Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?

 Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.  And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:  The blind see and the lame walk:  the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."

- Matthew 11:1-6

We have just finished Jesus' address to His newly-chosen apostles before their first mission.     For the earlier parts of this address, see The kingdom of heaven is at hand; Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.  Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves and Do not fear.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus finished His preparation for them:  "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother in law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.'  He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.  He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.  He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.  And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.  And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward."

  Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.  And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"  My study bible informs us that John the Baptists asks this question (according to the Church Fathers) in order to guide his own disciples to Jesus.  More modern interpretations suggest it is possible that John thought of the Messiah as judge only and was perplexed by the mercy of Jesus.  To my mind, as John is in prison, if Jesus is "the Coming One" that John had preached about and prepared people for, it is essential that he and his disciples understand and know clearly with an answer for themselves from Jesus.  Jesus, then, would be the fulfillment of John's prophetic ministry.

Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:  The blind see and the lame walk:  the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."  Jesus' response to John is a witness to the qualities of Messiah in His ministry.  Jesus alludes to various parts of Isaiah's prophecy regarding the Messiah to give John an answer to his question.  Jesus' ministry is filled with the signs mentioned by Isaiah, as prophetic witness.

I think it's important that we see the connection between John and Jesus not just in Jesus' fulfillment of the promise in John's ministry, but so that we understand the deep ties through all of the spiritual history of Israel, and that of the mission of Jesus' first chosen disciples about which we've so recently read.  (See the past several readings of this week, beginning with Saturday's about the choosing of the Twelve.)  There's an unbroken chain here, one feeding into and entering into another.  In this context, it's entirely perfect that Jesus' answer to John is essentially about quotations from Isaiah, because Isaiah also, as ancient prophet of Israel, is a witness to the Messiah, or Christ.  In this way, the Gospel gives us not only Jesus as a kind of center of spiritual history, or culmination of it, but rather Jesus as a unifying factor common to the spiritual history of Israel (the people of God), past and present.  Jesus' answer gives us insight into how to read Old Testament scripture, not just as some sort of history lesson, but as fulfillment of meanings and values and symbols, and especially as a Presence throughout all of it.  The fact that Jesus has just sent out His Twelve Apostles on their first mission gives us a conviction that these stories aren't just about a history.  Rather, they tell us about relationship, and they extend into the future.  We are all interconnected.  There is not one of us separate from another.  In the Person of Christ, we -- each as persons -- are all linked in a spiritual landscape populated by acts of God that manifest through each of us.  They don't have to be great miracles that impress and overawe the world.  Rather, through faith, through prayers, through love, through the work of the Spirit that manifests God's presence in the world, we are each connected, and one fulfills the other in this sense.  The communion of saints isn't reserved for a choir in heaven, but is a very real statement about the relationship and meaning we gain from one another even in ways we don't necessarily see or know.  So, Jesus' ministry, looking forward, even as it is being "sent out" into the world, is linked to John, and signaled by the words of Isaiah.  The good news isn't just in the Person of Jesus (although it is manifested in Him), but it's a living Presence that has been there through the words of Isaiah, to John, and by implication, throughout the spiritual history of the people of Israel, and beyond.  God has been present and acting in the world through those who may receive, since the beginning, and no one can put a limit on that.  But we have our fulfillment in Christ, and Jesus' words teach us about relationship that doesn't have the barriers we might normally associate with relationship.  He will teach to Nicodemus (in John's gospel), "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  In this, we are all related in ways we can't necessarily see nor know, but we have our assurance from Him.