IS JESUS THE ONE?

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON DECEMBER 16^th, 2007

Matthew 11:3 "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another."

On the third Sunday of Advent, as we hasten to Christmas, the Advent theme of waiting in hope has a twist. Today's Gospel is full of puzzle and riddle - and particularly the last line, where Jesus says: "Among those born of women there is no one greater than John the Baptist, yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he". What are we to make of this?

John the Baptist - the forerunner - is now in prison. Although he does not know it, he is about to have his head served up on a silver dish as desert at the king’s banquet! But he does know that the end is nigh, and his ministry is concluding. So, like anyone in his position, he looks back at his life - and he comes to a stumbling block. Who is Jesus? And was John’s ministry in vain?

Perhaps we've all thought about this at some stage in our life.

Have we wasted our time?

Has what we have been doing been of any value?

Has everything been in vain?

But this not any ordinary person - this is John the Baptist. This is the man whom Jesus said was the forerunner - the Elijah who was to prepare the way. That was John the Baptist's message. And John baptized Jesus fully aware that Jesus was the coming Messiah. "Behold the Lamb of God", he said on the banks of the Jordan, "Behold him who takes away the sins of the world".

Then, John told his disciples to leave him and go to Jesus. Yet now he is at the end of his life, wondering if maybe he was mistaken. So he tells his disciples who were still following him, to go and ask Jesus if he is the one who was to come?

"Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

Jesus' answer is plain and direct - look around and see. The healing works and miracles of Jesus are evidence enough of who Jesus is. Isaiah prophesied these same things as signs of the coming of the Messiah centuries before, as in Isaiah 35. Psalm 146 also reminds us that the coming of the Messiah was to be accompanied by healings and miracles.

But having said that, with its obvious conclusion, Jesus talks in riddles. When they went looking for John the Baptist, he asks, what were they expecting? Someone who blows in the wind? Someone who wears nice clothing? Or a prophet?

If they found something different to what they were expecting - maybe John the Baptist also was expecting something different in Jesus? Like many in Israel at the time, perhaps John wanted a Messiah who would liberate the nation in revolution and armed combat.

"Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

We don't know if John ever resolved the dilemma that he faced. Perhaps that's why we have that final puzzling line from Jesus? But further on, in Matthew 11:16-19, Jesus again talks about this relationship between himself and John the Baptist in more riddles. Quoting a children's game, he says: "We played the pipes for you and you wouldn't dance; we sang dirges for you, and you wouldn't be mourners".

A riddle of course to prove the obvious - for sometimes the Gospel is so plain that people find it difficult to believe.

The witness of the New Testament is that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Christ, the only Son of God, virgin born of holy Mary. Yet 2,000 years later even Christians have difficulty with this plain testimony in Scripture. It has always been that way.

About 25 years after John the Baptist died, there were still some disciples of him living in Ephesus. These disciples of John the Baptist had heard nothing about Jesus, nor his Church - though of course they had been baptized.

In Acts 19 it records that Saint Paul visited them and, hearing that they had been baptized, he asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit. There response was that they hadn't even heard that there was such a thing as the Holy Spirit. So Saint Paul did what any self-respecting Episcopalian bishop would do - he baptized and confirmed them on the spot! And then they received the Holy Spirit.

The problem of followers of John the Baptist still existing long after he had died, is also addressed in the opening of Saint John's Gospel. Saint John's Gospel was written decades after the event, so obviously the problem of disciples of the Baptist was still there. In John 1: 6 it says: "There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the Light, that all might believe through him. He was NOT the Light, but came to bear witness TO the Light". Obviously Saint John felt it necessary to point out that John was just the messenger. The prologue of Saint John's Gospel makes quite clear that John is just the forerunner.

It then goes on to describe the birth of Jesus in those beautiful and amazing words: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us". Then it returns to John the Baptist, and in verse 19 says: "And this is the testimony of John", going on to describe how Saint John the Baptist witnessed to Jesus, and was indeed the forerunner.

This prologue of Saint John's Gospel illustrates that the problem of who Jesus was, and the fact that John Baptist had disciples who didn't see Jesus as the Messiah, still existing.

"Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another".

This question of who Jesus is will never go away. It has resulted in heresies and disputes in every age, inside the Church and outside it. In the 21^st century Christianity may be under violent attack in Asia, Africa and the Middle-East - but its greatest attack is the indifference and subtle watering down of the Gospel in Western society – with a loss of confidence in Jesus the Savior.

Today the question may not be asked of Jesus, are you the one who is to come? - but certainly many people are looking for another. And let's be honest, the public face of the Church does not encourage people to look for that someone they search for in their local church. Instead they look for a spiritual paradise elsewhere - and there are many available to them.

Who can blame searchers for not coming to the local church to look for the one who is to come? When Jesus name is not part of Christmas greetings, when the celebration of his birth is surrounded more by shopping, parties and a few fairy stories - how then is Christmas to be celebrated primarily as a celebration of who Jesus is?

Ultimately the solution to our dilemma is the one that Jesus gave: "Go and tell John what you see and hear".

What people see and hear in their local church will tell them who Jesus is - and hopefully will convince them that He whom they search for is there. Here at All Saints' they must surely find the marks of the Savior if we are worthy of the name Christian - such marks as joy, praise, love, communion with God, and forgiveness of our sins.

The quest for a spiritual paradise can end at an Ephesus where there is no Holy Spirit - or it can end with Jesus. That will happen here if you and I, his body, his Church, provide something for searchers to see and hear.

And thus it ever was!