Matthew 11.2-11
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 offence at me.’
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? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 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.” 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.
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When I was young, I used to love the transformer cartoons. I remember there were the good guys, the Autobots, and the baddies, the Decepticons. They were machines who had minds and personalities, thoughts and feeling and intentions. But they were disguised as lorries, aeroplanes, helicopters and the like. Obviously when they are in their disguised form they looked like perfectly normal things. It’s only when they transform into bipedal robots that you realise that behind those seemingly mundane things, something amazing was lurking, all that had to happen was that they transform.
Last week I spoke about the Pharisees and the Sadducee’s and their inability to realise the need for change and highlighted the demand of the gospel that we be open to change, changing our hearts, softening them to let Jesus in. But when I look at this passage from our gospels this morning, I see that it’s about more than change. it’s about something far deeper, and far more profound.
It’s not quick fixes, it’s not the latest fad in personal development, nor Is it about seeming to be one thing nor actually being another. It’s not a about projects or getting things done.
It’s time to go deeper.,
Let’s see what Jesus says,
"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 offence at me.’"
it’s about transformation of lives.
It’s transformation. Physical, spiritual, mental, societal. Jesus has come, and now everything is different. The lives of the people have been changed, because they have come into contact with the living God in Jesus Christ.
Remember what that means, that means coming close to the very creator of the universe itself, in all of his glory and is splendour. God created all things, the stars, the planets, the whole universe with its billions upon billions of galaxies. God’s glory is so great that it’s unimaginable. Yet here he is, coming as Jesus, meeting us humans beings, as one of us Us little humans, connecting to the divine, having a relationship with the divine God himself.
In the Old Testament people were terrified when they come into contact with God. One couple in the book of Judges are terrified that they will die because they have seen God, and it’s understandable why when we realise who God actually is in his power and his majesty and his glory.
But God in all his power doesn’t being destruction, he bring restoration. He brings transformation. “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 offence at me.’”
These people didn’t die, but they were changed, more than that. they were transformed, the blind seeing, the lame walking, the poor had the good news brought to them, the dead are raised.
People look at this and balk, they hear these stories and think ‘nonsense, that can never happen.’, and say miracles are impossible. Yet I have heard too many stories in my Christian walk of the miraculous to say that these stories aren’t true.
And if Jesus himself was the man he claimed to be, and the man to whom the apostles witnessed and the church throughout the ages has proclaimed for the past two thousand years, then why should it not be possible.
I know what it means to not be healed, I have been praying for healing to so many years, and it hasn’t happened. But I still follow Jesus, because it is in him that my life has been transformed, given meaning and purpose, and the power of the Spirit to live that renewed and transformed life.
This is what we long for. True renewal. We know that this will truly be fulfilled when we see Jesus in eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. But that healing and that restoration is available to us now, in mind, body and spirit.
People like to be spiritual these days, they like their own personal spirituality and even visit so called specialists to learn more about it. People like the idea that there is some kind of ‘impersonal force out there’ who somehow gives us meaning and purpose. And they try all kinds of techniques and ways in order to learn more about it and connect to it.
But to know the divine, to know God, you need to invite Jesus in, confessing your sins and receiving his freely given grace. You don’t need to learn more about it, you don’t need to get yourself into a particular state of mind, you just need to come to Jesus in your heart and ask him to bring that transformation.
Jesus doesn’t offer us an easy life, he doesn’t offer us a life of quick fixes, he offers us himself. He offers us a transformed life, where we receive the ultimate blessing of knowing him and being close to our Father God, salvation and the Holy Spirit within us with the gifts of faith, hope and love. he moves us beyond our mundane wants of health wealth and happiness and towards true fulfilment in knowing him, the joy of his presence in our lives, whatever our circumstances are.God’s desire is to share his eternity with his creation, with his creatures; and through Jesus, he makes that a reality.
This third Sunday of Advent, we continue to prepare our hearts and minds for this coming, to see, to really see just who it is, who came as a baby all those years ago. God himself in human form.
He is coming, he will be here soon.
May the Lord when he comes find us watching and waiting.
Amen
