St John the Baptist – evening
Sunday 24th June 2018
Proper 7 – St John the Baptist – evening
Malachi 4. –The great and terrible day of the Lord, heralded by Elijah – God’s mercy
Matthew 11. 2-19 – “Are you the one who is to come?”
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
The games people play!
Anna Davies and Alison Colin-Stokes have been thinking hard and planning our Holiday Club in the past week or so. This year’s theme is sport – focused – which, with the World Cup in full swing, seems highly appropriate and I am sure the children who come will love it. One of the key messages we want to get over to them is that – even if you are a brilliant sportsperson, you depend on a team of people to help you succeed – and the team is always more important than the individual. And we will be drawing on stories from the old and new testaments to underline that – stories about Joseph and his brothers; about Moses and his struggles with the children of Israel; about Jesus and his disciples.
Of course it would be easy just to sit the children down and tell them “God wants you to cooperate with each other, to care for each other, to think of each other and make sure no-one is left out!”…. But that would hardly fill three days – so instead we will be telling them stories, acting out dramas and helping them to make crafts and models that hopefully will enable them to work out the hidden messages for themselves. That way, they are far more likely to remember the lessons they are learning.
That is how human beings work! We benefit from having to work things out for ourselves, not just be told the answers.
Jesus spent much of his ministry on earth, telling people stories or performing actions that made it very plain who he was and what he was about. He was God’s anointed on earth; His beloved Son; the Messiah. But he did not say that out loud very much if at all. He referred to it obliquely, telling other people to draw their own conclusions from what they saw with their own eyes and what they could work out in their own minds.
Even when sending a message to his own cousin John, he did not speak plainly. John was in prison. He was really a political prisoner of Herod Antipas and his wife. They did not like the truth that John spoke – that Herod had seduced and then married his own brother’s wife, and that he was no true king of the Jews.
John had been nursing high hopes of his cousin Jesus after the dramatic events surrounding his baptism by John. John hoped that Jesus would be the one to topple the false ruler, Herod. That he would call down fire and brimstone from heaven to punish all who had turned to idolatry and false religion. That he would be another prophet in his own image – who followed a strict ascetic regime.
But Jesus was not following the script as John had imagined it. John had sworn never to take alcohol – Jesus liked a good party and had even been known to use his extraordinary powers to turn water into wine! John preached about repentance for sinful ways of life. – Jesus consorted with known prostitutes and tax collectors – very shady characters – and appeared to enjoy their company! He eve said they could be closer to the Kingdom of heaven than the law abiding Pharisees! Outrageous!
So John began to have doubts and now that he was shut up in Herod’s dungeons, those doubts began to play on his mind…
But when he asks Jesus the question “Are you the one who is to come?” – Jesus does not answer directly. Instead he tells John’s followers to remind John of the practical results of his work… The blind have their sight restored; the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead are raised – and the poor have good news brought to them.
All of these are signs that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the sun of righteousness referred to by the prophets, but he won’t say it plainly.
There’s a good reason for this of course. John is in prison and will not come out alive. Jesus has no intention of joining him there and possibly be put to death by Herod concerned that here is another pretender to his throne as King of the Jews. Jesus will pick his time, and he knows that his greatest sacrifice must come in Jerusalem, not in Galilee.
But in speaking to the crowds, Jesus also flips John’s question and tells them that he – John – is the one to come. He is Elijah who is to come as a herald to the Messiah. And if John is the Elijah figure, no prizes for working out what that makes Jesus himself!
The Day of the Lord is coming. The appearance of John the Baptist makes that unmistakable. And it is a Day that will bring terror and punishment to God’s enemies. But it will also bring mercy and healing to all those who accept Jesus for who and what he is. And John has played a vital part in announcing that to the weary, waiting world.
So can we work it out for ourselves? Do we know whose team we want to play on? Can we remember the rules of the game? And will we emerge as winners?
Amen.