Matthew 11: 2-11, Third Advent
12/11/22
When was the last time you had to show some proof of your identity? Maybe you used your library card to check out books from the library. Maybe you used your student ID to get discounted tickets to a basketball game. Maybe you showed your driver’s license to proof you were 21 years old. Most adults have some form of ID to proof that we are who we say we are. But if you don’t have any physical proof – how can you convince people of your identity?
I once read a story about Johnny Weissmuller, the 5- time Olympic gold medalist who starred in 38 movies and TV series from 1929 to 1976. He is best known as the original Tarzan. He starred in 12 Tarzan movies from 1932 – 1946. He’s the one who came up with that famous move where he beats his fists on his chest and shouts this loud cross between a yodel and a shriek. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do it. I think you’d be better off looking it up on You Tube. In one interview, he was quoted as saying, “Tarzan was right up my alley. It was like stealing money… How can a guy climb trees, say “Me Tarzan, You Jane” and make a million dollars?”
Many years ago, Weissmuller’s son, Johnny Jr., wrote a book about his father’s time in Hollywood titled Tarzan, My Father. In it, he tells the story of his father’s visit to Cuba in 1958. Weissmuller was very popular in Cuba, and he and his friends went there for a golf vacation. This was during the time of the Cuban Revolution, when Fidel Castro and his revolutionary army was trying to take over the government of the country.
One day, Weissmuller and his buddies were driving through Havana when they were surrounded by a group of Castro’s soldiers. The soldiers thought these wealthy Americans were supporters of the current government, so they intended to kidnap them and hold them for ransom. Weissmuller and his friends couldn’t convince the soldiers that they were just tourists on vacation. Until, that is, Weissmuller proved his identity by doing his famous Tarzan move – he beat his fists on his chest and let out his ear-piercing Tarzan shriek. The soldiers instantly recognized it, and let him and his friends go free. (1)
That’s some pretty quick thinking when you’re facing armed kidnappers in a foreign country. Fortunately, Tarzan’s signature yell was known everywhere that American movies were shown. It was proof of his identity.
Today’s passage once again features our friend John the Baptist, the man chosen by God to announce the coming of Jesus’ coming. Like Tarzan’s yell, John the Baptist was proof of Jesus’ identity. Last week, we looked at how John’s ministry fulfilled the promise made 400 years earlier that God would send a messenger to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. But while John was typically bold and passionate about his mission, it appears some questions had developed in his mind. Even John was starting to wonder, is Jesus the Messiah? He wasn’t fulfilling all of John’s expectations of what a Messiah would be like. In fact, Jesus didn’t fulfill anyone’s expectations completely. And John was wondering. Some doubt was creeping in. He wanted some proof, some reassurance that Jesus really was the Messiah.
In this season of joy, it’s hard to admit our doubts and questions about God. It’s hard to admit that God sometimes does act according to our expectations. Psychologist Edith Eva Eger writes, “When we’re angry, it’s often because there’s a gap between our expectations and reality.” (2) That’s where John the Baptist is at this point in Matthew’s gospel. Maybe that’s where you are right now. And that is a painful and isolating experience.
In 1789, a Scottish explorer, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, a relative of our own Ron Mackenzie, who passed away recently, led an expedition across Canada with the goal of finding a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Over the span of three months, Mackenzie and his men followed this winding river over 3,000 through the Canadian wilderness. It was dangerous, but the men were sure the end goal would be worth it. Imagine how they felt when they discovered that the river they were following led to the Arctic Ocean instead. Mackenzie’s hopes were crushed. In his diary, he referred to this great expedition as the “River of Disappointment.” (3)
Maybe that’s what John the Baptist feared. His expectations of the Messiah and the reality of Jesus didn’t match up. Matthew doesn’t indicate that John was angry about it. But he was surely struggling with some doubts. As part of John’s prophetic ministry of preparing people for the coming Messiah, he preached a bold message of judgement and repentance. He even went so far as to preach this message to Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, who had divorced his wife so he could marry his brother’s wife. That’s how John ended up in prison. Maybe he knew he wasn’t going to make it out of that prison alive – so he had to know. If this was the end, he had to know whether the purpose he had committed his life to – declaring that Jesus is the Messiah sent from God – was true or not. Is Jesus really who he says he is, who I say he is?
So John sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus directly, “Are you the one, or should we expect someone else?”
So what was John looking for in the Messiah? They were looking for someone who would be a great political and military leader who would restore the kingdom and government of Israel and rebuild the Temple.
Notice here that Jesus doesn’t condemn John for asking the question. Instead he answers, “Go back and tell John what you hear and what you see. 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.” What does Jesus want John, and us, to know? Well for one thing, God isn’t just restoring the kingdom of Israel. Much more than that, In Jesus, God is establishing God’s kingdom for all people. Jesus is showing John what the world will look like when God is the Ruler over every corner of creation. There will be no sickness, no death, no injustice, and no inequality. If those are the deeds of the Messiah, the One sent from God, then what does that tell us about God?
Rev, Eric Ritz tells a story about Florence Nightingale, the British nurse who revolutionized nursing practices and saved thousands of soldiers lives during the Crimean War. In 1853, Great Britain and its allies went to war with Russia. The British field hospitals were filthy and poorly run, and more soldiers were dying of disease and infection than from war wounds. The British Secretary of War hired Florence Nightingale to mobilize and train nurses to improve the field hospitals in Turkey, a primary focus of the war. Nightingale worked night and day to improve the hospital’s operations, and her work reduced the death rate by two thirds.
She was also known for her compassion for the injured soldiers, which earned her the nickname “the Angel of Crimea.” There is an old story that one soldier, while watching her make her rounds, shouted out to her, “You look like the grace of God!” (4)
That’s just what Jesus looks like as well. Jesus didn’t look like a great military hero, or a political leader – he looked like the grace of God. Where John the Baptist was looking for deeds of power; Jesus pointed to his deeds of compassion. In Jesus, God isn’t just restoring the kingdom of Israel; God is establishing God’s kingdom for all people.
Here’s another thing John needed to know about Jesus; In Christ, God is restoring our broken relationship with God. For thousands of years, the faithful prophets had tried to turn the people of God back to their covenant relationship with God. But like us, they were seduced by other priorities, by lesser gods. We are all guilty of that to one extent or another. God came in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, to accept the penalty for our sins and to show us how much God loves us. By his life and death, Jesus restored our relationship with God.
In 2006, Dr. Samuel Weinstein, the Chief of pediatric cardio-thoracic surgery for a major hospital in New York, traveled to El Salvador to perform life-saving operations on children with severe heart problems. One of his many patients was an eight-year old boy named Francisco. During his surgery, Francisco lost too much blood. He required an immediate transfusion. But Francisco’s blood type was B-negative – a blood type shared by only 2% of the population. His chances of survival were slim.
Until Dr. Weinstein began rolling up his own sleeve. He shared the same rare blood type as Francisco. So, Dr. Weinstein laid down his surgical tools, scrubbed his arm and let a nurse draw a pint of his own blood. When he re-started the surgery on Francisco, it was his own blood that flowed through the little boy’s veins and likely saved his life. (5)
That’s what God did on our behalf. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas. When our lives were at stake, when nothing else could save us, God laid down the Divine majesty and authority to come in the form of a helpless baby born to a poor family living under the control of an oppressive government. Jesus lived the life of a traveling rabbi and died a humiliating and agonizing death to save us from our sins. He gave up everything to ensure that we could live in God’s presence forever. Could there be any greater proof of God’s love for us?
It’s tempting to wish that this conversation between Jesus and John’s disciples had turned out differently. It’s tempting to want to hear Jesus answer the question directly. “Are you the One who is to come…? “Yes… It’s me, I am the Messiah.” That’s what we’d like to hear. Or maybe have Jesus perform some jaw dropping miracle or send an angel to bust John out of prison. But instead, Jesus pointed to God’s presence and compassion among the sick, the disabled and the poor. He gave John a glimpse of the coming kingdom of God. Even better, Jesus gave John a glimpse of God’s heart. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Can you trust that God is working all things for good, even when God doesn’t meet your expectations/” That’s a good question to ponder this Advent season.
Kate Bowler is a divinity professor, author and podcaster. She once closed one of her podcasts with a blessing that she says is for “when there is hope for someday, but someday is not now.” I’ve adapted it a bit, but this is the essence of what she says:
“Blessed are you in this terrible, wonderful now…
Blessed are you for whom prayer feels hopeless, disappointing and futile.
Blessed are you in your radical honesty, in the ways you speak of your grief…
Blessed are you as you learn to trust, trust a God who hears, who listens, who hasn’t left your side, who prays on your behalf, interpreting those deep groans you can’t put into syllables or sounds.
Blessed are you, as you settle into acceptance.
And Blessed are we who live here in the someday, but not now.”(6)
That’s a great blessing for this Advent season.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 3, p 66.
2. Ibid… p 66.
3. Ibid… p 66-67.
4. Ibid… p 67.
5. Ibid… p 68.
6. Ibid… p 68.
