Gospel Reflections to take us into the break. Matthew 11:2-11

Matthew 11:2-11 Gospel reading for Sunday 12th December 2010

There are some interesting things happening here. This is an odd question from John. It seems that he has some uncertainty about whether or not Jesus is the real Messiah. That John was on a different wavelength is obvious from last week's reading from Matthew 3, particularly verse 12:  "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John while pointing the way to Jesus, was still thinking in Old Testament terms. The uncertainty for John comes from the fact that in Jesus, he was not seeing / hearing signs of this sort of God. Jesus even in the early days of his ministry, has already started to shift the thinking in the direction of the new deal. Jesus skilfully begins to paint a radically different style of picture of God. Starting with a blank canvas, he sketches in some preliminary shape of a God of mercy and grace. This was a picture not really familiar to the Jewish people, who knew only a God of fear, vengeance, punishment and judgment. To be sure of this, at two other points, Matthew records Jesus as saying "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," (9:13; 12:7).

There are two things interesting about Jesus' response: Firstly he replies to John's question in typical indirect and almost cryptic fashion, quoting a series of things that had been happening as signs that he (Jesus) is indeed the real deal. Secondly it serves as an opportunity for Jesus to highlight yet another fulfilment of prophecy. His detailed response is a collection of quotes directly from the Old Testament book of Isaiah - notably 26:19,  35:5,  61:1.

So what does this third advent reading have to say to us today? Well in a way, John's question has been (still is) the universal question on everyone's lips ... albeit twisted into some different connotations of the same question ... paraphrased below into contemporary lingo (with some searching action questions added for good measure):

1. Is this Jesus bloke really God, or should we be looking for someone else?
2. Do we take notice of this God stuff or do we search elsewhere for inner meaning?
3. Are we in Lutheran Schools really God's servants, or should people look elsewhere?
4. How do we indicate to our world that we are committed to this Jesus?

 May the power of the living Jesus open our eyes and ears to help us find effective ways and means of telling others in our school communities what we hear and see.

... and Lord Jesus, grant us a special period of rest and relaxation and especially good health and happy times as we celebrate your presence during the break between school years that lies ahead.

Nev