Meeting Matthew Again...Anew

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.”  Matthew 11:2-6

If you could ask Jesus any question in the world...what would it be? 

Maybe you would ask about suffering/struggle...pain that is a part of almost everyone's life.
Maybe you would ask him why he wasn't clearer...after all parables are puzzles stuffed into riddles that cause our minds to throb.
Maybe you would ask him how he found the courage to face the cross...which might connect back to the first questions above.

John the baptizer...who when we last met him was out waist deep, wading in the Jordan, baptizing people, now is in prison.  John still has disciples, followers, who come to Jesus and essentially want to know, "What's the deal?" 

Now, scholars will point out that to call Jesus the Messiah had specific definitions and descriptions.  People in Jesus' day wanted someone to overthrow Roman rule and re-establish the self-governing like back in the time of David.

Yet, I think there is something else beneath and behind this question.  "Are you the one...or do we just have to wait?"  Is that said with disappointment, exasperation, a bit of peer pressure - get with the game, or genuine curiosity?  We will never know.

Jesus doesn't get pulled into what a Messiah is supposed to do...doesn't try to conform to the container of what a Messiah ought to be up to.  Rather, do you hear the way he riffs on the beatitudes?  He restates that what he is about is establishing and reminding people about the belovedness.  And he does this by going both to the least/lost/lonely...but also the uber-religious of the day.  He is living what he preached in the sermon on the mount.

Do you think Jesus was frustrated or even offended?  Do you think he stomped his foot in frustration?  You want a Messiah?!?  I'll show YOU a Messiah?  Or does he simply, softly suggest that perhaps our definitions of what God/sacred/Spirit should/ought/have to do say more about us than God/sacred/Spirit?

That kind of question turns the tables and reminds us that perhaps the best response to a question is another question, one that keeps taking us deeper in to the mystery and marvel of the Sacred Circle whose center is everyone and whose circumference is nowhere. 

May there be more than a trace of God's grace in moments of trying to live the questions in such a time as this.

Blessings ~~