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Matthew 11:1-19 · Jesus and John the Baptist
John and Frank
Matthew 11:2-11
Sermon
by John Jamison
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Have you ever had doubts about what you believe?  I mean really had doubts? You were so certain of everything, but over time questions started arising. Or maybe something happened that shook you really hard, and you began to wonder if all that you believed in was real? Can you relate to that at all?

That’s where we find John in today’s scripture. He had spent so many years being the powerful preacher, the one proclaiming his faith that everything was about to change for the better. His beliefs had given him the strength to stand up against the most powerful groups of the day. He spoke truth, even when truth was a dangerous thing to speak. People traveled from all over the country to come and hear what he had to say. They listened to him, and they gained strength in their own faith because of him. Even after Jesus was baptized and began his ministry, people still kept coming to hear John. They saw him as the example of what it meant to believe in God.

But then things changed.

History isn’t fully clear about what happened. Some historians say that the point had finally come when the religious and political leaders finally decided that John had to be silenced. They could have just arrested him to shut him up, as they had done with many others. But John had so many followers, more than any of the others, they were afraid of what mischief he still might be able to create from jail. He could still get messages to his followers. Their only option was to kill him. So, this tradition says John was arrested and put in prison where he would be killed and silenced for good.

Other historians give a different version of what happened. This tradition says the decision to arrest John was made, reluctantly, by the Roman Governor, Herod Antipas. Herod knew about John. He had even had a dream that John was raised from the dead. Although John was a problem, Herod was hesitant to do anything like arresting or killing him. Dreams were thought to be significant, and even Roman governors don’t like to take too many chances with that kind of thing. While those around him argued that John should die, Herod waited. Even when John made an insulting comment about Herod marrying Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, certainly grounds for a Roman ruler to act, Herod left John alone. But one night there was a party for Herod, and one of the entertainments was a dance by Herodias’ daughter. Herod thought the dance was so wonderful, he called the young girl over and said to thank her he would give her anything her little heart desired. Anything at all. The girl had a brief conversation with her mother, who was still angry about what John had said about her. The daughter returned to Herod and said the only thing she wanted was the head of John the Baptist. Herod had no choice but to honor his word. John was arrested and thrown into a prison cell on a mountain out on the edge of the wilderness, far from where he could cause any more trouble, where he was to be killed.

And that’s where we find John today.

It is worth noting that, when we say John was in a prison cell, what we actually mean was that he was sitting at the bottom of a big hole cut some thirty feet into the ground. The only opening was a little door in the ceiling where they threw you in, and where they lowered the rope later to pull you out so they could kill you. Or they just left you there. The hole was never cleaned, there was no light, so just let your imagination run with that for a few minutes. Can you see John sitting there? Can you hear what was going on in his mind?

It reminds me of Frank. Frank was a leader in his church and his community. Frank had spent his life doing whatever he could do to help others. He gave his money to help others. He gave his time to help others. Frank believed it was important for him to treat everyone he met as someone who had real value, regardless of their position in life or mistakes they may have made. Everyone respected Frank and saw him as an example of what it meant to lead a life of faith.

Frank was never sick, nothing worse than a case of the flu or something similar. Everyone said it was because Frank led such a good and faithful life - until he was 75. Frank woke up one morning and felt a pain. He went     to the doctor and after running tests, they found that Frank had developed cancer. They began the treatments immediately,  and  even  though  it  was  difficult,  Frank remained the picture of a man of faith. But after a while, as the side effects of his treatments increased, Frank began to grow more quiet. He stayed home more, explaining that he was tired and needed to focus his energy on getting better. But it was more than that. Frank’s family told their pastor that Frank was not just tired, he was getting more and more angry by the day. He had stopped talking with them. He just sat in his room and stared at his shoes. The pastor came to visit and Frank had had enough. He looked his pastor in the eyes and said, “Why me? What did I do? I thought I was doing the Lord’s work. Why me?”

Frank felt like he was sitting in a deep, dark, hole. He hadn’t done all of the good things he had done in his life to earn some type of award, but come on, is this how it is supposed to go? Is this what faith gets you? We may shake our heads and say, “That’s not how it works. He should have known better,” but that is an easy thing to say from out here. When you find yourself in a hole surrounded by darkness, only then can we really understand Frank and John. Is this really how it was supposed to go? Did I miss something? Did I really do the right things? What did I do wrong? There are a lot of questions.

Matthew  tells us that John sent  some of his  disciples to find Jesus and ask, “Are you really the one, or should we expect someone else?” John and Frank wanted to know, are you really the one, or did I misunderstand things and make a mistake with my life? I think many of us have understood that question, maybe even asked it a few times. How do we know we are doing the right thing?

How do we know we are living our lives in a meaningful way? And if we are doing the right thing, then why is life so difficult at times?

John’s disciples found Jesus and asked him the question.

‘Am I the one?” Jesus said, “Just look around you. Look at the number people standing in line to talk with me, and the lines over there of people wanting me to autograph my latest book. Look at our facilities. Our synagogue services are the largest in the entire area, and that is without counting all of our satellite centers where people can gather to hear me over our broadband multimedia network. Look at our budget; the amount we collected for missions in the last six months alone. We have more members than every other synagogue in the land, combined. You go and tell John that.”

Of course, that’s not what Jesus said, though I’ve heard it said many other times by others. When John’s disciples asked Jesus if he was really the one, he said:

“Go back and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

Jesus wasn’t concerned about what faith had brought to him or his disciples. He was concerned about what their faith was able to bring to others. That is something John would understand. John had risked his life to attack the Pharisees and Sadducees for using their faith to build their positions of wealth and power while treating those around them like they had no value. John had risked his life to stand up against the priests at the temple who took the offerings of the poor and used them for their own enrichment. John had heard all of them say that the poor, the blind, the lame, the leper, were all poor, and blind, and sick because it was God’s will and they must have done something to deserve it. John understood that while the Pharisees, Sadducees, and priests looked and dressed like men of faith, their faith was misdirected and false.

As Frank’s pastor visited, the pastor told him stories about all of the people whose lives had been changed because of something Frank had said or done.  There  was the farm family who was able to stay in their home because of the time Frank had given them more time to pay the bills they owed after a difficult year. There were the three boys who were going to be sent to jail before Frank spoke with the judge and gave them jobs at Frank’s business. Those three boys ended up graduating from college and now have their own families in town. There were the many times the church had needed funds to help in an emergency, and Frank had seen to it that those funds somehow mysteriously appeared. As they talked, Frank began to smile again. He began to remember all that he had done, and why he had done it. He hadn’t done those things to make sure he earned respect or gained some special benefit for himself. He had done those things because he believed it was what you did if you loved God and loved your neighbor. Frank only lived about three more months after that day the pastor visited. But those three months were filled with good times with the family, smiles each time he saw the sunrise, and a feeling of satisfaction that he had done what he could do.

I have to be honest with you here. There are still times when I struggle with this. I find myself asking that question about why Frank had to go through what he did while so many others live like Pharisees and Sadducees and don’t suffer. I understand that living a faithful life means doing what we can for others, but there are times when I just get angry at how things work out. I remember people like Frank and it just bothers me.

Maybe that’s why Jesus said that piece that we left off a while ago. After he told John’s disciples what to tell him about, he then said, “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” Many people skip that line, like we did, because it doesn’t seem to make any sense. Why on earth would someone stumble because of Jesus? Isn’t he the one that would keep us from stumbling? But I think I understand what he meant.

It is easy to live the faith of a Pharisee or Sadducee. There is comfort in knowing that if I am a good believer, good things will come to me, problems will be solved, money will come in, and when all is said and done, I will have a great reward waiting for me. There is great comfort in knowing that if I believe, I will be safe. If I believe, all is good. All I need to do is believe. That is a faith that could pick me right up and lead me through life with a smile.

Is that the faith that Jesus talks about? The faith that says that what God might do for me is not important, but what is important is what I can do for others? The faith that says it is not important to worry about what I can collect, but what is important is what I can give away? The faith that says it is not important to worry my being comfortable, but what is important is that I give comfort to others? Seriously? Give away half of what I have to  the poor? Seriously? If I have two coats, give one away? Really? Those are the things that make me stumble in my faith journey. I find myself sitting in that hole with John and Frank.

But John and Frank understood. They just needed reminding. They understood that for  them,  their  faith in God was not based on what God did for them. That was Pharisee faith. They believed that the only thing they needed to be concerned about was loving their God, and loving the people around them, plain and simple.

We give two types of gifts at Christmas time. There are those gifts we give to make sure we meet some standard that has been set. We need to make sure our gift is up to the level of the one we got from them last year, to make sure we end up looking okay. And there are those gifts we give to simply see the smile and joy in the face of the one receiving it. Not because it somehow comes back to reward us, but just because of what it means to that person getting the gift.

Just the same, there are two types of faith. The faith of the Pharisee, and the faith of John and Frank.

John’s and Frank’s is better. Amen.

CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Be Different: Cycle A sermons for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany based on the Gospel texts, by John Jamison