Power and corruption seem to go hand in hand. The leader of the nation was known for his sexual immorality but there were some who showed support for him in hopes of carving out some influence and power for themselves. Questioning or calling out a leader’s behavior can make you unpopular, at best, and threaten your life, at worst. When your position in society might become threatened it is difficult to bring yourself to call out the immorality in those who are in charge. If you’re close with the one who is about to take charge and assume the place of authority, you’re more likely to call attention to the inconsistencies in the life of the one who is ruling and who they are supposed to be as one who represents God’s authority. When you believe the one who is coming is greater then you can speak with confidence.
This is the situation where we find John the Baptizer. He paves the way for the rightful King to return to the throne. He calls into question those who have placed their claim on power and influence knowing that it’ll make him unpopular and likely land him in jail. In Matthew 11 we find John in jail contemplating his life ministry and whether Jesus is the Messiah that he was preparing the way for or if someone else was to come. It wouldn’t be out of line for John to question why his current life circumstances don’t look a little different.
Jesus’s response to John describes the year of Jubilee when the people expect the world to be set back to right again. Leviticus 25 describes a reset in the land where property, goods, crops, and land are restored to their original owners so that no one will have advantage over another. This is supposed to happen every 50thyear. Jesus’s ministry depicts something greater than Leviticus 25, a Jubilee of Jubilees where “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” (Mt 11:5). Jesus is doing something bigger than simply bringing his reign to the throne. Being in John’s position, what peace do you receive when you hear Jesus’s response?
Is it possible that we ever have the wrong picture of who Jesus is and what his Kingdom looks like? Since reading the Sermon on the Mount this year, I’ve been trying to revisit this question for myself and for the church.
When you read this passage to the end at v19, Jesus reveals a few things said about him. He’s called a “glutton and a drunkard” because he didn’t require his followers to fast, and he was often going to parties with undesirable people. Jesus was ridiculed for who he spent time with. Why would he spend time with “tax collectors and sinners”? He came to bring healing to the broken (Mt 9:12). We are surrounded by people who struggle with financial stability, identity, anxiety, sickness, and general lostness. When we turn any of these groups into objects of a cultural war, rather than seeing their struggle and need for the love and mercy of Christ (9:13), we fail to live out the Kingdom of Jesus.
The sick need a doctor. The lost need a church. Christ came, and is coming, to bring healing to broken people. In this season of Advent, let’s develop hearts of compassion to see people the way Jesus does and strive to have a proper view of what kind of Messiah he is. When we have eyes to see Jesus for who he is, we can stand in prison with John and be at peace knowing the King has come to make all things right.