Are you the One who is to come, or are we to wait for another? This is the question that John the Baptist asks.

Is Christ the One – that is still the question we face today.

Are you the One? This was a question many Christian young people in Sri Lanka asked. But it wasn’t about Christ. It was about figuring out if someone was the One that God had chosen for us. We had expectations of the kind of person we wanted. But it got complicated because in Sri Lanka, you are flooded with unsolicited opinions from friends and relatives, which added to confused feelings, and often unmet expectations! Years later, Paul and I embarked on a long-distance romance: he was in Belfast, I was in Nottingham (and later Sri Lanka). I asked the Methodist chaplain in Nottingham how I would know if Paul was the one. He grinned and said you have to kiss lots of frogs before you find the Prince! Paul had a different theory – you just had to find that special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. It has worked well for us.

Are you the One? You might wonder why John was asking. After all, he had baptised Jesus. Didn’t he know Jesus was the Messiah? Apparently not. You see, John, like most Jews, had expectations of what a Messiah would be: a priest, a fiery prophet, an angelic messenger from God with miraculous powers. But the overwhelming expectation was for deliverance from the Romans who defiled the Jewish way of life.

When he baptised Jesus, John had declared: “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” John was expecting spiritual renewal and the fire of judgement. Was he beginning to wonder exactly when all this divine judgement was going to start?

Like many Jews of his time, John probably didn’t expect a Messiah whose Kingdom was of another world. Or a Messiah who was in his very nature God, who would empty himself, take the form of a slave and be born in human likeness.
The Jews, for centuries, had sustained a deep longing and hope of a coming Saviour who would bring spiritual, material and political deliverance. They expected a triumphant establishment of God’s Kingdom. An end to evil. I suppose they expected to see what we now expect at the second coming of Christ, as judge of the world. 

To complicate things further, there were many Messianic figures in 1^st century Galilee. The historian Josephus describes about a dozen, and mentions others in passing. I had a fascinating time reading about them. Unfortunately, Ronnie is behind me with his stick and stopwatch, so I can’t spend time going into the interesting details. But, in brief, these “messiahs” were even known to burn Roman property, kill Romans or Jewish soldiers, or declare themselves King. They were squashed by the Roman and Jewish authorities. Such “messiahs” included a former shepherd, a Judas and a Simon. Jesus, known by his Hebrew name Yeshua (or Joshua), appears during this era and people may have expected the same from him as the others! The historian Josephus does say that Jesus was the only one who explicitly claimed the title Messiah – or in Greek, Christ, meaning the anointed one. And the only one given that title by his followers.

Have you seen the Monty Python film, Life of Brian, that caused such controversy in its time? Originally, the Pythons intended making a comedy about Jesus. But, when reading the gospels, they found nothing they could mock in Jesus’ life or teaching. However, researching the history of those times, they read about false messiahs. So they made a comedy about the hapless Brian and his gullible followers who searched in vain for miracles and wisdom, trying to find out if he was the Messiah they thought he should be.

We are told, that when John HEARD of Jesus’ deeds he sent Jesus the question, “Are you the One?” Why? Perhaps he expected more signs. Perhaps more judgment.

Jesus’ responses are both an answer to John and a rebuke.

He replies with words from the prophet Isaiah: ‘tell John that “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.”’ Matthew had already described Jesus’ miraculous deeds and teaching, and John had heard of them, and the crowd has witnessed them. They knew these signs were a fulfilment of Messianic prophecy. In fact, these set Jesus apart from false messiahs who were neither known for their good news nor their miracles.

And then Jesus rebukes both John and the crowd:

“Blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.” The Greek word, translated “offence” is actually “scandalizo.” Jesus is effectively saying “Blessed is anyone who is not scandalised by me.” Why scandalised? Because they are scandalised at who Jesus isn’t. That he isn’t the powerful, political Messiah they expected. Later in Matthew 11, Jesus judges cities that did not repent or recognise his Messianic deeds of power.  

As John’s disciples leave, Jesus turns to the crowds. These are the same crowds who had seen and listened to John in the wilderness. Jesus is scathing, because he knows they are spectators, not believers. Drifting from sensation to sensation, from wild prophet to new Messiah, curious but unbelieving. Three times he asks them, “what did you go to see when you went to see John?” A reed shaken by the wind? No? Then what? Someone in fine robes? But aren’t they in palaces? So what did you go out to see? A prophet. Yes, but more than a prophet. The one preparing the Way.

In our gospel today, we didn’t read the rest of Jesus’ words to the crowd. But in them Jesus is exasperated with those who would not see him for who he was, and did not believe. They were like children playing games. “John didn’t eat and drink, said Jesus, and you said he had a demon. I do, and you call me a glutton and a drunkard. You’re determined not to hear or see.”

Neither John nor the crowds recognised that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. Their expectations misled them. What do we expect when we look at Jesus? Is he a teacher, a good man, or the Christ? Are we scandalized by his claims? We cannot have a wavering belief in Christ. C. S. Lewis, who wrestled for more than a decade before coming to a belief in Christ, ultimately decided that “either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” The Jews decided he was something worse.

I think Advent is a good time to read the Gospels and see afresh the Christ whose birth we celebrate and whose return we await. And as we read, ask ourselves if we really believe with all of our being, that this Jesus, Christ, “is the One.”

Let me close with a poem. And leave you to ponder, through this Season of Advent, on the Christ, Son of God, Redeemer and King.

Overturned

We take as our King
Christ, master of all creation,
the carpenter’s son,
Who overturned time, thought
world order and all expectation;

Eternal crafter of the Universe,
present when the world began;  
he chose the path of an amniotic cradle,
in the womb an unknown peasant girl
and became man.

Growing tall, He stepped into a shed
dusted with shavings and sawdust,
as a son should,
And picking up Joseph’s tools
he turned to the carving and planing of wood.

This Man, This God!
He overturned far more
than tables in the temple;
He overturned lives, He forgave sin.
Gentle and strong,
He made room in His Kingdom,
for the outcast and lost,
Welcoming, drawing them in.

He touched the leper, he healed the sick.
He smiled at children,
and He made people whole.

Then, his arms outstretched,
Nailed to a rough beam,
He overturned earthly realms,
kingdoms of darkness,
and my soul.

(Maithrie White)