"Are You for Real?" - a Christmas Sermon for grownups

"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 in me.'" Matthew 11: 2-6

Waiting in jail, maybe even patiently, John sent to Jesus to ask, "Are you for real?" --And by that I think he might have meant: "Are you the one who is going to bring God's wrath and judgment on all the sinners in Judea and Galilee? Are you the one who is like a refiner's fire and a fuller's soap--burning away all of Israel's uncleanness and impurity? Are you really the one I have been preaching about, who's going to burn up all the dead wood and all the refuse among the inhabitants of our land? Are you the one who is going to throw the oppressors off our backs, by whom the Lord has chastened us these many years?"--"Because that's how I read the scriptures," thinks John; : "That's what I've been preaching about...!" (cf. Matt. 3:7-12)

So John asked Jesus, "Are you for real?" ...Because up to that time, John had probably heard reports about many things Jesus had done: how he had healed many, many people, and how he had preached about not judging others, and not being anxious about tomorrow, and doing to others what you would have them do to you, and loving your enemies. But John hadn't heard very much about Jesus getting rid of God's enemies.

I mean, John had baptized Jesus, and had great expectations of him, but up to now, had Jesus fulfilled John's fiery expectations of the Messiah? --(Was John beginning to doubt?) So John asked him: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" "I mean, I hear people are calling you the Messiah, but are you for real?"

So we might ask ourselves: Why didn't Jesus just say Yes or No when John asked him, "Are you really the Messiah?" Well, if he had simply said Yes, that would have meant to John that he was the one to fulfill John's pretty fiery, cataclysmic expectations of the Messiah as a wrathful judge. And of course if he had said No, he wasn't the one who was to come, it wouldn't have been true.

So instead of saying Yes or No to John, he pointed to his works--healing and redeeming works of the Messiah that accompany the judgment and salvation of the Lord--that the prophet Isaiah had foretold: "Then the eye of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy..." (Is. 35:5-6) . The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted... " (Is. 61:1).

Jesus knew that there were violent, fiery judgmental, cataclysmic expectations of the Messiah that he would not seem to fulfill, because people's eyes were trained upon the outward appearence, and not spiritual realities: He knew his words and actions were set to shake up the usual order of things something awful: ...The kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor, the last shall be first and the first shall be last, the meek shall inherit the earth--his words and actions would shake up the usual order of things something awful, and the world could not remain as it was--great currents would be set in motion.

But Jesus knew that because he didn't seem to fit John's expectations, and John might feel disappointed in a non-violent Messiah....he said, "Blessed is he who takes no offense in me...." You see, John's expectations--and many people's expectations--of the Messiah who would set Israel straight and free her from oppressors by violent, probably military means, these expectations were really very small compared to the kind of Savior Jesus was really going to be.

Because John the Baptist was a little like the child at the mall who asks if the Santa at the mall is for real--meaning, "Is that the one who brings presents to children all over the world at Christmas?" Is that the jolly old man in a red suit who slides down chimneys and makes sure children all over the world have presents at Christmas?

That child's expectations are really much smaller than the truth: that there is a spirit of goodness and love, and joy and laughter, of generosity, and of caring for children, and of unselfish giving, that can and does fill people's hearts all year long if they're open to it. And at Christmas time the celebration of Christ's birth reminds of God's gifts to us: the gifts of our lives, and our world, and the gift of Jesus, who shows us the way home to God's heart.

Let me tell you a story about someone who believed in Santa Claus all his life. It's a true story: A Christian writer named Gilbert Chesterton grew up in England about a hundred years ago. Usually Santa Claus becomes less and less important to people as they get older, but for him, Santa Claus grew larger and larger, until he filled most of his life. This is how it happened:

When he was a child he saw something happen that needed an explanation: He hung up a stocking at the end of his bed, an empty stocking, and in the morning it was a full stocking! He hadn't done anything to produce the things that filled it. He hadn't worked for them, or made them, or even helped to make them. He hadn't even been a very good boy--far from it. But the explanation he heard was that there was a certain being, whom people called Santa Claus, who--for some reason--liked him very much.

Of course, he says, many people who talked about these things got themselves confused because they attached such importance to this being's name. He says: We called him Santa Claus because everyone called him Santa Claus; but the name of such a being is merely a human label. That being's real name might have been Joe Fonebone, or it may have been the Archangel Sally. What's really important is that we believed that a certain benevolent being did give us these toys for nothing.

And as he grew up Chesterton still believed in this wonderful being. He believed this being all his life--but he merely extended the idea: When he was a child he only wondered who put the toys in the stocking. As an adult he wondered who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the planet in the universe. Once he only thanked Santa Claus for a few toys and crackers, but now as an adult, he thanked him for stars, and people in the street, and good things to eat and drink, and the wide ocean. Once he thought it was delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking. Now as an adult he was delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside. It was the large and preposterous present of himself and the whole world around him, and he could offer no explanation of where it all came from except that Santa Claus gave it to him in a fit of peculiarly fantastic goodwill. ...Of course, when Chesterton spoke of Santa Claus, who do you think he was really referring to?

Now, John's expectations and many people's expectations of the Messiah, who would judge with fiery wrath, and destroy all of God's enemies in Israel, and who would set up a powerful kingdom of Israel in the ancient Middle East, with Jerusalem at its center--these expectations of John's and many others were much smaller than God's real intentions for Jesus Christ: to transform the whole world, most of which they didn't even know about in John's time...; to transform the whole world, not by violent, wrathful, judgment, ....but by winning the hearts of the whole world: "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all people to myself...".

For Jesus Christ came to teach people that GOD--the great unspeakable God who made the universe--that God is love, and Jesus came to call people to love as God loves--even their enemies, and came to heal and redeem people of all the many ills that fear and sorrow and hatred had brought them...and to help us bear those things that we must bear for his sake....

And Jesus Christ's work on earth will not be done until everyone on earth has heard and understood his message: that God is love, and that we are to love as God loves--even to love our enemies. Can we hear and understand this message in our hearts today? Because Jesus Christ is very much for real.