angry questions you may have. As long as you have the courage to direct them to, or at, God they will all amount to this one question “are you the one?”
Maybe you have swept your problems under the carpet for long enough and God wants you to know it is safe to ask “Lord, are you the one?” “Lord I need you and you don’t seem to be around, help me Lord.”
And you can find Jesus’ reply to you in Isa 61:1 God ‘has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted. Perhaps your broken heart says, “yes Lord, I need some of that, bind up this broken-hearted, fragile, scared master of the cover-up.” If you are reaching out to Jesus today from your own trauma he gives you this as your own personal beatitude “Blessed are you (name) because you do not fall away because of me.” You can find that in Luke 7:23. They are Jesus’ reply to John the Baptist in his prison cell. These are loving comforting words of encouragement, “blessed is the person who does not fall away on account of me.” These are words of someone saying “I am the one, blessed are you for reaching out when reaching out doesn’t make sense.
It is OK to ask Jesus are you the one
‘Blessed are you for asking. Blessed are you for not falling away’
