READINGS

Matthew 11:2-11
Exodus 23:20
Malachi 3:1
Isaiah 35:5
Isaiah 61:1

HOMILY

In each of the previous two Sundays, I've been bringing out how the possibility of coming to learn and distinguish what's going on is at the back of the readings we have and as part of Matthew's way of opening us up to reality.

Last Sunday, we had John the Baptist preaching, in which he announced the wrath that was to come, who called people brutal vipers and so forth.

There was a mixture of the Holy Spirit and fire, as he announced that one after him was coming, whose sandals he was not worthy to carry.

It was a portentous preaching, a truly prophetic preaching and now we come to the really difficult moment of discernment as to what's going on.

This is the place where Jesus draws rather a strange Line in the sand between him and John, his cousin, and offers us a hint of something quite different coming about.

Let's look at the text and see if we can pick up this new thing this is coming in:

when John the Baptist heard in prison what the anointed one was doing

Remember that John had seen Jesus being anointed by the Holy Spirit during his baptism in the Jordan; so, for him, to for the gospel refer to him as the anointed one, that was referring to something that John had seen.

The question is what did it mean.

so John heard in prison what the anointed was doing, he sent word by his disciples and he said to him: art thou the one who is to come or wait we for another?

Thomas Merton has a very beautiful meditation on John in prison.

What it must have been like for him to live a life of such extremity, with his vision set up absolutely on the one who was coming after him; one whose way he was preparing and yet beginning to doubt from what he had heard of what Jesus was doing, that Jesus was the real thing.

He actually thought that the someone who was coming after him was going to be someone more powerful than he, but doing the things of power that one does when one faces up to kings and tyrants, when one faces up to corrupt priests and religious institutions, as he (John) had done.

Somehow the reports he was getting of Jesus, which was preaching rather mysteriously - lots of healings -, but he didn't seem to be lining up in the activist ranks in the same way that he (John) had rather expected.

So the questions: "is this what I was waiting for?"; "have my life been a failure?"; "have I been barking up the wrong tree?"

There's a very deep plaintiff quality to John's wonderful message, which I think Thomas Martin brings out rather beautifully.

and now Jesus answers the messengers: go and tell John what you hear and see

And then Jesus quotes from a mixture of Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 35 from the passage which we have is our first reading this week:

the blind received their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised

That's all from Isaiah 35 and those all have been um illustrated by miracles that have been done in the preceding chapters.

And finally

and the poor have good news brought to them

And then Jesus adds

and blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me

Now here's a very interesting point:

John is being caused to stumble by what he sees and hears, because of the phrase "blessed is anyone who is not scandalized by me; is not caused to trip or stumble by me".

This is an absolutely central passage for René Girard understanding of the Gospel and, thanks to him, of my own understanding.

So under what circumstances might Jesus be scandalizing John?

Well, the answer is in not being the kind of one who was expected to come, who (in John's understanding) was going to come with violence.

If you look at the passage which is our first reading this week, you will see that we're given the full whack, immediately before we get to the part where it says "then the eyes of the blind shall be opened":

to those who have 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

That's not the verse that Jesus is quoting, though he is effectively saying "strengthen the weak hands, make fun of the feeble knees, say to those who have a fearful heart be strong, do not fear".

That's his message to John, but he is not quoting the words of vengeance and he understands that that scandalizes people, because many of those, who want a prophet, want someone who are going to make things right.

In Matthew's gospel, we don't get to scene that we have in Luke's, which is Jesus beginning his ministry of Nazareth (quoting Isaiah 61):

I have come to announce good news to the poor

Jesus then reads the passage of the setting free of captives and so forth, and then starts explaining this to them and they are scandalized.

It doesn't actually use the word scandalized, but their reaction is terrible because Jesus leaves out the words about vengeance, which are present in Isaiah 61.

So Jesus is taking two chunks of Isaiah and, in both cases, he's slipping off the bits about vengeance, and he's saying:

blessed is the one who is not scandalized by me

Quite literally not being scandalized by Jesus means not being scandalized by the lack of violence that the coming in is not going to be coming in violently.

It's going to have violent effects for those who don't receive it, but it is in the message not being violent and that makes it terribly difficult to understand.

Moreover, It was thought from Malachi that Elijah would come before the end pressaging a lot of arms.

Elijah had been a violent Prophet: he'd had all the prophets of Baal killed; and he was taken to heaven and a fiery chariot.

Now Jesus hints that John the Baptist is indeed Elijah, but a very different sort than the one we actually know.

This is why Jesus later says (and that's this is not unfortunately in today's the Gospel):

for all the prophets in the law prophesied until John came

The notion of an Elijah who is in prison and about to be executed rather than the one who was a triumphantly seen off the bastards: that's not the image of Elijah that anybody expected.

So when John's disciples leave, Jesus begins to speak to the crowds and says to them

What did you go out into the wilderness to see? 

A reed swaying in the wind?

What then did you go out to see? 

A man dressed in soft clothes? 

See, those who wear soft clothes are in royal palaces.

What then did you go out to see?

It's interesting that he here he's using the language of looking at and to be honest I wonder why.

Maybe he's saying: "let's talk about the visible things of the prophet, rather than the audible things."

I would have imagined what did you go out into the wilderness to hear; but no, it's to look at a reed shaken by the wind... something that absolutely stands up against the wind.

However, with a terrible wind, it can be broken, but you don't got to see a reed, something that is terrible in standing up might be broken, but it's quite a spectacle.

In addition, apparently this triple repetition of the "what you have to see" if translated back into Aramaic can follow up a poetic form.

What about those who wear soft clothes? They are usually in royal palaces.

In other words, he was not the sort of person who was going to be giving friendly advice to kings.

The court phophets were all yes men: people who rubbed up the the royal figure and therefore their words are worthless.

Someone who stands up to them is someone who's about to get executed, which of course is exactly what's going to happen to John. They know that he's exactly not that sort of person.

A prophet? 

Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 

This is the one about whom it is written:

See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way before you.

The first line of that is from Exodus, where God says to Moses: "see I'm sending my Angel before you to prepare the path of Exodus".

It's mixed here with Malachi: "see I'm sending my messenger before you".

Again, the messenger in this case is Elijah, so you're saying this is more than that a prophet, this is the Angel who is to come.

This is the one about whom it is written; see, I am sending my messenger.

Jesus says that John is more than a prophet and I think that's very significant, because he said:

Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

So amongst all the generation of people born before, the suggestion is that John the Baptist in his person encapsulates the living presence of all the previous prophets.

Hence what they saw on him, which was his clothing and his way of eating encapsulating The Exodus, Elijah, Samson, The camels taking Joseph to Egypt.

He was encapsulating all of that and yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

Strangely, the Gospel leaves us without the key line, because it's usually too difficult to interpret:

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, and the violent have been seizing it by force.

Imagine that he's saying: John the Baptist encapsulates the whole of the previous life of Prophecy for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came.

He's encapsulating all of that and it's all expecting a violent coming of God and what he is bringing in is going to be something different - there is no vengeance.

John is the greatest and yet the Kingdom of Heaven is entirely without violence.

It's much more easy to be scandalized by its non-violence than by anything that it does.

Remember that Jesus caused scandal to those who are too good rather than those who are too bad; to those who wanted to sort things out quickly rather than for those who are too weak to do anything.

The scandal of Jesus is the scandal of the one who is non-violent and who is going to make God entirely available as one in whom there is no violence.

Now we're on the threshold of beginning to sense what strange potential scandal is coming into our midst as the apocalyptic noise begins to diminish and our savior's birth draws nearer.