III: The message sent by John the Baptist
Luke vii. 18-35; Matt. xi. 2-19.
For more than six months now John Baptist had been held as a captive by Herod, but from his frontier prison he still followed the course of Him for Whom he had made ready the road; and this he could do the more easily since his disciples were permitted to visit him, and could thus keep him informed of all the doings of the Christ. So, just at this juncture, he selected to from their number, and dispatch them to the Saviour with this message:
"Are you He who should come, or are we to await some other?"
What is the meaning of these words? Amidst the weariness and dejection of his confinement, did John feel his courage sinking? Did he begin to lose faith in the Christ? For us to harbour such a supposition would be to misjudge his character entirely. The Precursor’s only design was to direct his disciples’ minds by this means straight to the only Teacher Who could fully instruct them in the way of life. The Saviour, who at once fathomed John's motive, made answer by letting them witness certain deeds in which His almighty powers were manifested most strikingly. "In that same hour He healed all those who came to him, curing them of all their diseases and wounds, and of evil spirits; and to a blind man he restored his sight."
Then turning to these envoys He said, "Go, and report to John that which you have both heard and witnessed, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers our cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, and to the poor the Good News is announced."
Isaias, whose words Jesus borrows here, had foretold that such marvels would mark the coming of the Messiah. He indeed had not spoken of any resurrection of the dead, but the Lord could not be silent concerning that which all Naïm was now publishing abroad, and therefore He alludes also to that sovereign might wherewith He holds the powers of death at His will, adding yet another sign of which the Prophet had spoken: "the Gospel delivered on to the poor."
In making this humble duty the culminating note in an enumeration of His most striking miracles, Jesus designed to set the true character of His Mission in highest relief; because He had come, not so much to do glorious deeds, as to teach and to comfort all such as the world despises. And yet this marvellous blending of grandeur and meekness shocked the disciples of the Baptist.
The Lord, seeing them draw away from Him, uttered that solemn warning, before their withdrawal:
"Blessed is he who is not scandalised in Me!"
In their astonishment at this unceremonious departure, it would appear that the people conceived an unfavourable idea of these messengers, and were even fain to suspect the fidelity of him who had sent them, for at once Jesus spoke out in his defence.
He reminded the Jews of those reeds which they had seen waving in the way and along the banks of the streams where John was baptising, and with easy contrasted the stronger, unshaken faith of the Precursor, taking the thin and tremulous stalks as the symbol of inconstancy. Then, as His gaze fell upon certain men among them who were clothed in splendid garments, He compared the lazy luxury of the gay courtiers with the austerity of the Prophet, saying:
"What went you're into the desert for to see? A reed shaken by the winter?
"What, then, went you out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?
"Nay, those who have rich robes and live in luxury do dwell in kings' houses.
"What, then, went you're out for to see? A Prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a Prophet.
"And this is He of whom it is written: Behold I send Mine Angel before Thy face, to prepare Thy ways before The."
Was it not enough to have exalted the holiness of His Forerunner so strikingly? Yet Jesus went on to say that under the ancient Law" No one among those born of women has everrisen who is greater than John."
Still, such is the superiority of the Church over the Synagogue, that Jesus adds: "And, notwithstanding, the least of all in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist;" whereby He would teach us that the lowest place by His side is to be preferred before the highest among the disciples of Moses.
It is this new reign of the Christ on earth "that all the Prophets had foretold, until John," and for which John himself, "the new Elias," had made ready all things with such a lofty zeal. His toils and trouble had not been in vain, for at this very hour all Judea was flocking to Jesus. "Already men were taking this His Kingdom by storm, and in dense throngs were hastening to the assault."
This declaration surprised the listeners and was quite differently received. "The people and the publicans, baptised by John, acknowledged the justice and the wisdom of these divine counsels; but the Pharisees and the Doctors of the Law, who had disdained the baptism of the Precursor, now gave token of their contempt for the designs of God in their regard." Whereupon Jesus addressed to them these reproachful words:
"To what shall I compare the men of this generation? To what, indeed, can they be likened?" He added.
"They are like children seated in the market-place, who cry to their companions, ‘We have played for you on the flute, we have sung and you have not danced. We have chanted sorrowful hymns, and you have not wept, you have not even beat your breasts.’
" John has come among you neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He is possessed by the devil; the Son of Man comes eating and drinking, and you say, This is a fellow who loves good cheer and wine, a friend of publicans and sinners.’"
These words of the Master must have made the Pharisees and the Scribes wince and writhe under the justice of the mortifying rebuke; for it was in the presence of all the people that He thus charged them with cherishing childish caprices and of insisting pettishly that everything must bend to suit their humours, at one time complaining of John because, in their hours of pleasure and happiness, his life seemed too stern and austere; and then again, displeased with Jesus, Whose condescension and charity was a scandal in their eyes.
After this severe censure, the Lord proclaimed that although such was the state of this unbelieving generation, yet a time would come, and he was even now upon them, when "Wisdom would find her children, who would both defend and justify her."
He might indeed have pointed out such sons of the Eternal Wisdom, as they stood there in the presence of His enemies. They were the Apostles, those lonely and humble men who surrounded Him, and to were yet to become the triumphant apologists of the New Reign.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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