John makes the proclamation about the ax’s being at the root of the trees, his listeners, rightly moved by such a statement, ask what they can do. John doesn’t respond by talking about following the Jewish laws or by offering the correct sacrifices at the temple. Like the Old Testament prophets, he wants to take the people beyond that point, to show them what God truly requires.
Here is what scholars see as a major connection to the Essenes, in that John is essentially promoting communal living without suggesting people leave their families and live together. He is laying out the same idea that Jesus will put forth in the parable of the sheep and the goats, among other places. John wants his listeners (and us) to set aside the belief that what we own is our own and see that the way to the kingdom is to remember that all we have belongs to each other and to God.
When people from the crowd ask him what they should do, he simply responds that they should give out of their plenty to those who lack the basic necessities of life. If people don’t have clothing or shelter or food, and we do, we should give it to them. When different sub-groups ask for clarification, he tells them not to cheat people or extort money from them, reminding them to be satisfied with what they already have. Note he’s not saying we should not seek a living wage, as the soldiers who ask the question were already paid enough to live; instead, he’s saying that they should not take money from those who are already struggling under the oppression of Rome for their own benefit.
John lays out an outline for the kingdom of God that Jesus will take up again and again. The only way the hungry get fed is for us to feed them. When we are focused only on our desires, then the way to God is not straight and easy, as we are the ones making it more difficult. We take the path God has made smooth, and we make it crooked and rough. Whether we call God’s straight path communism or Essene or charity or simply love, it is the main message John gives to those who ask how to live, and it’s the reoccurring theme that Jesus will return to again and again throughout his ministry.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion:
What in our lives prevents us from living out John’s radical message?
What might John say to various contemporary professions if they asked him what they should do?
Do You Hear?
Third Sunday in Advent
Matthew 11:2–15
Isaiah 35:1–10
As a teacher, I’m always fascinated by how Jesus answers questions (or, in reality, how he doesn’t answer them). In the passage from Matthew, John the Baptizer has sent messengers to Jesus to see if he is, in fact, the Messiah, or if there is someone else John should be waiting for. Even before we get to the question, though, the writer of Matthew tips us off a bit by saying, “When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing . . . ” There doesn’t seem to be any kind of suspense here as to whether or not Jesus is the Messiah; the fact that this passage comes just under halfway through Matthew certainly helps with that.
However, that mention of the word Messiah before the question lets us know something else that will come up in Jesus’s answer to the question: John already knows what Jesus has been doing. The opening phrase tells us that John’s followers have communicated to him what Jesus has been doing, and the author of the gospel describes that as what the Messiah has been doing. John is well aware of what Jesus has been up to, and he doesn’t ask that question. Instead, he wants to know, point blank, if Jesus is the Messiah or not, even though he already really knows that Jesus is the Messiah. It seems that John is just having trouble admitting it to himself at this point.
That brings us to Jesus’s answer to the question. As he often does, Jesus doesn’t answer the question that’s asked, as he never says whether he is or isn’t the Messiah. Instead, he tells John’s followers to go back to John and tell him what he’s been doing: healing the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the deaf; raising the dead; proclaiming good news to the poor. Remember, though, that John knows Jesus has been doing all of these actions; that’s why John sent his messengers to Jesus in the first place. Essentially, Jesus’s answer to John is nothing more than a confirmation of what John already knows, and Jesus seems to think this answer is perfectly acceptable. As far as we can tell in this and other gospel passages, John’s followers don’t seem bothered by it, either.
The most important part of Jesus’s answer, though, might come at the beginning of his response, not the section on what Jesus has done. He first responds, “Go and tell John what you hear and see . . . ” Jesus uses these images of hearing and seeing on a regular basis, often with the phrase at the end of this passage: “Let anyone with ears listen!” Perhaps, rather than telling John and his followers all that he has been doing, Jesus is reminding John that he needs to hear and see through God’s eyes, as it is only then that he can truly hear and see the work of God in the world. John’s question shows that he needs confirmation (as we all do, so often), so it is not Jesus’s actions that will convince John; it is Jesus’s reminder of how to see the world that will do so.
That same approach happens in Isaiah, as the positive actions happen early in the passage when the wilderness, dry land, and desert all break forth into bloom, revealing the glory of the Lord. It isn’t until later in the passage, though, that people shall see and hear; the glory of the Lord has already been around, but the people haven’t seen it yet. Once they do see it, then more goodness follows that recognition, as now those dry places are filled with life-giving water, leading to everlasting joy. What the people needed, though, was the ability to hear and see what they should have already known.
Too often, we behave the same way. There is goodness in the world, redemptive acts happening all around us—from organizations that work to end hunger or discrimination to individuals who forgive those who have harmed them or who work for peace between warring nations—yet we are unable to see or hear them. We have moved from seeing the world through God’s eyes to seeing the world through a purely materialistic lens. We see acts of social equality—the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same sex marriage, for example—as nothing more than humanity’s way of trying to level out a playing field that has been uneven for centuries. We see social justice work—from soup kitchens to protests for a living wage—as nothing more than trying to feed people’s bodies or help people find jobs. Like John and his followers, all we see is that Jesus heals people in a variety of ways.
All of those actions are good and necessary and valuable, but we need to see what is behind them to see and hear why they matter; otherwise, we’re nothing more than social workers rather than people working for the kingdom here on Earth. Too often, that lack of insight leads to frustration and despair and burnout, rather than leading to the everlasting joy described in Isaiah. It’s not simply that we are working to feed people or to create a more equal and just world, it’s that we are doing so because of God’s redemptive love for humanity, because God loves all equally and wants us to act on that love for all of God’s creation. We need to see and hear God in all we do to provide meaning to those actions we do every day to make the world what God can already see and hear.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion:
What do we already know that we often forget?
What are some actions in your life, church, and the world that you often overlook or fail to see as God’s work?
A Song for Progressives
Fourth Sunday in Advent
Luke 1:39–56
Micah 5:2–5a
Mary’s Magnificat (so named for the first word of her poetic passage in Latin) is one of
