What Are You Looking For?

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 15, 2013

Third Sunday in Advent

What Are You Looking For?

Matthew 11:2-11

John the Baptist:

“the voice crying out in the wilderness:

Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight!”

The fire-breathing prophet

who wore clothing of camel’s hair,

and whose food was locusts and wild honey.

John the Baptizer,

who stood in the muddy waters of the Jordan

just outside of Jerusalem,

and baptized all those who came to him,

offering them a baptism of water for repentance,

shouting out to all who waited along the riverbank,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”.

John knew the Messiah was coming,

saying to all who would listen,

“One who is more powerful than I

is coming after me;

I am not worthy to carry his sandals.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire!”

John knew this even before he was born,

leaping for joy in his mother’s womb

when she was in the presence of Mary,

pregnant with Jesus.

John had no doubts about Jesus:

when Jesus appeared on the riverbank

among the throng waiting to be baptized,

John said to Jesus,

“I need to be baptized by you,

and do you come to me?”

Even if he had had any doubts

surely they would have disappeared

as he watched Jesus rise from the water,

the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus

in the form of a dove,

God’s voice breaking through the heavens,

“This is my Son, the Beloved,

with whom I am well pleased.”

In the Gospel of John we hear the baptizer say of Jesus,

“Here is the Lamb of God

who takes away the sin of the world!

This is he of whom I said,

‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me

because he was before me.’…

I myself have seen and testified

that this is the Son of God.”

(John 1:29ff)

John the Baptizer, the one whom God sent

to prepare the way of the Lord;

who knew that that was his calling

and lived his calling with passion and conviction.

And yet, here we are, just a few chapters later

with John wallowing in doubt,

putting the question directly, bluntly to Jesus:

“Are you the one who is to come,

or are we to wait for another?”

John asked this question from a prison cell.

King Herod had imprisoned John

after John had condemned Herod for marrying Herodias,

who had previously been married

to Herod’s brother Philip.

Herod imprisoned John to silence him;

he would have preferred to have put John to death,

but John was too popular with the masses,

and Herod was too shrewd a politician to anger them.

But of course, we remember the tragic end of the story:

how Herodias’s daughter danced for King Herod,

and pleased him with her dancing so much

that he granted her anything she desired.

Her response was that famous request,

“Give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

(Matthew 14:8)

Locked up in prison,

aware that he would probably be executed,

is it any surprise that John would descend into doubt?

“Are you the one?”

We would think, wouldn’t we,

that Jesus would answer John’s question simply,

directly:

“Yes, I am the one you’ve been awaiting.”

It didn’t seem to be a time for parables;

the sand was running quickly through John’s hourglass.

But Jesus didn’t answer the question directly,

didn’t answer with a simple, “Yes, I am he.”

Instead he said,

“Go and tell John what you hear and see:

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.”

(Matthew 11:4-5)

Jesus knew there were others claiming to be the Messiah;

false Messiahs had been part of history for centuries.

Simply stating, “Yes, I am the Messiah”

would probably not have resolved the issue.

A logical follow-up would have been,

“OK, you say you are the Messiah.

Now prove it. Show me.”

Jesus’ response anticipated this:

saying, in effect,

“Look at what I have been doing;

look at what I have done.

What is it that you are looking for in the Messiah?

If you are looking for the military might of David,

then you will not see that.

But if you look to Scripture,

listen to the words of the prophets

then you will know what to look for.

And then you will know that I am he.

“Then you will know that I am the Word of God.

The one whom the prophets said would be called,

Wonderful Counselor,

Prince of Peace,

Righteousness the belt around my waist.

“Look with your eyes, listen with your ears,

for The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me,

he has sent me to bring

good news to the oppressed,

to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives…

to comfort all who mourn.

(Isaiah 61:1ff)

“Yes, the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

… the lame shall leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

(Isaiah 35:5ff)

“The proud will be scattered,

the powerful will be brought down,

the lowly will be lifted up;

the rich sent away empty,

while the hungry will be filled.

(Luke 1:51-53)

“Look.

Listen.

And then decide.

Determine for yourself whether I am he,

Whether I am the One.

whether I am the Messiah.”

We too are awaiting the Messiah,

awaiting the advent of the Messiah,

awaiting that day when our Lord

will come again in glory.

But what is it that we are looking for

Who is it that we are looking for?

Are we truly looking for the Messiah

whom the Scriptures tell us of?

Are we preparing ourselves

for the one the prophets pointed to,

the One who came as a baby born in a stable,

born so humbly,

born to bring hope to the oppressed,

the outcasts,

the meek, the lowly?

Or are we looking for a Messiah,

whom we have refashioned to suit our own wants,

our own desires,

our own temperaments,

even our own politics?

As we wait, living in the time between Christ’s birth

and the time when Christ will come again ,

we too may have our questions about the Messiah,

even our moments of doubt like John.

John was seeking the one who would release the captives,

and bring down the powerful,

and yet, there was John in jail, facing death,

while Herod, the corrupt King,

lived freely, richly, luxuriously.

Can we blame John for wondering where the justice was,

where the righteousness was?

Where the Messiah was?

We too often wonder:

where is the righteousness?

Where is the justice?

The poor languish,

and the comfortable, the affluent

increasingly condemn them

as lazy, dependent takers.

The sick are told to take care of themselves.

The alien is told to go back where he came from.

Peace is a rare commodity.

But the One who will come

is the One we follow even now,

the One who said to us,                                      

I was hungry and you gave me food,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

 I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

I was naked and you gave me clothing,

I was sick and you took care of me,

I was in prison and you visited me.

This is the one the prophets tell of;

this is the One whose story and teachings

the gospels relate.

This is the One who came,

the One who will come again:

our Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”

Our Messiah, here, now, calling us to new life

even as we await his coming again.

This is the one who John the Baptist’s father Zechariah

tells us we are to serve with

confidence and faithfulness,

serve with holiness and righteousness,

for in him and through him

light will come for all those who sit in darkness,

all those in the shadow of death,

all those imprisoned –

imprisoned by poverty, by fear,

by sickness, by hopeless,

as well as by bars.

(Luke 1:74ff)

Even as we await the Advent of our Lord,

even as we await that day when

all things will be made new,

we live in hope and confidence,

for a child has been born for us, given to us.

A child born that the blind will receive their sight,

the lame will walk,

the sick will be healed,

…and the poor will have good news brought to them.”

The song we sing even as we wait

is “Joy to the World.”

AMEN