Sermon Transcript: February 16, 2025
We have been working our way through Luke’s gospel this year, and we encounter John the Baptist. This is the third time that we encounter him in Luke’s gospel, but we actually encounter him indirectly today because John is actually in prison, which is why he is sending others to talk to Jesus and ask him questions.
Let us listen to these words of ancient and holy scripture, and may they be God’s word for us today.
Luke 7:18-35
The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?” When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?’ ” Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight; the lame walk; those with a skin disease are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What, then, did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who put on fine clothing and live in luxury are in royal palaces. What, then, did you go out to see? 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,
who will prepare your way before you.’
“I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, having been baptized with John’s baptism. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law, not having been baptized by him, rejected God’s purpose for themselves.)
“To what, then, will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep.’
“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
For the Word of God in scripture,
for the Word of God among us,
For the Word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.
***
In one of his books, I’m pretty sure it was The Heart of Christianity, Marcus Borg tells a story about a young couple with two young children at home. When the younger child was just home from the hospital, the older sister made a strange request. She wanted to be alone with her new baby brother. She was quite insistent about it.
In fact, she kept asking her parents who were perplexed and a bit concerned. Why did she want to be alone with the baby? What was her plan? Was she jealous of having to share the attention of her mom and dad? She wouldn’t hurt the baby, would she?
The parents were wary, but the sister would not let it go. She kept asking, and eventually the parents came up with a plan. They would let the sister go into the nursery alone, but they would be right in the next room, and they would have the baby monitor on, so if they heard anything amiss, they could run right in.
So when the time came, The sister went into the nursery, the parents in the next room with the monitor, turned it all the way up, and what they heard amazed them. Alone in the room with her little newborn baby brother, the sister leaned over the side of the crib and said, “Tell me about God. I’ve almost forgotten.”
In today’s passage, John the Baptist sends some of his followers to ask Jesus some questions, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect another?”
This is the third time, as I had mentioned, that we have met John in Luke’s gospel. The first is before John was even born. Luke tells us that John, leapt in his mother’s womb, in Elizabeth’s womb, in recognition of the unborn Jesus in Mary’s womb.
The second time, of course, when we meet John, he is out in the Jordan baptizing, and along comes Jesus, and he baptizes Jesus in the Jordan. About that time, Luke writes, “the people were waiting expectantly, and were all wondering in their hearts if John could be the Messiah. And John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’”
Shortly after John is sent to prison after criticizing Herod for marrying his brother’s ex-wife and John is still there when he sends his followers to ask Jesus, “Are you the one to come or should we expect another?” Because you see, John is beginning to wonder. There he sits in prison. Herod’s power and corruption remain unchecked. The people remain occupied by an unjust empire. And what’s Jesus doing about it? Hanging out with nobodies, a bunch of fishermen, some tax collectors, and some sex workers, healing people. Preaching, praying. What good is any of it doing?
It’s hardly an unquenchable fire or a winnowing fork. So John sends them to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” And Jesus says, “Tell John what you’ve seen and heard, that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are clean. The deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” It’s an interesting order, isn’t it? You would think that raising the dead would be the pinnacle, but no, the poor have good news brought to them.
But it’s not exactly what John and his followers are expecting of the Messiah, is it? The people were looking for someone to come rescue them from the empire, to replace the evil empire with a good one. They want someone powerful, perhaps a military leader.
And likewise, you and I, we look to a dysfunctional and partisan government and think, if we could just get the right people in there, all would be better. We just need better leaders than the ones we have, ones who are more with our values, ones who are in it for the right reasons.
Don’t get me wrong, government certainly has its place and role to play, and it’s important to elect good leaders, people of integrity, people who seek to serve the greater good.
But it isn’t the government’s job to build the kingdom of God. It’s ours.
Yet too often we cede our power and our agency. Too often we buy into our own helplessness and hopelessness. And it’s the most natural thing in the world. We want someone to save us, to do for us what we think we can’t do for ourselves.
And we see the same thing in much of the church today. People preaching about Jesus as the solution to every problem. If we just believe in Jesus, if we just give ourselves over to Jesus, we won’t have anything to do. We won’t have to act or think. We don’t even need to pay attention to the things that Jesus says about the poor and the hungry and loving our neighbor. As long as we say Jesus’ name enough, we can forget about all that other stuff.
Richard Rohr writes, “One can be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain, and still believe that Jesus is one’s personal Lord and Savior.” He says worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk-free. But actually following Jesus changes everything.
Because you see, friends, the kingdom of God is not just a better version of the kingdom of this world. The kingdom of God does conform to our wisdom, our structures, our hierarchies. In fact, it often runs up against our expectations. It surprises and even shocks us. Jesus indicates this when he says that among people, John is the greatest, right? He’s the pinnacle. He’s as good as it gets. but he’s still the least in the kingdom of God.
And it’s interesting, here and in other places, when it comes to true wisdom and faithfulness, according to Jesus, who are we better off looking toward? Children. Children. Children playing games. Not those who draw attention to themselves. Again and again, Jesus lifts up children when he talks about what this kingdom stuff looks like.
But here’s the thing about children. They’re the ultimate symbol of powerlessness. They’re utterly dependent on others to provide for their food, their shelter, their safety, their education. To find the wisdom of God, Jesus says, we need to reorient ourselves toward humility and vulnerability and grace.
I love the quote on today’s bulletin cover from Khalil Gibran, “Keep me away from the wisdoms which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.” But like that little girl beside her brother’s crib, we too forget. The world makes us forget. We mix up what God wants with what we want: If we could only get a Messiah with a winnowing fork and an unquenchable fire… And so we too question, “Jesus, are you the one? Are you the one? Or should we wait for another?”
Barbara Brown Taylor has an interesting take on the response that Jesus sends back to John. She writes,
It sounds as if he’s saying, go tell John that everyone who is expected has already arrived. Go tell him what you hear and see. Things may not be working out the way he wanted them to, but every now and then, in surprising places, marvelous things are happening. People who are blind to love, have received their sight. People who were paralyzed with fear are now limber with hope. People who were deaf from want of good news are singing hymns. And best and most miraculous of all tell John that this is not the work of one lonely Messiah, but the work of God, carried out by all who believe, and there is no end in sight. Tell him I am the one if you must, but tell him that yes, he should look for another and another and another. Tell him to search every face, to search every face for the face of God.
And friends, that is the good news. God’s kingdom, God’s wisdom, is already here. It’s already among us. It just might not be what we expect. It might look different than we think it should. And while that may feel like a disappointment, or even a letdown sometimes, in time it may actually prove to be the best news of all.
Amen.
