What did you go out to see?
Readings: Matthew 11. 2-11
John the Baptist has sent some of his disciples to Jesus because John is starting to have doubts. All his prophecies about the coming Messiah involved decisive action, it was time to choose, time to walk in God’s ways or reject them and find yourself rejected. He spoke of the coming judgement and harvest, fire and wrath. But Jesus is just walking about, teaching and healing. So is Jesus the one John was expecting? Or is there someone else still to come who will do all that John expected?
Jesus is the one John was preparing people for, he really is the Messiah, the Saviour. But in Jesus God’s judgement stands delayed. In God come among us we see the window opened wider to give time to repent, to turn back to God. We see the door of salvation opened wider to the whole world, that all may come to him in repentance. And we see God’s judgement poured out upon this Messiah, this Saviour, who brings us through judgement into new life through faith in him.
In Jesus’ first coming judgement is delayed, but it is not cancelled. As many of Jesus’ sayings and books like Revelation make clear, judgement is still coming, coming through Jesus, just as John expected, and those with faith in him will be found righteous through his blood, and those who aren’t won’t.
But none of that has happened yet in John’s day, and so he is asking, are you the one? And Jesus doesn’t give a straight answer. Instead he sends these disciples back with instructions to report on what they see and hear. Go and tell John what is happening. And it is clear that through Jesus’ ministry healing and wholeness are coming. Indeed through Jesus ministry, life is blossoming. It’s like the spring has come to God’s people; life is bursting forth wherever Jesus goes and people place their faith in him. Go and tell John about his he says. But he doesn’t give a yes or no answer to the question, it’s for John to decide, John is to draw his own conclusions, just as we are about Jesus.
Now, there’s a risk here that the crowds may misunderstand, think that John and Jesus’ ministries are competing with one another or at loggerheads. Jesus is keen to assure the crowds that John is the forerunner, the forerunner to Jesus’ ministry. So he begins to speak about John. What did you go to see? He asks. If you’re headed out into the wilderness there’s a good reason for it, you don’t go for nothing.
And he draws attention to both John’s teaching and his way of life. Was he a reed swayed by the wind? Changing his message and lifestyle to fit in with what others expected or demanded of him? I don’t think anyone would argue that about John. And then there’s his manner of dress, not in the finery of royalty but in a coat of camel’s hair with a leather belt to hold it together. John is a prophet, and more than that. For the people of Israel in Jesus’ day being a prophet was the highest of honours, and yet Jesus elevates him even higher, more than a prophet. For he is the forerunner. The other prophets merely spoke of the coming Messiah, John is here to inaugurate Jesus’ ministry.
And it’s those questions about John that I want to stick with this morning. Because whilst John the Baptist was the messenger who prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry, now the church has taken on the mantle. For we are the heralds of Jesus, proclaiming his coming, proclaiming his death and resurrection for us. We are the voice crying out in the wilderness of this present age that here has come the Saviour to bring life, life in the desert places of our lives and our world.
Now, we’re not exactly John the Baptist, John has a specific ministry, we as the church have a specific ministry and they’re different in the details, but in broad brush strokes we can see the overlap. And I suppose the question for us as God’s people in our day is are we reeds swayed by the wind? Are we preoccupied with finery and comfort and status and so neglecting God’s mission?
Have you ever watched reeds on a river bank? As the wind rushes through they sway quite happily. Shifting this way and that. And in many ways they have to, they’re thin, fragile, in fact they’re hollow aren’t they. And so they need to sway, if they didn’t they’d snap. They may grow quickly but they’re fragile. They have nothing like the sturdiness of a tree. And that can be as, both as individuals and as a church; reed like.
Sometimes it’s because our faith, and the faith of the church, is much like the structure of that reed. It’s thin, hollow, there’s no real substance to it. So of course we sway this way and that, conform to every new teaching or social change, there’s nothing to secure ourselves to. If we both as individuals and as a church are to grow to maturity, faith like the tree rather than the reed, we need to put down roots, take the time to grow and mature. We need to be going deep into God’s word in the Bible, need to be going deep in our discipleship, growing in our lives to be more like Jesus, need to be going deep in relationship both with one another and with God. It’s why we have small group, to go deeper into the Bible and apply it further to our lives, and build relationships with one another. It’s why we have time together after the services for tea and coffee, and try to make space for social time in other contexts, to build those relationships where we can both encourage and challenge one another in our faith. We want faith like the tree, not the reed.
But sometimes we’re reed like not because we don’t know the word, not because we don’t know Jesus. Sometimes we’re reed like because we just want to fit in with everyone else. We don’t want to be the tree amidst the reeds. Standing out is hard, it’s much easier to blend in. We don’t want to be awkward, or offend, or cause issues for ourselves or others. And so we’ll go along with whatever provided it gives us and our church an easy life.
And that actually fits neatly with Jesus’ second question about John. Was he about an easy life? Comfort and finery. We can get very used to being in our comfort zone, doing things the way we always have. We can get used to our position in the community, and then panic when we realise we aren’t as important in people’s minds as we used to be, or thought we were. If all we’re about is comfort and status we’ll soon wither on the vine. But if we’re about God’s mission we can live on the edge of our comfort zone, lose all status, be stripped of the finery, because we’re not about those things, we’re about Jesus.
The people of Jesus’ day didn’t go to John because he blended in, they went because he stuck out. First, they’d noticed him, that’s a big part of it isn’t it. Are we noticeable, is there something different about us? Probably not camel’s hair and locust eating, that’s probably a bit too far, but do we stick out? Are we weird? Because if all our friends and neighbours see is someone who is just like them, if we blend in perfectly, why would they be interested in our faith? They have everything we have, and an extra few hours on a Sunday. We may lament as this nation continues to drift further and further from Christian faith, but it does give more opportunity for us to stick out and witness to a different way. As Christians, as a church, we stand for something different, preaching Jesus and living for him. Obedient to his commands in word and deed. Are we willing to be weird if that weirdness is because we’re following Jesus?
So first people noticed John, and then, in seeing John, wanted to know more, they flocked to hear what he had to say. In being weird people will start to ask us what’s going on, why we are the way we are. Which means we’re to be welcoming. We’re to welcome people into what we believe, the world in which we live, the story we inhabit. And I don’t mean story as in fiction, I mean as in the overarching narrative of our world and lives. Are we ready to explain to people the reason for the hope that we have? Sins forgiven, life restored. Are we ready to talk about Jesus?
Now that can seem intimidating, but it really shouldn’t be. Think for a moment of how your life is different because Jesus is in it, and you in him. What’s changed, how does he make a difference to your morning when you wake up, when you’re sick, when someone you love dies, when you’re making a hard decision. If we have faith that’s starting to put down roots we’ll know some of these differences, and that’s what we’re to talk about in the first instance. You don’t need a PhD in theology to talk about Jesus, you don’t need all the answers, sometimes people are a bit relieved when you don’t, you just need your faith in him, your life changed by him.
So having been noticed for being weird, having welcomed them, will we then, when the moment is right, challenge them, just as Jesus does with John. What do you make of this Jesus? Of his life and ministry, death and resurrection. From what you’ve seen of him do you want in? Want that new life that he brings.
My brothers and sisters, are we willing to be a bit more like John the Baptist? As the church in our day, as part of God’s people in Hubberston are we willing to stand out for Jesus? Will it be said of us that we weren’t reeds in the wind or preoccupied with comfort, finery and status? Are we ready to be a people who are both weird and welcoming? Because as we look at Jesus we see that wherever he goes life blossoms, so will we walk with him, and watch as he continues to bring new life to the lost. Bringing flowers to bloom in the wilderness of our world, and streams in the desert. Our spring and new dawn, in the midst of winter and darkness.
Amen.