The Breadth of Life--September 23, 2020
"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]
What if Jesus' agenda is broader than ours?
Seriously. What if we have our own ideas of what we think should matter to Jesus--what sorts of issues or positions or platforms we think he should stand for--and it turns out that Jesus has a larger vision? What if we have presented Jesus with a solitary, deal-breaking, this-or-nothing expectation... and he responds, not with a "no," but with a smile and then something like, "Oh, but I have so much more in mind..."?
What would we do then?
More to the point, would we walk away from Jesus because he didn't fit our rigid expectations or squeeze into our agenda... or would we let him stretch our vision to be as broad as his?
I'm not asking as a hypothetical. It's exactly what happened to John the Baptizer from jail. John, of course, has a certain set of assumptions about what the Messiah is "supposed" to look like. He made no secret of it; it was the bread and butter of his riverside rants--er, sermons--that when the Messiah came, he would come with the Spirit and fire to burn down whatever unrighteousness he found like chaff, and to chop the bad trees down to mere stumps. He probably assumed that the Messiah would root out corruption among the Respectable Religious Establishment, and he figured that the Messiah wouldn't stand for injustice. You know... like the wrongful imprisonment of a faithful prophet at the hands of a crooked and pompous puppet king. John expected that if Jesus were the real deal, he would bust down the doors of the prison and break John out. He would put that arrogant buffoon of a king Herod in his place. He might even unleash the firepower of some angel armies.
In other words, John has let his expectations of the Messiah get hung up on a single issue: If Jesus is the right guy, then why am I still behind bars?
It's a fair question. After all, if Jesus leaves John in jail, doesn't that seem like Jesus doesn't care about injustice? Doesn't it seem like Jesus must not really be on the side of life if he is going to allow John to languish in jail and lose his head when Herod has a whim to do some executing? Doesn't Jesus have to call in the angel armies to purge away evildoers and wicked people if he wants to look like he's "tough on sin" and "big on God's laws"? All of that is an easy train of thought to get swept up into. And awfully quickly if you're in John's position, you get yourself sort of painted into a mental corner and end up saying things like, "If Jesus really were the right guy, he would be breaking me out of prison and zapping the wicked with laser beams from his eyes. And if he doesn't do that, he can't be the real Messiah."
How quickly our expectations become rigid like that--from possible hopes to assumptions we make about what Jesus must think or say or do! How quickly we present ultimatums to God, saying that God must meet our list of demands! And how quickly we decide that anyone who doesn't fit inside our agenda can't be a part of God's plan or line with God's priorities!
How often, in other words, we end up saying, "Jesus must agree with me on this point that I feel strongly about... and therefore anybody who doesn't line up with my expectation cannot be of God... or be truly used by God... or be in tune with God's priorities in the world." For John it was the fact of his imprisonment... or maybe a little more broadly, that Jesus didn't look like a tough guy, despite all of John's hyping the Coming One as a fire-wielding judge. But my goodness, we are still playing the same terrible game today with different criteria. You'll hear voices that reduce Jesus' vision to a single position on a single political issue, or that equate the Kingdom of God with a political party or candidate. You'll hear voices that say Jesus is only interested in things that help Christians, or that Jesus' agenda is identical to the American Dream. Sometimes we make it sound like Jesus is aligned with only one institutional denomination, worship-style, or theology, and that anybody who doesn't toe the line with that must be a false teacher or heretic. We are constantly telling Jesus he has to pass our litmus tests in order for us to accept him... and he just keeps insisting that his vision is broader and his agenda deeper than we imagined.
That's what I love about Jesus' response to John in this scene. (It's also what haunts me about it, too.) Jesus doesn't say that John is wrong to be upset that he's stuck in prison, or that Herod doesn't deserve to be taken down a few pegs. What Jesus rejects is the assumption that he can't really be the Messiah if he doesn't fit the mold John has made for him. What Jesus rejects is the reductionistic thinking that the Messiah can be reduced to a single issue, a single action, or a single action. Jesus' response doesn't say, "No, you're wrong, John," so much as he says with a smile, "Oh, but I have so much more in mind."
Jesus' offers back his own set of messianic bona fides, which also turn out to show us a broader platform of what he has come for. "Tell John what you have heard and seen," Jesus says, before rattling off a list of the many ways he has brought people more fully to life. "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are given good news." Jesus' response is to say, "Whether or not I fit your narrow, single-issue expectations of what God's agenda is supposed to be, I am here doing what God has sent me to do--and it is a vision as broad as life itself. Now what are you going to do with me?"
I suspect we need to let that question sink in for each of us as well. Jesus insists on being bigger than any of our preconceptions, on loving a list of people that is longer than we think should be allowed, on doing a wider range of things as the embodiment of God's Reign than we thought permissible, and on holding out a vision with the very breadth of life. And any time we come to Jesus with an ultimatum that starts out, "You have to fall in line on this item here, Jesus, or else we won't accept you," Jesus smiles back, "Well, bless your heart... and blessed is anyone who doesn't take offense at me," and then goes about his merry way, doing exactly what he intended to do all along, whether or not we approve.
When we fall for the misguided voices that want to reduce Jesus to one option in our categories, Jesus refuses to accept our terms. When we try to say, "Only someone who does X... or says Y... or is a member of Z party... can be in line with the true priorities of God," Jesus just responds, "Look at all I'm doing that doesn't fit any of the molds you have tried to shoehorn me into." And once again he recites the list of many ways he is bringing us the world to life--healing of the sick, restoration for the poor, resurrection for what is dead in us. Those actions and priorities are wider than any one church tradition, any candidate in any party, and any solitary policy issue. Jesus is about the work of resurrecting all of the world in all of its deathly places--which means he is at work for people of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities, tax brackets, genders, and needs. He has come to bring about the Reign of God, which is to be sure, all about life--but life in all the many ways we are in need of being made more fully alive.
What will we do with that realization? What will we do when it becomes clear to us that Jesus won't let himself be squished into the mold we've made for him? Because there are really only two options. One is that we turn away from Jesus, even though he really is the one we have been waiting for, because he doesn't line up with our expectations. And the other is that we let him widen our expectations to big enough for the breadth of life itself, even if it means swallowing some of our pride.
Right now, in this moment, Jesus looks at us with a smile and says, "I have so much more in mind than you dared to imagine." What will we say in reply in this day?
Lord Jesus, come and be your wonderfully surprising, expansive self, and stretch our vision to include all that you intend to do within and among us.
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