Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? (Matthew 11:3)

How many times would we have liked to have asked someone who they are – who they really are – but modern etiquette and increasingly political correctness dictates our social interaction with others.  Some might take offence or even worse post something on social media for all to see. One party feels entirely justified by their actions; the other is publicly humiliated and even vilified.  John the Baptist felt no such restraints. He was bold, abrasive and at times more than direct in how he spoke truth to those in power regardless of its consequences.

Some years ago I unexpectedly sat next to a former Lord Chancellor at lunch in London. I knew right away who he was by what I had heard, read and seen on television and in the national newspapers. He had never before met or seen me. What would I say?  I began by saying that I was a lawyer and I lived in Edinburgh. That automatically opened up the conversation. Afterwards I felt that I had learnt something personal about him including his upbringing in Scotland, his love of art and his fine wine collection.   You can tell me later if you recognise him.   

In all our readings today we have abundant images of nature. Did you  notice them? They range from the wilderness and the dry land through to the blossoming of the crocus.  Of burning sand becoming a pool and thirsty ground becoming springs of water.   Of the farmer waiting patiently for the precious crops to appear from the earth. Think for a moment what these images convey to you.

John wonders who Jesus really is, and Jesus notes that the crowd wonders who John really is. Jesus alone can bring clarity. John who spent so much of his life in the wilderness is now cruelly confined to prison. He is being treated like chaff while Herod’s power grows and flourishes.

As is so often the case Jesus responds to John’s question indirectly. He enlarges the scope of the question with echoes from Isaiah with glimpses of a new age in which the wounds of Israel will be healed. John is now no longer the predecessor and preparer, no longer the messenger who goes before. Rather the one who now testifies to Christ is no less than Christ himself. John must hear for himself that in Christ the blind hear, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the poor have good news preached to them. He too, like us, must become a disciple.

In his book “The mystery of the incarnation” the late Cardinal Hume comments that “It is in the passing of the years that I now look back and realise the significance of what, in themselves, may seem trivial experiences. It is often through such things that God speaks to individuals. So with hindsight I believe that through such experiences God was giving me a hint to look beyond myself and the preoccupations of the world to discover something – indeed, someone”.

As we continue our journey through Advent with its watching and waiting, may we too ask that question “Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?”

I look from afar and lo, I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth.

Go ye out to meet him and say: tell us, art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel?