Paul Young—Year C Advent 3

Anthony: Let’s transition to the next pericope of the month. It’s Matthew 11:2–11. It’s a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the third Sunday of Advent, which is December 14. Paul, we’d be grateful if you read it for us, please.

Paul: Sure. I would love to.

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 4 Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” 7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What, then, did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. 9 What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ 11 “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Anthony: So, Paul, what does this text reveal about Jesus? This is where we always, this is what we come looking for in Scripture. What does it tell us about Jesus and, therefore, the Trinity?

Paul: One is Jesus loves; Jesus, he loves. Jesus loves John the Baptist.

Anthony: Yes, he does.

Paul: His cousin, he loves him. And he loves the people who are there listening to him. And he is helping their eyes to become open. And also, John is sending him a message from his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one?” You know, “Here I am.” He’s in prison. “Are you the one?” And Jesus says, “Tell him what and tell him what you hear.” And he doesn’t give him a theological conversation. He says, “Watch. Look at the fruit of my life.” And he begins to tell all the ways and the things that are happening around him and his activity in them.

So, Jesus is not a theologian. He is an expressor of his love relationship with the Father and the Spirit. He does not try to convince you. In fact, he hides things in parables a lot.

Anthony: Yes, he does.

Paul: And so, he’s not trying to convince you intellectually. He’s inviting you relationally. And so that tells us a lot about God. God is not out to create theological works so that you can see and begin to understand. He is actually in you to love you. And that tells us about, and we’re talking about, a God who is human, fully human.

Anthony: Yeah. Yes.

Paul: And he’s, “John, don’t take offense. Don’t be offended. Watch what I’m doing.”

Anthony: And yeah, talk to me about that. Is it, I’m just curious, can people declare the name of Jesus but then turn around and take offense to what he taught?

Paul: I’ve done it a lot.

Anthony: Okay. There you go.

Paul: In my past, I would take literally a talking snake more than the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is offensive for those of us who’ve eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil all our lives. And so, it’s no, love your enemies, do good to those who despitefully use you, on and on. If that’s not offensive, remember, Jesus said, “Eat of my flesh and drink of my blood,” and everybody is so offended that they leave, except for a few. Jesus turns to them and says, “So are you going to leave?” And Peter’s, like, “Where else do we have to go?”

Anthony: Yeah.

Paul: No, we’ve got nowhere to go. And that, and nobody’s talking words that contain life — life, the tree of life, who is Jesus. And so, yeah. What’s the value of offence? You look at the world around us right now and you see all the fear that is coming to the surface. What’s the value of that? Well, let me tell you. The commitment of God, the Holy Spirit has come to convict, and that’s the Greek word to expose. And the unexposed is the unhealed. So, it is a great thing, in one sense, that all of your crap is coming to the surface, because without that exposure, the possibility of healing is not there.

And the commitment of God is that everything that you’re involved in that is not of love’s kind, is going to be exposed so that you can be healed. And in that healing, you’ll become fully human, fully alive, and that is the action, that is the work of the Spirit. So, offended?

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s end game, like you said, it’s healing, not shame.

Paul: No.

Anthony: There’s no shame in God’s game. He’s not bringing things to the surface. Go look at that one. Look how messed up they are.

Paul: No.

Anthony: It’s to heal it.

[00:38:05] Paul: I saw this t-shirt that a friend had and she wore this. And you look at it, and it’s got Jesus peeking around the corner and saying, “I saw that.” It’s a great shirt! And it’s the shame-basis that we carry with us that also has to be exposed. And God, just, he … at some point you can begin to understand that his character is trustworthy. But his behavior is certainly not and because our expectations are such that God will not live within the context of them.

And as a result, we get offended and disappointed and God doesn’t show up the way that we want God to show up, and we create theologies to try to manage God and are continuously disappointed. But that’s exposure.

Anthony: Yeah. And as I look at the text, just a final word, Jesus is a man full of integrity. Because as I’m looking at verse 5, didn’t he preach when he first went into the synagogue? The blind would get their sight. The lame would walk.

Paul: Yeah.

Anthony: People would be healed. The dead would be raised; the poor would have good news. He’s living what he preached, what he said he was going to do, he did.

Paul: Yep.

Anthony: And this is the thing about God. I’ve always thought, if God in Jesus Christ predicts that he’s going to die, going to be buried and raised to newness of life, and he’s going to take all of us with him, like, trust that guy. Like that God is, we know he’s pretty great. And look what he pulled off. Let’s follow that one. He knows what he’s up to.

Paul: And that’s how Jesus announced his presence by reading from Isaiah that passage. And so, his reference here to John is exactly to that passage and how he announced himself.