MATTHEW 11 : 2-11 

Matthew in the Margins… Advent 3… Revised 2019

Is JB’s musing about Jesus: “If you're who I think you are...what am I doing in prison ...get me out of here!” at all unreasonable? What if that One who came then doesn't appear to be taking up our cause today, either? Are we ourselves imprisoned in any sense? Don’t we deserve to be set free from whatever kind of ‘prison’ it is? If ‘God mysteries’ still puzzle us, why not explore them as openly & honestly as JB is doing here?

What kinds of things are we hearing & seeing that give us the responsibility to tell of them? Are we telling of the blind seeing again, though in different ways now? Telling of the lame walking, skin diseases being healed, deaf people hearing again, & at least the seemingly dead being raised to life through modern medicine if not the physically dead? As well as telling of these things, are we also playing our part in making them happen today when we can, where we can? 

When it comes to caring for the poor by ‘proclaiming the good news’ to them, are they still in the too-hard basket? If we’re setting up caring agencies to serve others, without down-playing these, can we go further than this? Agencies can't love people. Only people can love people. Being loved is the way the poor, or anyone else, can discover the ‘Good News’. Can we truly proclaim Jesus as Good News to the poor - or anyone else - except by becoming that good news in person? 

A reed, a fancy dress show, or a Prophet? There's a lot of bending this way & that in today's church, sometimes in a good cause, sometimes not. Not to mention dressing up. How does one recognize a genuine Prophet among the reeds & fancy-dressers? Whatever nurturing we may be giving others, is anyone nurturing us in becoming a recognizably authentic, prophetic, compassionate, hands-on word-of-God for each other? That we all need what the Celts call an ‘anamchara’, or soul friend, comes to mind. Why not explore that with a view to implementing it?

Jesus says JB ‘is the greatest human being’ up to that stage of history. At this point in the Gospel, though, even JB fails to recognize God's Rule present among us in Jesus. Rather than be discouraged by his failure, why not learn from it & grow stronger in faith as a result.

Brian

Afterthought: The Gospel of Thomas Ch.46 [Complete Gospels, Harper Collins '94] may help us see where we come into all this with its: ‘whoever among you becomes a child will recognize God's Rule & will become greater than John.’