Thought for Today
Jeremiah 1:11 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" And I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree."
Amos 7:8 And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by;
Matthew 11:4 Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 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. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."
Every time I read the story about John the Baptist’s disciples questioning Jesus, "Matthew 11:3 Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" I am reminded of the very early days of the use of computers in everyday business. Some of you may be old enough to remember those ‘days of yesteryear.’ Initially, what you saw on your monitor quite often was totally different from what you actually got off the printer. The process of formatting the printed results to actually be what you wanted was laborious and difficult.
Of course, the IT business being what it was and is, soon someone came up with a solution. The first app I ever downloaded was a subroutine known as WYSIWYG. It was pronounced phonetically with the i as a long e, the Y’s as short i’s and the s as a z, thus ‘wiz-e-wig.’ That name was an acronym for ‘What you see is what you get.’ That subroutine automatically formatted your file so that what was on your screen was what you got off the printer.
Jesus’ answer to John’s disciples was WYSIWYG. There are many different opinions about why Jesus did not simply reply to that question with “Yup!” There are just as many different opinions about why John might have questioned Jesus’ authenticity as the Promised Messiah.
Many of us have heard the idea that the Jews were expecting the promised son of David to be a ‘modern-day’ reincarnation of the King David of the United Kingdom. They anticipated a mighty warrior and battle champion who could organize and lead the armies of the Roman province of Syria in the overthrow of the Roman occupation troops. Certainly the Promised Messiah would be a member of one of the prominent families among the many descendants of David! They thought about the Kingdom of God in terms of military conquest and might. In Jesus, what they got was not what they saw in their mind’s eye.
During Advent, it is easy to feel righteous indignation at the attitude of those Jews. We have read the Bible, we know the New Testament, we have read and will hear repeated the birth narratives. We will even hear some of the Old Testament prophecies read about the nature of the Messiah, possibly Isaiah 11. Today we often focus on “6 . . . and a little child shall lead them.” That verse correlates well with the tales of the babe in the manger.
It is easy to forget during Advent that those Jews living under Roman occupation were descendants of those departees who returned from the Babylonian Exile. Those children of David had seen their nation repeatedly back the wrong world power, occupied repeatedly by foreign invaders. They had seen the wealth of their nation plundered. And, they had preserved and kept the stories of their glorious past when they were a power with which to be reckoned on the world stage. The good old days!
Concepts of conquering through humility and weakness seemed utterly ridiculous to them. The idea of meekness and mildness seemed roads to destruction and despair. The world then (and now?) seemed to exemplify the idea that might makes right.
Then, along came Jesus. Could the Messiah truly be a mild-mannered carpenter, the son of a carpenter? Was it even remotely plausible that the Messiah, the Savior of a nation and a people could be from an inconsequential village, born of a family rich only in heritage, not in possessions?
Jesus said to those disciples of John ‘WYSISWYG.’ What you see is what you get. Look at what has happened as I traveled and taught. Look at those who have been healed, those whose lives have been changed, those who have grown closer to God.
This Advent, listen closely to see whether or not you hear the voice of God telling us all, “What you got is what you needed.” “John 1:3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
Stay safe, look toward the light, trust God,
Pastor Ray