Monday, 16 March Seeking the Messiah. Matthew 11:1–19
We are reaching the end of this first section of Matthew’s Gospel. Do you recall, back in the Introduction, we identified this first section, Seeking the Messiah, as part of the overall theme of Behold! Your King is Coming!
After tomorrow’s reading, we will have completed this section. But today, John the Baptist frames for us the essential question: Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? (v3). We, who are seekers, sometimes have in the back of our mind that niggling doubt. Could we have been deluded? What if it is all a lot of airy-fairy nonsense, as our critics often tell us? Could we have been deceived, all along?
We must feel for John at this point. He has been in prison for some time, now. He was incarcerated in Herod’s fortress-palace down at Masada, that place which would become so tragic for the Jewish nation in their last stand against the Romans in 73AD. Masada is in the very remote desert. In summer, it is burning hot, in winter, bitterly cold. It is a forbidding place and almost impregnable. You may have seen the film or TV mini-series, Masada.
John would have been in deep despair, wondering if he had misread all the ‘messages’ he thought he had received from God, and wasted his life. John had given up his entire life to the mission of announcing the coming kingdom. He had staked everything on Jesus being the Messiah.
We hear his request as a deeply human need for reassurance: Have I wasted my life, or are you the Christ? He needs Jesus to tell him that he got his vocation absolutely right, and that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah. If that is the case, then John knows that he can face death with confidence, knowing that he has done his task well.
Jesus’ reply may sound cryptic to us. But perhaps it needed to be, for the security of everyone: Jesus, John and the messengers whom John had sent. This was still classified information about a secret invasion, and it would be going deep into enemy headquarters. So Jesus sends a coded message that he knows John will interpret correctly.
Jesus answered them, "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. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me." (vv4–6)
John would have recognised the theme instantly. He would have known by heart the great Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, including this one.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you." Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; Isaiah 35:3–6.
This was enough for John, and Jesus knew it. This secret code would shout aloud to John, that Jesus is the Messiah, and he need not worry. But the crowd needed more. So Jesus clarifies John’s mission for them, and thus his own mission too. John, says Jesus, was the final prophet before the Messiah would come. He was the Elijah who was to come (v15).
The second-last verse in Malachi, the last book in our Old Testament (though not in the same order in the Hebrew Bible) reads: Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
Although no-one knew exactly what to expect, they knew that somehow the return of Elijah would form part of the Messiah’s coming. They were eagerly seeking this. Elijah, of course, did not die; he had been taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot (see 2 Kings 2:11-12). So there was an expectation that he could somehow return.
John the Baptist appeared somewhat like Elijah. They both wore garments of animal skins, tied up with a leather belt. They both spent time in the desert, seeking and communing with God. Both confronted wicked kings with charges of immoral behaviour, and suffered for it.
Have you ever wondered if you have missed God’s calling on your life? Perhaps, like John you just need to hear Jesus’ answer. The answer is not whether or not you were ‘meant’ to be a preacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser. It’s doubtful, in my view, whether God ‘has an opinion’ about those choices. My careful reading of scripture is that he gives us perfect freedom of choice about such things. What he cares about is whether or not we serve him well, and do our jobs well, in whatever career we take up.
The Messiah has come, Jesus assures John. You can rest easy now. You’ve done your task.
The same voice may assure you and me that as we faithfully seek and serve him in our lives, we will find ourselves within the glow of his blessing. He is the one who will use whatever gift we bring him, from our daily work. It just needs to be offered to him as our best work, whether it is paid or voluntary, professional or trade, home-based or in an office. It’s all the same to him.
He just asks us to serve, and to do the kind of work that he would do, if he were in our place.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord God, for the example of John the Baptist, who offered himself so completely to you. Help me, in my work and relationships, to be as he was, devoted to your service. Amen.
