Recently I had to replace my beloved Dell laptop that I had for 8 years. I knew it was coming… that one day the blue screen of foreboding would morph into the black screen of death.
Sure enough, one fateful day in late October, it happened. So I checked my laptop into computer ICU at MicroCenter and hoped for the best.
It was not to be…so I waited for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals and replace it.
Which I did with a Surface. It arrived while I was at work and so I had to wait until the next morning to set it up. And it wants to take my picture.
It was early in the morning, still dark outside, I was still wearing my kitty cat slippers and thinking nothing of it, I let it take my picture. It also asked for pin for a backup.
And then I saw the picture it took. The florescent light coming from the desk light above cast very unflattering shadows on my face, aging me about 20 years. Whatever.
Until it started using that picture to identify me with the face recognition software every time I went to log in.
“Are you the one? Let me see your face. “
And it doesn’t recognize me, because the picture looks nothing like me in the warm light of day with make up on. So it asks for my pin and then suggests that perhaps I take another picture, perhaps that one will be better.
John the Baptist is sitting in prison and asks the same question, “Are you the one? John was having a little trouble with the 1st century version of face recognition of a Messiah.
He had good reason to question if Jesus was THE messiah that everyone was waiting for.
John proclaimed that the coming Messiah standing at the threshing floor, winnowing fork in hand and a fire brightly burning.
When they met at the river Jordan, when John didn’t feel worthy to baptize him, Jesus said we need to do this because “it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness,” which was a messianic accomplishment.
In first century Judaism had no specific job description and expectations for what a Messiah should do and be. Their activities were up for debate in regard to nature, identity and activities.
Some expected a priestly messiah, others a shepherd. One sect thought that there were going to be two messiahs and still others had no messianic expectations at all. Many thought that John the Baptist was the messiah.
To confuse matters a bit, Jesus is acting a whole lot like a prophet, and after having heard of John’s arrest in Matthew 4:17, takes up John’s cry of “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
So John is saying, I know that I’m not the messiah, I’m just a prophet. Go ask this guy, “Are you the one or should we wait for another?”
One family member in Herod’s prison is enough. Jesus didn’t need to join him. So he sends back a coded message that the guards surely wouldn’t understand.
He tells John’s disciples to go and tell what you see and hear. Jesus rattles off a whole bunch of reversals: Blind people see. Lame people walk. Lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead live. Poor people hear good news and it is brought to them.
And the punch line: Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at Jesus for doing these things.
Face recognition.
Understanding.
Mission statement.
Restoration.
See. Hear. Go. Tell.
See Jesus and recognize him as he sees others that society would rather not. Hear what is being said and understand. Go in mission. Tell about the restoration of minds, bodies, spirits, relationships.
No, don’t wait for another because the kingdom of heaven has come near. Now. Jesus is the one. And he brings hope for all people. Don’t be scandalized by actions that are done solely for the sake of the other; and that give justice to the least of these.
Then Jesus reminds the crowd why they went out into the wilderness – to see a prophet. But did they listen? Did they hear what John said?
Jesus heaps praises on John and declares him the greatest of the prophets. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
John is relating to the world in the old way. And he was the greatest of that age. But there is a new age now. The new age and new world order that Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount and in the beatitudes.
In the new age, we are invited to relate in a new way. We are to seek good for the other. We are to give to others as we find ourselves.
There will be reversals. Poor in spirit receive the kingdom of heaven; mourners will be comforted; hungry will be filled.
This is a new way of doing discipleship. Choose this way and already you are greater than John the Baptist, greater than anyone in the old age.
Jesus helps us see the world through God’s eyes. He came to help us hear the Good news. He came to give us a promise of eternal life with God.
John never got out of that jail cell. He was beheaded.
As we come back to John’s original question, are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another – we must ask ourselves– is this a Messiah that we can live with?
Can we handle a God who desires us to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with him? Or are we looking for a vengeful, frightening God?
Can we deal with a God who insists that we see the least, the last, the lost the lonely, the left behind and insists upon us doing the same when our inclination is to look the other way?
Can we deal with a God who comes to us in Jesus offering forgiveness, showing mercy, calling us all to repentance, no matter who we are? Because all means all?
God never shows up in ways that we expect him and the kingdom of heaven manifests itself in ways that we can never imagine.
God does show up and the kingdom of heaven does draw close and we know this simply because he sent Jesus to embody that promise.
And we don’t have to wait for another because the kingdom of heaven is near.
Every time we answer God’s invitation and join in God’s redemptive work, doing his work with our hands, getting our hands dirty, then restoration occurs on a large scale.
May we see Christ in each other, recognizing those whom we serve.