Matthew 11:2-6
John the Baptizer has been put into prison for offending people in power. He wants to know that his life’s work has some meaning and that he’s not endangered himself for nothing. So he sends his disciples to ask Jesus – his cousin, his successor, his friend – to ask, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?” Are you the one who is going to bring change to this broken world? Are you the one God uses to overthrow Rome and create a new way of living here?
It would be nice if history recorded Jesus giving a simple yes or no answer to that question. It would settle a lot of arguments. Instead Jesus answers with a question: What are you expecting? What are you waiting for? What is it that you think God should do?
He also says, “Take a look around at what’s happening wherever I go:
The blind see; The lame walk; Lepers are cleansed; The deaf hear; The dead are raised;
The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.
If this is what you’re expecting, then I’m the one.
This story put me in mind of the story the gospel of Luke tells about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is attending a gathering of men and is asked to read scripture. He chooses to read from the prophet Isaiah.
God’s Spirit is on me:
God’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
To announce, “This is God’s year to act!”
Then Jesus rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant and says, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true, just now in this place.”
We often take that to mean Jesus is announcing that he’s the Messiah Isaiah predicted, but maybe it means something more ordinary than that. Maybe it means Jesus is committing himself to doing those things God wants for the world. After this day, that’s what he does: he heals, he teaches, he brings good news to the “burdened and battered.”
I’m in the middle of reading Jim Wallis’ new book False White Gospel, which is a critique of Christian Nationalism (and the politicians who have embraced that). He summarizes Christian nationalism something like this: The United States is a Christian nation because God wants it to be. That means rich white men get all the good stuff because God likes them best. Then he goes on to explain by many examples that the best information we have about the real Jesus looks nothing like Christian Nationalism. Wallis would like today’s scripture. It shows Jesus doing what he did best: taking care of people and encouraging them to take care of each other.
It seems to me that Jesus didn’t say to John’s disciples, “Yes, I’m the one. God has sent me,” because we aren’t to expect a “one.” We aren’t waiting for a person, even a person as amazing as Jesus. God isn’t sending just one person to fix the world.
I think that because it’s not God’s job to fix the world. God didn’t break the world. Generations of people had a hand in that. Like your mother always told you: You have to clean up your own messes. If we wait for God to fix the world in some mighty action, we’re going to be still waiting.
I think that because what’s broken in the world isn’t that people aren’t believing in the right person, it’s that they aren’t treating each other well. Jesus (and a whole lot of amazing Jesus people) show us how to treat one another better. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Believing Jesus is important doesn’t matter much if you don’t also believe what he told you and try to do it.
So if we want to live in a Christian nation – or even a nation in which the values of many great religions have impact – we have to ask the right questions and expect the right things. Jesus asks if people are getting well. My Sunday school teachers used to tell me that Jesus could heal people but we can’t because we aren’t God. That let us off the hook as far as health care and religion goes. But it seems to me that we shouldn’t abide a world in which it’s okay for some people to be sick because only rich people can afford health care. Of course some things are beyond modern medicine, but not good preventive care, or regular dental appointments, or equal access to physicians. If those who are sick aren’t getting well, this isn’t a Christian nation. And while we’re talking about the poor, let’s ask Jesus if he thinks it’s okay for some people to be hungry because they don’t get paid enough. Or let’s ask him if he minds that immigrants have to wait months before they are allowed to work when they come to our country. Or if he agrees that the best spots at the national table should be saved for people who look like us. Let’s ask the man who said, “The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side,” if it’s okay that 35,000 people have died in Gaza and those who still live are starving to death. I wonder if he minds that we’re doing all we can to prevent abortion but nothing to stop rape and incest. Or to care for children after they’re born.
It seems to me that maybe those who declare we are a Christian nation aren’t expecting that to mean the same things Jesus would mean by it.
And yet, look around. There are folks who eat because of us. They are folks who get well because of the care we give them. There are folks who have hope because we believe in them. There’s an army of case workers in this community who are on the front lines helping people figure out life and we are backing them up every day. Through them we are telling lots of folks, “God is on your side.”
Jesus, are you the one?
What do you see?
I see a lot of work that still needs to be done. I see a lot of expectations that need to change. And I see a beginning. I see folks trying hard to be on God’s side and to tell others there’s room for more. Let’s not wait for another. Let’s put our support behind the one who has already come and learn from him how to show other’s that God is on their side.