When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, ”Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: ”What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what 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: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.”
John the Baptist comes across as such an extreme, uncompromising kind of man. To live rough in the desert, subsisting on foraged wild food, is a lifestyle demanding courage and perseverance and strong belief.
He recognized and identified Jesus as the messiah, yet, held captive in Herod’s prison, his faith falters. It must have been exceptionally hard for John to endure prison life. Used to wandering and climbing, walking, eating wayside herbs, knowing which mushrooms and berries to pick safely and where to find wild honeycomb – this is not a soul who could ever accept confinement. And alone in the prison, doubts and uncertainty creep into his spirit like rising damp. Jesus… he wonders… is he really the one? Had that recognition been accurate? Was the great kingdom really at hand? Or was it all an embarrassing and costly mistake?
Jesus does not rebuke this uncertainty. He sends back the messengers with confirmation that the work of salvation really has begun. This is it, now. That’s all John would need to know. The kind of man he was would have been able to bear the incarceration, the execution, just as long as he knew it wasn’t all for nothing. He was, as Jesus said, a soul of great stature, a prophet of singular calibre.
But Jesus adds, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” For the greatness of the kingdom is not in the magnificence of its members, but in the love and truth and peace that constitute its reality. It is for anyone and everyone, and whoever partakes of it can draw freely and fully on its upwelling fountain of life.
O God of truth and power, mighty God, you called and anointed John the Baptist, that great and wild soul. May your fire and zeal inspire our souls too, so that like John we may have the courage to live and speak in simplicity and without compromise, bringing in your kingdom in the context of our everyday lives. For we ask it in Jesus’ holy name; Amen.
