Week One: The Gift of Waiting...
When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”Matthew 11:2-3
You have to have a picture of Jesus as he enacts his public ministry in Matthew. He has been baptized by John, but then John is arrested and Jesus starts doing his own thing. Up to this point in Matthew, Jesus has preached in the Sermon on the Mount some pretty radical stuff about loving your enemies and reversals of power and blessing. He has healed outcasts and servants, suggested that the religious establishment may not be the role models folks think they are, stilled the forces of nature, called a tax collector to be a disciple, restored sight to the blind, voice to the mute, and sent his people out into the world with nothing.
If you were John, arrested for your vocal complaint about the powers that be, committed to preaching repentance and baptizing those who repent, and expecting that the messiah will come in to take out Rome, it is no wonder you might be skeptical as you sit in your cell. “Dude,” we imagine John thinking, “I need you to get with it. Forget the blind, mute and paralyzed. Head after Rome. I’m depending on you to do your job...to bring the expected salvation that God is sending.”
And so John asks, “Are you the one, or is there another?”
The question belongs to us as well. If our promised salvation turns out to be God's work of weakness, suffering, communion with those rejected, it's no wonder we ask, "Are you the one? Is this it?” Frankly, in this day and time, those things really don't seem to get you very far.
Perhaps if we are looking for, but cannot see, God’s work, it is because we are looking in the wrong place. Maybe the gift is well hidden in the weakness, suffering, and rejection that we prefer to avoid.
The question belongs to us as well. If our promised salvation turns out to be God's work of weakness, suffering, communion with those rejected, it's no wonder we ask, "Are you the one? Is this it?” Frankly, in this day and time, those things really don't seem to get you very far.
Perhaps if we are looking for, but cannot see, God’s work, it is because we are looking in the wrong place. Maybe the gift is well hidden in the weakness, suffering, and rejection that we prefer to avoid.
God, take us to the places your will is being done. Show the people bringing in your kingdom. Redirect us when we lose sight of the surprise that is your salvation for us and for the world. Amen.
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