14,15 Mar -- Are You the One?

The readings for Wed 14 and Thur 15 Mar are -- Gen 29:13-30:43; Ps 10:1-6; Prov 2:16-19; Mt 11:1-19.

Quite a rap! How would you like a reference like that? "Among those born of women, no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared" (Mt 11:11). Yet he was still very human and subject to much the same human foibles and weaknesses as us. After being thrown in prison, John appears to have succumbed to a time of disappointment, depression and doubt. "Are you the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Mt 11:3). A far cry from his earlier public pronouncement: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29).

He may well have been expecting Jesus, as the Messiah, to act more forcefully and quickly against evil, oppression and injustice. John was a man of action, and a hell-fire and brimstone preacher. He had already declared: "He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing shovel is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But the chaff He will burn up with fire that never goes out." (Mt 3:11-12).

John must have been wondering why Jesus hadn't delivered him from prison. Why hadn't Jesus also publicly condemned Herod for taking his brother's wife? Why hadn't Jesus risen up against them and punished them? Maybe he wasn't the Messiah after all? Jesus sends the messengers back with reports of his miracles and preaching. Surely he is the Messiah. Just not quite what John expected, and working to his own timetable.