Reassurance
December 11, 2022
The Rev. John Motis
When I went back to school now nearly 15 years ago, I had my doubts whether I even belonged there. I hadn’t been in the classroom for more than 35 years. I traveled to Winter Park to take classes with people I had never met. It didn’t take long to see who the smartest person in the room was! (Not me!)
How many of you can relate to the feeling of relief when the smartest person in the class asks your question? Remember sitting in the classroom at school. Do you remember the sense of relief when someone else asked that silly question before you had to? Especially, the question that you wouldn’t have ever expected the expert to ask. For some of us, it’s been a really, long time. However, I’ll bet you can still remember the feeling of reassurance and relief when the one with all the answers doesn’t know!
Reassurance! That is the feeling I come away with after hearing our Gospel this morning. Even though the John the Baptist’s question in the Gospel might cause us to be confused. Here, John the Baptist, asks Jesus our question. “Are you the one who is to come; or are we to wait for another?” I think it’s our question because, I believe we all wonder and question at some point or another, I believe we wonder why or perhaps, how long do we have to wait for God to make a move. I believe doubt comes to even the strongest Christians. Perhaps the question, is Jesus the real thing?
In the Gospel text we see John, the smartest one in the class with his hand in the air. John is the one who said many wonderful things about Jesus, just a little earlier in Matthew, he said, “One who is more powerful than I is coming after me: I am not worthy to carry his sandals.” He points to Jesus in John’s Gospel, when he said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Then a little later in John, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” It certainly sounds to me that John had the conviction. He had clarity that Jesus was the real thing.
I have to assume that John’s parents or someone had told him about his miraculous birth. How God had answered his mother Elizabeth’s and Zachariah’s prayers. That she had become pregnant even though she was well past the age to conceive and have children. How they had long given up on those prayers! But it’s never too late for God. John himself leaped in his mother’s womb when the pregnant Mary came to see her. Even then before his own birth, John knew Jesus; Jesus hadn’t been born yet either. John was fulfilling Old Testament Prophesy, he was the Prophet Elijah. Israel hadn’t heard from God through the voice of a prophet for over 400 hundred years! How many people lived their entire lives hoping for the coming of the King, never seeing him. John was God’s appointed, God’s chosen one to come, the one who was preparing the world for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Christ coming into the world.
Now, after all of this preparation, and all this Divine Inspiration, John asks of this same Jesus, “Are you really the one we are waiting for?” Are you for real? What has happened to our John?
I think prison happened! Here John is sitting in prison; he has been arrested and jailed as a political enemy of King Herod. I think prison could bring doubt into anybody’s heart. John had been jailed for calling Herod out for something that was wrong! He’s in prison and Herod’s power and fame continue to grow and grow. Some scholars say John had been in prison for not less that 1 and perhaps less than 2 years. I can only imagine the prison conditions and the treatment, John had to endure.
Isn’t it easy to believe in Jesus in the bright sunlight when all is joyful, everything is working for us it seems that all is going our way, and we are living free? Then, let the iron doors of difficulty, divorce, illness, a cancer diagnosis, loss of the love of your life, loneliness slam shut, and doubt is there in the darkness. Causing us to wonder, “Are you for real, Jesus?” Can religion matter in my case, in my condition, with all of my problems? Hard experiences like John’s prison bars can cause us to question and struggle.
I think that there is more than prison that causes John and us to ask the question. It was something about Jesus. Somethings just didn’t add up, they didn’t seem quite right. Jesus wasn’t acting like the Messiah that John had in mind. His idea of how the Savior was supposed to act! This lamb of God who was supposed to take the sin of the world away, wasn’t taking Herod’s sin away. Jesus wasn’t fitting into his theology. All this causing him to wonder. I find comfort in the idea that a faith as strong as John’s is just as capable as mine to have doubt.
Then we move to Jesus’ response to John’s question. How does He answer John? In effect, he says I cannot give you the answer. You have to work it out for yourself. You have seen the evidence, here let me help you: “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. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” Look at the evidence, what do you see? John knew the scriptures, he knew where it had been written in the scroll with the words of Isaiah. I take you back to our reading from Isaiah, “They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.” “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.”
Look at the evidence, what do you see?
Christ’s answer is the same for us when we ask the question. We have to decide for ourselves as well, based upon the evidence:
I ask you, where is the evidence in your life that Jesus is for real? Where and when did Jesus show up. Many times, we aren’t even aware that He is there until we look in the rear-view mirror. How many times have you prayed and someone was healed, someone overcame their addiction. I know of faithful Christians who never gave up praying for one of their children that they might discover that Jesus is for real. And the day did come.
How many times have you had the urge, the uncomfortable feeling that you need to reach out to someone, only to find out that they were struggling and really needed you? Coincidence? No! Divine appointment. I can personally share that there have been times that I felt that I really needed to go see someone in a hospital or at home with hospice care, I gave Last Rights and a few hours later, they passed away. I know Father Tim will say the same. If we hadn’t gone, if we hadn’t shown up, if we hadn’t stopped for a few minutes to say speak to someone, it would have been too late. Divine appointments: made just for us by Our Lord Jesus.
A couple years ago at a Maundy Thursday Service, I shared a piece of a story about Laura and my son Zach and his wife Kristy. They have 4 biological children and 3 adopted, they also have 2 additional foster children that have been in their house for over a year now. Over the years over 50 children have spent at least one night in their home. They are also an emergency placement home for the foster system in the Gainesville area. One night at about 10:30 they received a call to take in some children. Here is a portion of Kristy’s message to us: “Friends pray, I can share nothing except evil exists and the kids who just arrived in our home have been in the hands of it. Undone and broken for many things many of us will never see in this life. Pray for our family. Pray for the children. Pray for the case workers, the law enforcement, for justice. And most of all for Jesus to be near to us all. Break our hearts, Lord. Keep breaking them. And keep giving us the courage to walk boldly into the darkness with your light. Come Jesus come. I believe that Jesus is for real when His love is shown when we come and step into the lives of the least of these!
I am certain, that Jesus responds to the prayers of His children. I am certain that in many cases He answers those prayers through us His messengers. John sent his disciples to Jesus. And, Jesus sent His message back to John through disciples. That is us my friends. We are the disciples carrying the message of Jesus into this broken world.
Today we begin the 3rd week of Advent. This morning we lit two purple and the single pink candle on the Advent Wreath. I suspect that you may have wondered if there we were specific meanings for each candle and color: Purple was the color of royalty in the European tradition, and so purple represents the coming of royalty: Christ the King. Purple also carries the religious significance as a color of prayer and penitence.
The first purple candle is called the Prophesy Candle. It represents all of the prophecies of the Old Testament that Jesus Christ the Messiah fulfilled. The Old Testament contains over 300 prophecies that predict the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ. During this week, Christians reflect of the sovereignty of God and his work throughout human history.
The 2nd purple candle symbolizes the preparations that Mary and Joseph made for the birth of the Christ child. For us, it represents the changes that we must make in our hearts for Christ to dwell in us.
The Pink Candle (Gaudete Candle) is often referred to the candle of joy. The candle of is a symbol of the coming of Christ, the everlasting joy that only Christ can give. Next week we will light the 3rd purple candle which represents the peace of God, which passes all understanding. It is the true peace and serenity that only Jesus Christ can offer.
The white candle is lit on Christmas, represents the arrival of Christ.
Advent is not only about preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas. We are living somewhere between the first coming of Jesus when he was born at Bethlehem and His Second Coming. Every week during the Eucharist we say Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. In a few minutes we will say the words together the words of the Nicene Creed; “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his Kingdom will have no end.” I ask you, are these just words that we read, or do we believe them?
The season of Advent calls us to hope and expectation. We are all going to meet Jesus someday. It may be when He comes in the dramatic way foretold in scripture. Or it may be in the natural pattern of death. The secret to being ready is to live for our Lord every day, in all that we do, say and think. We His Disciples, His Messengers bringing the news that Jesus is in fact the One. We are not to waiting for “Any Other.” We celebrate what God has done in the birth of Jesus our Savior on that first Christmas. May we also be prepared as we await the even bigger Christmas that is already on its way. We are to raise our hand, not to ask the question surrounded by doubt, but to say, Here I am Lord, send me.
AMEN