by Charles Read
Matthew 11 v 1-15
Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities. When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."
As they went away, 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 wear soft robes 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.' Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen! “
I had a friend at university called Jeanette but when we both graduated we lost touch with each other. A couple of years later, I was in the concourse at New Street station in Birmingham when I saw a young woman looking at the timetable boards who I thought was Jeanette – but I was not 100% sure. (Like many men, I am easily confused when women change their hairstyle or make-up.) I did not want to bound up to this lady and greet her like the old friend I thought she was if she turned out to be someone else. So I pretended to look at the timetable board too so I could get a better look at her and see if it really was Jeanette. Then she moved around the boards out of sight, so I moved too so I could carry on trying to decide if it really was her. Then she moved round again, out of my sight – and I decided to give up before she noticed me and called the police to deal with this shady character who was stalking her round and round the timetable boards! (Years later, when I did meet Jeanette again, I discovered this lady on the concourse was not in fact her, so it’s just as well I was cautious to the point of being shifty….). Sometimes it’s hard to decide if the person we see is who we think they are.
This term, our first few Wednesday evening services focus on Matthew 11 and 12. One way of reading these chapters is to see them as describing how different people respond to Jesus – hence our title for this series! Tonight we heard how John could not make up his mind about Jesus. When Matthew wrote the story up in his Gospel he is in no doubt about who Jesus is (he calls him the Messiah – v. 2), but John is not so sure. So he asks Jesus outright (via his own disciples, since he is in prison). And Jesus does not give him a simple ‘yes or no’ answer. It would have been an easy thing for Jesus to do this, but instead he says “Well what do you think?”. Those of you who are returning students might think that this sounds like what your lecturers say when you ask them a tricky question – in which case we say that we are only following in the steps of Jesus!
What Jesus does is to say to John: “You’ve seen the evidence – work it out.”. This is good educational technique and I hope as staff we will do that with you. According to an urban legend, someone who was a graduate in theology was visiting their old university twenty years after they had been a student there and found copies of that year’s theology exam papers. To their bewilderment, they found that the questions were exactly the same as the ones they had sat twenty years previously. So they went to their old tutor (now a professor in the department) and asked if this was some amazing coincidence. “Oh no,” said the professor, “we set the same questions every year.” The graduate was furious: “But if you do that, then the exams are much easier now than they were in my day because the students know what’s in them! It’s not fair!” The professor replied: “It’s not unfair and the exams aren’t easier because in theology we change the answers every year.”.
Of course, there is such a thing as right and wrong answers in theology and we will tell you on the feedback forms on your assignments. But there are also lots of areas where there are different views and where it’s hard to see one correct answer (or even any correct answers….). We want you to look at the evidence and decide for yourself. We do not want you to think the same as us – at least not always. In our passage for tonight, the question is “Who is Jesus?” and that’s certainly a question where as Christians we might say to people “Look at the evidence and work it out” – although we might offer our own experience of Jesus and who he is as part of the evidence.
Jesus invites John to look at what has been going on in the ministry of Jesus himself and so work out who Jesus is. All the things Jesus mentions (in v. 5) are about those who have been pushed to the edges of society being brought back in. It is about the good news being for the people everyone else has forgotten – the ones people ignore or just don’t see. Is that how you see yourself? Do you think that maybe you are not ‘the right sort of person’ to be a minister? Yet God has called you into this training for ministry. Perhaps you don’t have much by way of academic qualifications (and you are wondering how you’ll cope with the assignments). Perhaps, deep down, you think that Christian ministers come from a different background to you. What does Jesus ask John to see – to reflect on? It is that the good news is for those whom other people write off.
So the first two things I want to say to you tonight as we begin on a new year of study for ministry are these:
1. The good news is for everyone, especially those who feel society has forgotten them and it is for you, even (especially?) when you feel you are not good enough to be a minister.
2. Make up your own mind about things, taking the evidence seriously. When we study what other people have said and done, ask if this is a sign of God’s kingdom.
3. And therefore, thirdly, be prepared to be surprised and to find God at work in places and in ways you had not expected.
Because that is partly why John was not sure who Jesus was. He had been preparing the way for the Messiah but Jesus did not fit the kind of picture people had of what the Messiah would be like. So when Jesus says “Work it out” he is partly saying “Yes, come to the obvious conclusion even if it blows apart your pre-conceived ideas”. So for us continuing or beginning training, we need to be open to learning from unexpected places and people. When I was an ordinand, one of our lecturers strongly recommended a book by an author called Avery Dulles. One of my fellow students notices that Avery Dulles had the letters SJ after his name and asked if Dulles was therefore a Roman Catholic. “Yes, he is a Jesuit” our lecturer replied. My friend asked: “Well won’t that be a problem?” to which our lecturer said “It may be a problem for you, but I don’t think it is for him!”. You will find, if you haven’t already, that you learn important (even life-changing) things from authors (and teachers) you expected to disagree with. If you are thinking, deep down, that all this study is actually just an annoying requirement the church authorities place on you and it has nothing to do with spiritual growth or with ministry, be prepared to be surprised!
And that brings us to the fourth and final thing I want to say from our passage tonight. Jesus goes on to say (v. 7 onwards) that John was very important – in fact the most important person ever, aside from the Messiah. But he is not the Messiah. (And for those of you the same age as me, please don’t mutter ‘He’s just a naughty boy’). Important though John was, his job was to point to Jesus, who was the central person. This is actually the job of theology and of us as ministers. When we get engrossed in the stuff we’re studying or we find some new ideas really interesting, we need to thank God for it but also remember it must not push Jesus from that central place. When we find we are learning new skills in ministry (like preaching or pastoral care), we need to thank God for it, but not then think we have become indispensible to the Church (and to God).
When we first lived in
Footnotes
1The Norwich Theology Centre evening classes are on a Wednesday evening and we begin with a meal and an act of worship together. The act of worship follows a series – usually reading consecutively through a Biblical text week by week. The worship is usually led by a student but on this first evening of the academic year the service was a eucharist led by my colleague Liz Griffiths and at which I preached.
2This cultural reference is lost on you see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA&feature=related
Charles Read is Vice-Principal at the
