John’s Question
December 16, 2007

Readings for the Third Sunday of Advent

Reading 1: Is. 35:1–6a, 10

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 146:6–7, 8–9, 9–10

Reading 2: Jas. 5:7–10

Gospel: Mt. 11:2–11

Link to Readings

By Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist—the one who had baptized Jesus in the Jordan, the one who had declared Jesus the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world—sends his disciples to ask Jesus if He is really the Messiah. There are several theories among biblical scholars why John would send his disciples to ask this question.

Some think that the question arose out of John’s frustration with his imprisonment. John was a true prophet. He did not equivocate about the truth, even for those with power and authority. His condemnation of Herod Antipas for having dismissed his own wife and married his sister-in-law landed John in jail. Prison is a horrible fate for anyone, but it must have been particularly difficult for John, who had lived his adult life under the stars and in the wide open spaces.

John’s anticipation of what the Messiah would do was probably much different from what he observed in Jesus. John spoke in clear and harsh terms to those who were sinners. John had told his disciples “the axe is at the root of the tree,” “the winnowing process had already begun,” “the divine fire of cleansing judgment had begun to burn.” John believed the Messiah would inaugurate the era of God’s justice, punishing the unjust and those who ignored God. Yet, it is John who finds himself in prison, not the sons of iniquity. This, too, could have provoked John to question if Jesus was truly the Messiah.

Others have proposed John did not doubt the authenticity of Jesus, but John’s disciples were questioning whether Jesus was really the one. John sends his disciples to Jesus to clear up their doubts, so that they can see for themselves what Jesus is doing.

Tell John What You See and Hear

Whatever John’s motivation for sending his disciples, Jesus’ response to their question is very illuminative. Jesus tells them to go back and report to John not what Jesus is saying or claiming about Himself, but what they see Jesus doing. They are to go and tell John that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are preached the good news.

Jesus offers no other credentials than His life and ministry. He does not try to convince John’s disciples with theory or reasoned argument. Jesus simply invites them to look at what He was doing and draw their own conclusion.

Greater Than the Greatest Prophet

After John’s disciples depart, Jesus gives a beautiful tribute to John. He first asked the crowds the rhetorical question: Why did they go out into the desert to see John?

Jesus answered by first reminding them that they did not go out to see a “reed swaying in the wind.” In other words, they did not go out to see someone whose message vacillated according to which way the wind was blowing. They did not go to see John because he told people what they wanted to hear. They went to see and hear John because he was an honest man who spoke the truth no matter who it might offend, no matter what the personal consequences might be for him.

Jesus also stated that they did not go out to see someone wearing fine clothing like that worn in palaces. People were not attracted to John because he was wealthy or he was fashionable or he had human power or authority.

Jesus answered his own question by saying that they went out to see a prophet, but in reality they went to see someone who was even more than a prophet. For Jesus to give John the title “prophet” was an extraordinary recognition. Prophets were understood to be mystics—those who had powerful, direct experiences of God and who in turn could actually speak for God. Yet, Jesus finds it inadequate to speak of John as only a prophet. Jesus honors John by saying, in effect, that he was the greatest figure in the history of Israel. He exalts John as greater than Isaiah or Jeremiah or Elijah, even greater than Abraham or Moses.

However, the most important element of the Gospel for us is its very last line. Having credited John with unparalleled greatness, Jesus says the “least” in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.

The Christian’s Gift of Intimacy with Jesus

How can this possibly be? Jesus has built up John the Baptist to be this unique figure. Then, Jesus tells us that the very least of His disciples is greater than John. Why? Because every disciple of Jesus has the opportunity for an even more immediate and more powerful experience of God than was available to John the Baptist!

Every Christian has the opportunity to know Jesus and thus to experience the depth of God’s love revealed on Calvary. Every Christian can possess the indomitable hope that comes from knowing the truth of the victory of Jesus over sin and death on Easter. The world has substantially changed after Good Friday and Easter. Every Eucharist brings us into a very direct encounter with the Paschal Mystery—the dying and rising of Jesus. We have an opportunity for a more intimate union with God than was possible before the death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Our baptism, unlike John’s baptism, was not just a prayer for God’s mercy and cleansing. Our baptism liberates us from sin and bestows upon us the very life of Jesus, the very life of God. Through the Eucharist our identity, as living tabernacles who carry the life of God, is renewed and strengthened. Just as John’s identity was the greatest figure of the Old Testament, so our identity is to carry the very life of God within us.

The Power to Hope and the Capacity for Joy Always and Everywhere

I was reminded recently of the remarkable power of Jesus to give His disciples joy and hope, even in the most dreadful circumstances, while reading Advent of the Heart, a collection of Advent homilies and reflections by the German Jesuit, Father Alfred Delp. Like John the Baptist, Father Delp found himself incarcerated for his opposition to the Nazis. On February 2, 1945 Father Delp would be executed, as was John the Baptist, for his refusal to compromise the truth.

Writing with handcuffs around his wrists from his prison cell in December of 1944, Father Delp reflected on the meaning of this Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday: “The conditions for true joy have nothing to do with the conditions of our exterior life, but consist of man’s interior frame of mind and competence, which makes it possible now and again for him to sense, even in adverse circumstances, what life is basically about.”

Father Delp concluded this prison meditation on joy, fully aware of the probability of his own imminent execution, by noting that the many sources of joy found in this world can all “fall silent.” He asserted that life’s meaning and the source of enduring joy was not to be found in the world’s fleeting pleasures. Instead, Father Delp wrote: “. . . man becomes healthy through the order of God and in nearness to God. That is also where he becomes capable of joy and happiness.”

We Are Called To Give Sight to the Blind

We are called to be witnesses of hope in a world that provides so many reasons for despair. Our task is not to teach theories but to provide living testimonies of the power of the Risen Jesus alive within us to give us hope and joy amidst all the difficulties and struggles of this world.

In a sense, the Christian embraces adversities as opportunities to witness more purely and convincingly to the truth of our identity as bearers of the life of our Risen Lord. We must be able, like Jesus, to say to those who question the truth of the Gospel: Believe not because of what we say, but because of what we do.

Though we may not be imprisoned, all of us have opportunities to be witnesses of the power of Jesus alive within us as we contend with the unique struggles and sufferings of our lives. Just as the disciples of John the Baptist saw the blind see, the lame walk, and the deaf hear, those questioning in our time the truth of the identity of the one whose birth we prepare to commemorate should find in us witnesses of a hope and a joy whose only possible source is the Christ—born in Bethlehem, crucified on Calvary, raised from the dead on Easter, and living in the hearts of even His least disciples today.

Most Rev. Joseph F. Naumann is Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas and is a member of CUF's Episcopal Advisory Council.

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