Sermon 12/12/04
The Proof and the Pudding - Matthew 11:2-11
(view lectionary notes for this text)
I'll confess to you an area of my complete, or at least mostly complete ignorance: I can't seem to get my proverbs or catch-phrases straight. I was puzzled, once, over the meaning of a little proverb, and so I asked my mother about it: "Mom, why do they say, 'Close, but no potato?'" Of course, my question, as you can imagine, was followed by laughter, and eventually the explanation that the saying was actually, "Close, but no cigar," with the reasoning spelled out for me. So this week, when I was readying over the gospel lesson, and I kept thinking of the phrase, "the proof is in the pudding," I thought I better double-check its accuracy before I titled my sermon! Turns out, this phrase actually is an abbreviation of the original saying, which was, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating." In other words, "It means that the true value or quality of something can only be judged when it's put to use." (1)
The proof is in the pudding - that seems to be a phrase to capture Jesus' response to the questioning of John the Baptist in today's reading. John, in prison for his bold chastising of King Herod's behavior, sends his disciples to ask of Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answers by saying, "Go and tell John what you hear and what you 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." In other words, Jesus says, the answer to your question is already evident - just look around at how God has been at work in this place and you will know if I am the one. The proof is in the pudding.
But then Jesus continues on, speaking to the crowds after the disciples of John return with the message from Jesus. "What did you go out to see?" Jesus asks them three times. A reed shaken by the wind? Someone dressed in soft robes like royalty? A prophet? Indeed, Jesus declares, John is a prophet and more than a prophet. He has fulfilled what was written by Isaiah, "See I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you." Jesus goes on to say that there is no human greater than John who has yet come. Finally, though, Jesus wraps up with perhaps the most difficult and confusing verse in the passage we read for today. He says, "Yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." What does he mean by it? Are we part of this kingdom of heaven? Are we greater than John the Baptist? And again, what does this have to do with Advent? We are, after all, on the third week of four - shouldn't there be some shepherds, or a pregnant Mary, or some angels yet? Well, one 'buzz word' of Advent is expectation, and if nothing else, this passage is full of expectations - John expecting Jesus to be a certain way, the people expecting John to be a certain way, and even Jesus expecting us - God's people - to be a certain way. But unlike the expectation of the Christ-child's coming, which we expect to be fulfilled on Christmas day, it seems that for the most part we're dealing today with expectations that aren't panning out.
Going back to the beginning of our passage, we can start with John's expectations about Jesus. Last week, we read another text about John the Baptist, and though I did not preach on the text then, we can use it today to give us insight. We read, that many people, including Sadducees and Pharisees, were coming to see John, and that he was baptizing them with water for the repentance of their sins. But he rebuked the church leaders, the Sadducees and Pharisees, asking them how they knew to flee the coming wrath. Then, he finished by painting a picture of the Messiah whose arrival he had set out to announce: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." This is his vision of how the Christ will come, how he will behave, what the Messiah will do when he arrives on the scene. Imagine, then, his surprise, when this man Jesus comes not with a winnowing fork, but with a healing touch, with a forgiving heart, and with a message of God's unconditional love. "John the Baptist," writes Al Krass, ". . . envisioned a Messiah very different from the one Jesus was. Imprisoned, he needs an answer to his naggings question: Is Jesus the promised Messiah?" (2) Jesus urges John not to be confused - Jesus' packaging may be different than John's expectations. But nonetheless, the result of Jesus' ministry is what the prophet Isaiah spoke of - the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. In other words, in a most unexpected way, Jesus is still turning the world upside down, just as John expected he would. The evidence is all there - John announced that God's kingdom was coming, and Jesus showed the proof that it had arrived - God was here, on earth, showering love on people who desperately needed it.
Even as John had misguided expectations about how the Messiah had come, apparently the people, too, had confused expectations about John, and who this person would be who would herald in the Messiah. It should not have surprised John that Jesus came in such an unusual package - John himself doesn't exactly strike one as normal or typical. We read last week that he was dressed in camel's hair and that he ate locusts and wild honey. He hardly seems to have a claim on expectations being met. Who would have predicted such a forerunner to the Messiah? But today, Jesus' questions to the crowd talk about deeper expectations than that. What did you go out to see, Jesus repeats? A circus side-show? A fortune teller? A celebrity? What did you expect to see out there? John, like Jesus, is not perhaps what had been expected. But he's more than that, better than that, Jesus insists - the greatest of those born of women. Did you expect that?
And do we expect this: at the end of everything Jesus says to the crowds in our text today, he adds, "yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." John has been the messenger of the Good News - the news that God is here. But once he has prepared the way, his work has been completed, in a sense. John is the Messenger, and he has announced the arrival of the Messiah. Jesus is the message embodied - the Messiah. And we - we are residents of God's kingdom, living in a world where God has come to us in human form. And we are charged with the responsibility of continuing to spread the good news. That makes us unexpectedly even greater than John who was preparing the way.
Today's story is a story of expectations - how they are fulfilled, and how they are surprised. John and Jesus may have surprised their contemporary audiences - but we've had two-thousand years to get used to these characters, to get used to the surprising way they burst onto the scene and burst into our lives. But I wonder, still, even today, is Jesus what we expect? As we prepare for Jesus the Christ-child to come - what do you think he will be like? How have you painted his role in your own life? Sometimes, I think we expect a magician, who will fix all of our problems if we could only figure out the correct magic words. Other times, I think we expect a judge, who with either ruthlessly condemn and punish either us, or our neighbors, depending on whether we're feeling guilty or vengeful that day. And sometimes, I think we, too, picture a Messiah who, at least in his second coming, if he didn't in his first, will come with a sword to conquer our enemies. (3) But do we expect someone who chooses the poor over the better off, always? Do we expect someone who spends most of his time with sinner and prostitutes and tax collectors? Do we expect someone who teaches us to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies, and to give away all that we have? Don't forget, as we smile at the cute baby this Christmas, that he grows into a demanding and challenging adult who we can't ignore if we're serious about our relationship with God.
And finally, I think our biggest question of expectations today is with ourselves. Jesus says that we are greater than John the Baptist as children of God's Kingdom. We must wonder - are we what Jesus expects? If we go back to my original proverb - the proof is in the pudding - what does that say about us? What is evident about us from the 'results', from the 'proof' that the fruit of our live offers up? Are we everything that Christ hoped for us? Expected of us? In this Advent season, we have numerous opportunities to renew our commitment to God, and to fulfill the expectations that Jesus spoke of. "The true value or quality of something can only be judged when it's put to use." (1) What is your true value? How are you putting to use what God has given you? Perhaps John is not what the crowds expected. Maybe Jesus came differently than John had imagined. And perhaps even we do not expect Jesus to meet us the way he does. But let us not fail to meet the expectations that Jesus has for us. 'Tis the season for great expectations - and we are what is expected this year - heart and soul, God expects us to give ourselves, even as God gave of God's own self. We'd better get to work - the child is almost here. Amen.
(1) Ask Yahoo!, http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020903.html
(2) Krass, Al. Hunger for the Word, Lectionary Reflections on Food and Justice, Year A, pg. 8.
(3) Check out this NY Times article for my inspiration: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F2081EFC3F5A0C778EDDA80994DC404482