3rd SUNDAY OF ADVENT YEAR A

Is 35:1-6,10; Jas 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

 

In the gospel reading today (Matt 11:2-11) we are presented with the message of John the Baptist to Jesus. It seems that John had doubt if Jesus was actually the man he prophesied about and prepared the people for his coming. In Matt 3:11-12, John the Baptist presented Jesus as someone coming to render judgment and give recompense to every person according to his/her deed. In fact, John said that “his winnowing fork is in his hand (Matt 3:12)” in order to show Jesus as a judge who is already ready to render an immediate judgment. 

After the meeting of Jesus and John the Baptist at Jesus’s baptism (Matt 3:13-17), there is no other place where Matthew recorded such meeting again. But from the question of John’s disciples (9:14), we get the sense that already there is a tension that Jesus’s way of doing things was not matching with, at least some images of him which John the Baptist presented. By this time, we do not know whether John the Baptist had already been imprisoned. The first time Matthew gives that information is in Matt 11:2 which is the text for our reflection today. Why would John send such an inquiry to Jesus? Was he confused or disappointed with Jesus? Some people are of the opinion that John, being a righteous man, expected Jesus to come and free him from the prison and punish those who imprisoned him. 

At least, that would have been part of the recompense which John spoke that Jesus would bring. When this did not happen, he became disappointed. This may be the case but we do not really know what would have been the motif behind John’s envoy. However, from the question: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” we can get a tone of doubt seeking for clarification and that of disappointment. 

To this question what did Jesus say? It would have been enough for Jesus to give them a straight answer like: “Yes…tell him that I am the one”, but he did not. He rather gave them verification code for John. Jesus resorted to Isaiah’s different prophesies about the new David: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them (Cf Is 29:18-19; 35:5-6; 61:1). 

Hence, Jesus is like telling John, “Look, what the prophet Isaiah said about the Messiah is already happening. So, decide if they are enough to prove that I am the one or not.” Jesus provides the works he does as evidence to speak of who he is. The joy he brings to those who are suffering should be enough to justify who he is. If Jesus quoted prophet Isaiah to back up what he does as the actions of the Messiah, it means that he took it for granted that John the Baptist knew about the prophesy that substantiate what the Messiah does. So, if he knew this prophesy and had seen it being fulfilled by Jesus, why would he send his disciples again to clarify the veracity of Jesus’s messiahship? 

As I said in the beginning, Matthew presented the meeting of Jesus and John before the public ministry of Jesus. After that, we never heard from John again. It is possible that even before the question of John’s disciples in Matt 9:14, and that before public ministry of Jesus, that John was already in the prison. And being in the prison, John would not have had seen these things happening. Secondly, John would have thought that if he himself who had been in the prison, has not been set free by the same Messiah he prophesied about, then what has he been doing. That is to say, because John felt that his conception of the Messiah is not met by Jesus, and because he felt abandoned in his situation by Jesus, he began to question about the authenticity of Jesus as the Messiah. 

Lesson: When it seems God is not attending to our individual situations; when it seems what we tend to know about God is not matching up with what we are receiving; what it seems all our expectations of God are not met by him, it should not be a reason for us to doubt that God even exists. When our needs are not yet met, we should not close our eyes to the miracles happening to others. 

One of the passages used by Jesus to justify his messiahship is Is 35 which is the first reading today. The prophesy of Is 35 is a reversal of the prophesy against Edom in Is 34:8-14. The wilderness represents deserted place while dry lands represent unfertile/unproductive ground. That which is deserted and that which has been unfertile, bearing no fruit, is being asked to bear flowers. The deserted will be populated while the unfertile will bear fruits, and joy will come back to it.

There is also need to strengthen all weary hands, to steady all trembling knees, and to comfort all faint hearts. Hand here can refer to two things: supplication (the hands that are raised in prayer to God like Moses in Ex 17:8-13) and/or active in work (the hands that cultivate). In whichever sense, the spirit of supplication and/or continuous endeavor to be active and not lazy, is asked not to be weary or tired. Knees refer to worship or adoration given to God. The knees that are always in adoration to God which have started trembling should be re-enforced, and the heart that has always believed in God should not grow faint. This is because, the salvation is near. There is no need of giving up on hope. 

However, the Messiah will not only open the eyes of the blind, and the ears of the deaf; and heal the lame and the dumb and restore the glory of Zion (his holy place), but as Jesus added, he will also have the Good News (εὐαγγελίζομαι) preached to them. The Messiah is not only defined by the things he does but also by his call to his acceptance. How many Christians still go to Church to listen to the Good News of Christ? How many take time to read the Good News? How many proclaim this Good News by their way of life? Many of us are so much interested in what can be done for us that we lose sight of what we are called to learn and to bear witness to. 

This is why, when it seems we do not get the miracle we desire, our faith begins to change, and we begin to raise many doubts both against God and against the meaning of a true Christian life. Against this, St. James is telling us in the second reading (James 5:7-10), never to lose heart but to always be patient with God. Just as a farmer, while waiting for the things planted to bear fruits, and he continues to water them, to weed them and to protect them from external effects, so also must we continue to be patient for the coming of God to our various situations of life, while continuing to sustain our Christian life. 

 
When Jesus says that John is greatest here on earth, but the least in heaven is greater than him, he does not mean to denigrate John or to revenge in John’s doubt about him. Rather he wishes to stress that the great things we see here on earth are nothing to be compared with the life we will encounter in heaven. Hence, heaven has greater things than the greatness of this earth. Therefore, the joy of this world and its privileges have no measure in the rewards of heaven.   

As we pray and wait patiently for God’s intervention in our individual difficulties, may we not forget to rejoice in the things we continuously does for us and for others. May God give us the faith to see him and his goodwill for us even in our unpleasant situations. 

 

 

Fr. Chukwuezugo Nnamah