Gospel Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 11th By Fr Brian Maher OMI
Sunday December 11th 2022, Third Sunday of Advent
Imagine for a second that John the Baptist, and not Jesus, was the ‘promised one’, the Messiah, the one who would usher in the kingdom of God? Imagine for a second that it was John who rose from the dead, and it was his message about the Kingdom that was revealed to be the true one?
What kind of God would he have revealed to us, what kind of Kingdom would have come to us, and what kind of Church might have developed after him?
Now, I know that speculation of this kind is useless and can never be more than speculation, but sometimes it is when we contrast two people or two views of the world that we come to see more clearly the value of one over the other. It is, for example, when I see an exquisitely dressed person in silks and satins, that I notice the poverty of the person dressed in wool or cotton, or it is in the face of great distress and persecution that I truly appreciate courage and resilience.
John the Baptist was a popular and admired preacher and teacher. His message and lifestyle tapped into the anxieties and fears of first century Jews, and his dramatic baptisms in the Jordan River answered a felt need for authenticity and true repentance.
His message was clear and simple: God’s Kingdom is coming soon, and with it will come the final judgement of all nations and all peoples of the World. John called for a true repentance from sin which was then expressed in the public acceptance of baptism.
The kernel of his message was judgement and retribution. God was coming to judge and then reward the good and punish the bad. His rewards would be great, and his punishments would also be great.
John’s lifestyle supported his message. He was ascetic, austere, and frugal, maybe even a bit frightening, and the God who was coming would be severe, unsmiling and sombre, and probably also a bit frightening.
Contrast this with the lifestyle and message of Jesus.
It would seem that their starting points were similar – that the Kingdom of God was near and that a ‘turning back’ to God was required to be part of this kingdom.
I can imagine John seeing Jesus as his heir apparent, the one he was choosing to succeed him and carry forth his legacy. The idea that the pupil becomes greater than his teacher, and their roles then reverse, was strong in Jewish tradition, and John’s exclamation that “he must increase, and I must decrease” would have been well understood and accepted by his hearers.
The thing is that the heir apparent is meant to carry on the message of his teacher and it seems that this is exactly what did not happen in the case of John and Jesus.
As Jesus started to preach himself, it would seem that a very different focus for his Mission began to develop. The God who was coming to judge was increasingly presented by Jesus as a God of mercy and forgiveness. Instead of waiting with severe warnings for sinners to repent, Jesus moves from village to village gathering sinners to himself before they repent. The serious and austere person of John is now the smiling and child-holding person of Jesus, and the God Jesus talks of, and to, is now “Abba” (the informal name for father, like Dad or Daddy). Finally, the frugal and meagre lifestyle of John is replaced by a social and affable Jesus who does a lot of his teaching at table, where he eats and drinks with all who invite him.
It is no wonder that poor John, now in prison and unable to do anything himself, becomes upset and worried about the reports he is getting about Jesus. What if he was mistaken? What if the one he pointed to was not the Messiah and that, in some way, Jesus had betrayed or lost the message of repentance preached by John?
The opening of today’s Gospel clearly shows us a sad and concerned man, who fears that he has made a mistake and is calling for Jesus to account for himself. John has doubts about Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come …or have we got to wait for someone else?”
Whether Jesus was hurt by John’s doubts we can never know. His answer to John is a type of coded reference to the Prophet Isaiah who said that when the Messiah came, “the lame would walk, the blind would see, the deaf would hear, lepers would be cleansed, and the dead would be raised to life.” (today’s 1st Reading)
“Why doubt me?…” Jesus seems to say, “…judge me by what I am doing.”
Then Jesus adds a last phrase which is not from Isaiah and clearly doesn’t fit with the point he is making. It seems a bit awkward and unnecessary to add, “…and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me….”. Could this be an indication that the doubts of John have hurt Jesus in some way? If true, it is for me yet another wonderful insight into the real humanity of Jesus. Some might worry that this takes from the reality of Jesus’ divinity, but for me, no, we are simply seeing a Jesus who is like us in all things, even disappointments and hurts.
If I were to allow myself to speculate further, I might even say that the second part of today’s Gospel, where Jesus goes to great lengths to praise and honour John, is possibly Jesus trying to make up to John for causing him to doubt. There is no doubt that these words of Jesus are intended to be taken back and reported to John. (What a pity he seems to undo it by finishing, “…yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, is greater than he is.”!!)
To come full circle, then, and finish where I started: What would the Kingdom of God look like if John the Baptist had been the Messiah, and his message the true one?
If would be a Kingdom where God would reign as judge over all. Following his final judgement would come reward or punishment, fair and just, but at the same time, strict and rigid.
It is only true repentance, made evident by penance and baptism, that gains us entry into God’s Kingdom.
God, for John, is a distant, austere figure – a bit like John himself. We approach the God of John with fear, knowing he throws out and destroys the useless branches of the fruit tree, and burns the chaff left behind after the grain is harvested.
By contrast, the God of Jesus is a healer, not a punisher. God is a ‘forgiver’, not a judge. God is close, not distant. To the God of Jesus, we are friends, not servants. God’s Kingdom, for Jesus, is a place of welcome, where all are invited to enter, not a place of reward and punishment where entry is for the chosen few.
John the Baptist was the one sent to prepare the way for the Messiah. As Jesus tells us today, John was the “greatest of the Prophets.” Yet, when I allow myself to imagine the God I would know if John was the Messiah, I find myself very thankful that he was not!
The God who comes among us on Christmas morning; the God who lies in the crib as a helpless child, is the God revealed to us by the life and words of Jesus, and only of Jesus. They are words of forgiveness, of welcome, of love and peace and joy and friendship. It is why we celebrate at Christmas – because our God is so close, so wonderful, so …. much greater than any words I can imagine.
There is only one appropriate response to our God, and it is a simple and humble, “Thank you….thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Many thanks,
Brian.
If you have any comments, questions or thoughts on this scripture reflection, please feel welcome to email me at b.maher@oblates.ie
| Gospel Third Sunday of Advent 2022 | Matthew 11:2-11 © |
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