Knowing the One
First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Third Sunday of Advent – December 12, 2004
Rev. Carrie Kreps Wegenast, M.Div.
[text: Matthew 11:2-11]

John’s disciples come with a question.  They want to know if Jesus is the one who is to come, or if they should keep looking. 

We as readers of the Gospels in the twenty-first century have an advantage.  We know the ending to this story.  We have read, or at least heard, the last chapter.  We have heard that Jesus is the one, read about the miracles, and maybe even seen the work of Jesus in our own lives.  What is not as well known is, the early readers of Matthew’s Gospel would have known the ending too.  They have already lived through the violence of the crucifixion.  As they read this text, they are reliving the story, just as we are in our imagination.  They, as well as us, can answer John the Baptist’s question.  We can respond, well, duh, Jesus is the one who is to come. 

But, does this really answer the question?  Does our ‘duh’ get to the heart of what John is asking?  I’m not sure.  For starters let me read to you the biography of a first century holy man whose list of accomplishments you might recognize,

“From the beginning his mother knew that he was no ordinary person.  Prior to his birth, a heavenly figure appeared to her, announcing that her son would not be a mere mortal but would himself be divine.  This prophecy was confirmed by the miraculous character of his birth, a birth accompanied by supernatural signs.  The boy was already recognized as a spiritual authority in his youth; his discussions with recognized experts showed his superior knowledge of all things religious.  As an adult he left home to engage in an itinerant preaching ministry.  He went from village to town with his message of good news, proclaiming that people should forgo their concerns for the material things of this life, such as how they should dress and what they should eat.  They should instead be concerned with their eternal souls.

He gathered around him a number of disciples who were amazed by his teaching and his flawless character.  They became convinced that he was no ordinary man but was the Son of God.  Their faith received striking confirmation in the miraculous things that he did.  He could reportedly predict the future, heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead.  At the end of his life, his enemies trumped up charges against him, and he was placed on trial before Roman authorities for crimes against the state.”

Following his death, “a number of his followers spread the good news about this man, recounting what they had seen him say and do.  Eventually some of these accounts came to be written down in books that circulated throughout the empire.”

Think you know whom I am talking about?  I’ll give you a clue; you probably have never read one of the books about him or heard his name.  The description I just read is of a first century pagan holy man named Apollonius of Tyana.  Even though he lived about the same time as Jesus biblical scholars think it is doubtful the two men met.  Their followers met, however.  Jesus’ followers claimed Apollonius was a fraud, a simple magician and not the real ‘Son of God.’  As you can imagine, Apollonius’s followers said the same thing about Jesus. 

Apollonius is not the only ‘Son of God’ look-alike recorded in first and second century histories.  This might be part of the need for John’s question.  With several groups traveling the countryside with the ‘messiah,’ John wanted to make sure Jesus really is the One. 

We can imagine John’s anxiety in the matter.  His life’s work has come down to one man who does not look or act as many Jews expected.  John’s ministry has been to proclaim the coming of the one who is the Christ.  He does his job and now he is in prison.  He may be asking himself – did I do this all in vain?  Why am I in prison if the ‘one’ has not come? 

John may have asked this question for another reason.  John the Baptist is the last of a breed.  He is the last in a long line of faithful prophets of the Hebrew people.  He is the last to wake the people up, to prepare them for the coming of the messiah.  Why the last?  Jesus is the person all the prophets have told the people about.  While John the Baptist represented the old covenant sealed between God and Abraham for the Israelites, Jesus brings forth the new covenant. 

In this question, John is asking, are you the one I am to believe in?  Are we done waiting?  Maybe he was even hoping, ‘Let him be the one.  Let the search of the centuries be over.’ 

As a child, my favorite day each week during Advent was Sunday.   Each Sunday, as we do here, a family would light one of the Advent wreath candles.  Each week one more lit candle would signal to me that we were that much closer to Christmas.  Some years I had trouble waiting for all the candles to be lit before I would start asking my parents or my sister or brother, what did you get me for Christmas?  I even went as far as to bargain, I’ll tell you what I got you if you tell me what you got me.  It was hard to wait. 

Yet, the four weeks of Advent are nothing in length compared to the years and years that the Hebrew people waited for the Christ.  People made predictions, said prayers, prepared, lapsed, prepared again, hoped, looked, and wondered. Sound familiar?  Yes, we too are waiting.  We are like John, asking the million dollar question hoping for the million dollar answer. 

What are the questions we ask?  In my teen years I asked, who is Jesus and what does he have to do with me and my life?  During my freshman year of college I asked, why would someone risk not believing in Christ?  In seminary I asked, how can Jesus be both man and God?  Today I wonder, how will I know Christ when I see him?  I ask John the Baptist’s question. 

We live during a very unique period of history.  Technology and science are ever present in our daily lives.  As a result, we often rely on these means to serve as proof.  I’m a fan of the CSI series on CBS.  In each show, the victim’s blood or the suspect’s fingerprints are carefully tested for crime solving matches.  The DNA test and match serves as proof in the court of law. 

We also look to tradition as proof to our questions.  How has something always worked?  What is the history?  Even our judicial system relies on the precedence for a case.

The tradition of something often gives it authority.  The Bible has authority as a two thousand year old document, pieced together by arguing church leaders in 367 C.E.  It also receives authority as the sole Christian canon. 

Logic also helps us answer questions.  Jesus gave John the Baptist’s disciples a list of miracles as evidence: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor hear the good news.  Connecting the dots with a bit of logic may lead one to recognize Jesus as the one who is to come. 

Science, tradition, authority, and logic – proofs for our questions or just modern means of coming to a quick answer?

What type of answer do you think John was looking for when he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?”  Was he looking for a proof – a piece of Jesus’ hair to see if his DNA had the Messiah gene, to hear Jesus quote tradition, to hear Jesus claim to be the one, thus granting himself authority, or a logic problem, words to connect Jesus to the Coming One.       

Jesus does not really given John any of these.  Rather, Jesus sends the disciples away to tell John what they ‘hear and see.’  Jesus allows John to make his own decision about who Jesus is.  Jesus allows John to doubt, or believe.

It seems to me that Jesus gives us this option as well.  Given the full picture, every chapter, we have more ‘proofs,’ so to speak, than John the Baptist’s disciples had to report.  We can include the tradition of the church, the authority of the biblical text, the science of DNA and now the theory of the “God gene,’ or even logic to explain the unexplainable mysteries of healing, kindness, and grace found in our community.  With all the resources provided us, what do we ‘hear and see?’  Is the ‘proof’ substantial enough to know the one?

And this is where my sermon must come to a close.  I do not know if the ‘proof’ is substantial enough to know the one.  That is the decision Jesus asks John to make and in turn, asks us to make.  For me, Jesus was the one.  As many of you know, the study of Islam is one of my interests.  I was once asked why I continue to believe in Christ as the Son of God when he is clearly not, according to the Qu’ran.  I do not believe in Christ for the ‘seen’ miracles.  The healings of the blind, lame, lepers, deaf and dead are footnotes to what Jesus really did.  He offered grace.  Grace for all sorts of things, including grace to those who ask, “Are you he who is to come?”  John asked the question because he had doubts.  I have asked this question because I had doubts.  Maybe you, too, have asked this question, seeking a straight answer from God. 

Grace covers everything.  It surrounds the doubts.  It blankets the questioner.  It allows us to ask this question, to wonder, to seek for the one.  This is the good news.  We are not limited to our modern ‘proofs’.  We do not have to believe because science proved the existence of God in each one of us or because tradition tells us to believe.  Jesus asks us to look at him anew.  To hear and see for ourselves.  To doubt, if necessary, with the confidence that we will be welcomed into the kingdom when our question is answered and we know he is the One.  Thanks be to God.

 

Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament, 2ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 17.