We sat in my office and talked about the many religions in the world. He was a very religious young man and wanted to get my opinion about why I had chosen Christianity with so many other possible religious choices available to me.
The religion he was describing to me in my office wasn’t one religion in particular. A very opened minded person, he had chosen certain parts of several religions as well as a few that I had never heard about and had woven them together in a way that made sense to him.
I had the distinct impression that he probably thought I was a bit odd for settling on one religious faith when I could have so much more.
How do I know that Jesus is the one, he wanted to know.
In our scripture reading from Matthew’s Gospel this morning, a man is behind prison bars and he is asking the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another.”
Isn’t this the ultimate Advent question? As we prepare for Christmas in this season of preparation, what better question is there for us to ask then this very question: “Are you the one, Jesus?”
In John’s day which was a time when Israel was under the military occupation of the Roman Empire, there were a couple of religious options within Judaism.
The first option was to follow someone who claimed to be the Messiah and who was willing to lead a violent revolt against the pagans who were ruling over the people of Israel. And this is what some of the people of Israel did around the time of the 1st century.
About 150 years before Jesus’ birth, Judas Maccabaeus led such a revolt against the Syrians who were controlling Israel at the time and he actually defeated them, at least for the next hundred years. By the way, it’s through Judas Maccabaeus that we have the present day holiday of Hanukah, also known as Festival of Lights which begins tonight.
A 2nd option for the people of Israel during this time was to compromise and accept the fact that they were under Roman occupation. “Don’t rock the boat” was the mindset of some of the Jewish people during this period, although that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t have wanted to be delivered from the Romans. It just meant that they felt this was their only option. Get along as much as possible was their thinking.
So we can see why John, who is now in prison, would still be wondering if Jesus was indeed the Messiah and if so when was Jesus going to make his move against the Romans.
Things don’t look good when you’re behind prison bars. “Are you the one, Jesus?”
Maybe you have asked that same question at one point or another. Maybe you’re asking that question now as you look around at so much suffering and heartache in the world – “Are you the one, Jesus?”
A friend loses his job and she doesn’t know how she’s going to pay the bills, let alone how she will buy Christmas presents for her kids. “Are you the one, Jesus?”
You’ve been working hard on a new ministry through the church and it doesn’t seem to be making any headway and you’re about ready to give up. “Are you the one, Jesus?”
A man who was in the prime of his life is struck down by a terrible disease, leaving behind a grieving family who now must learn to live without his wonderful guidance and support. “Are you the one, Jesus?”
You get another news alert and there it is again. Yet another mass shooting. “Are you the one, Jesus?”
Some people want to ask that question but are afraid to ask it because people might think differently of them if they do. So they don’t ask it. They keep it to themselves.
But John the Baptist asked it. The one who had prepared the way for Jesus out in the wilderness. The one who said, “The one who is coming after me is more powerful than I.” He asked it. “Are you the one?”
So Jesus’ disciples come back to him with this question from John the Baptist. And Jesus’ answer?
“Go and tell John what you hear and see.”
That’s just like Jesus to put the question back on us, isn’t it? Do you think the disciples, who probably wanted to ask Jesus that very same question weren’t just as curious as to what Jesus would say as John the Baptist was?
Jesus says to the disciples, “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” And he quotes right out of their own Hebrew scriptures – Isaiah chapter 35. “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”
“We were expecting a yes or no, Jesus. And here you go quoting scripture?”
Sometimes a straightforward answer just won’t do. While a simple answer might satisfy us on a surface level, what really matters is that we experience the answer for ourselves.
Educators tells us that we learn best when we are put into situations where we experience the world around us rather than simply take notes in a classroom, as important as that may be.
One of the many things that I love about our church is that we encourage people to ask questions about their faith. I often share with you how I have changed in the way I interpret the scriptures because of new experiences and new understandings.
Those changes happen because it also starts with asking questions. What was the historical context of when that particular passage of scripture was written? Who was the author? How would the original hearers of that scripture passage have received it? What have been my biases in interpreting that scripture passage? What does that scripture mean for us today in 2019?
And often times, those questions about the Bible will lead to a deeper understanding and maybe even lead to more questions and to new possible interpretations.
How we approach the Bible and how we develop our theology around various understandings of the Bible can lead to sometimes very unsettling times along our faith journey. Sometimes, out of fear of change, I want to keep my questions to myself and pretend they aren’t there.
But then I think of our focus today and how the Bible encourages us to ask questions and to wrestle in our faith. And that’s actually a more biblical attitude than the simplistic view of “the Bible says it. I believe it. And that settles it.”
That simplistic statement always assumes that my interpretation of the scripture is the right one and the only one. But if we are humble enough, we will realize that maybe I have more to learn. Maybe there are more questions to ask. Maybe I need to live without the answers I am searching for a while.
To help encourage us to ask questions about our faith, I invite you to submit questions about the Bible, about faith, about theology, about the church in general or about our church specifically. You can send any questions you have to my church email address over the next several weeks.
On Sunday, January 26, instead of a sermon, I will do my best to respond to any questions you may submit, not necessarily with satisfactory or simplistic answers, but by offering my thoughts and reflections that will hopefully be helpful to all of us, because there will probably be other people in our church who have a similar questions that you submitted. I’m calling it “Ask the Pastor Sunday.” Last Sunday of January.
So please, let me know your questions about the Bible, faith, theology, or the church, and we’ll make that the focus on the last Sunday of January. My hope is that this will continue to encourage our church to be open to a variety of perspectives and thoughts.
Speaking of questions about our faith, many of us have read about Mother Teresa and her crisis of faith as documented in the book, “Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light” written by Brian Kolodiejchuk.
The book reveals that Mother Teresa, over the last fifty years of her life, she often did not feel the presence of God. It’s a controversial book because a lot of people have assumed that Mother Teresa had more faith in God than almost anyone else on the face of the earth.
But think of what Mother Teresa saw and heard. Starving children and immense and overwhelming poverty day after day, year after year, decade after decade. She saw a world that was inequitable, unfair in its allocation of life-giving resources, and an economic system that is often unjust.
And yet, it’s also important to remember what else Mother Teresa has seen. The day when Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace prize. It was during the Season of Advent on December 11, 1979.
And she said in her speech that the upcoming Christmas holiday should remind the world “that radiating joy is real” because Christ is everywhere – “Christ is in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give, and in the smile that we receive.”
“Go and tell what you see and hear,” Jesus tells the disciples.
For now, this answer will have to do for the locust and honey eating man who is now behind prison bars. It will also have to do for the young teenage mother who’s been told that she has found favor with God.
And it will have to do for us on this fourth Sunday of Advent. “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 preached to them.”
Have you experienced God’s radiating joy recently? How did that help your faith to grow stronger?
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