Advent 3: The Witness of Jesus

                I’ve told you about it before—the Jesus Seminar,

where a group of New Testament scholars went line by line through the Gospels,
voting with different colored marbles about how likely each line of scripture was to have actually been said or done by Jesus…
One of the few solid things that this group came up with was that, to quote Ben Worthington, one of my favorite Historical Jesus people:
“in the midst of the church's collection of Jesus' sayings were also included sayings of John!”
“Jesus was willing to parallel his own work and divine authority with John's.”

And

John is “the one figure in the Gospel tradition to whom Jesus seems to compare and contrast himself, both in his words and deeds.”

                So, with all that said, it is worth probing this relationship, between John and Jesus, and in today’s lesson
Jesus witnesses to John the Baptist,
and witnesses about John the Baptist.

Let us pray

 

Jesus witnesses to John the Baptist, he tells him good news.

                If you think about it, today’s lesson is somewhat shocking
—John wasn’t sure if Jesus, who he baptized and declared to be greater than himself
—was the one coming into the world to make all things right.
John, having pointed to Jesus as God’s beloved son,
is now imprisoned, and in that captivity, unsure.

Unsure, I imagine, because of what he expected.
Unsure as well because of his own model of ministry.

-His was an ongoing warning of judgement and renewal—repent! Turn around and be ready for God’s new thing!
Whereas Jesus proclaimed the inbreaking salvation of the Kingdom of God.

-His was a severe asceticism, a prophetic role all the way down…
diet—honey and locusts,
clothing—he wears camels hair and is girded with a leather belt,
and location—the Wilderness.
Compared with Jesus—joyful, supping with sinners, telling stories to straighten out the spirit…
If you google smiling Jesus pictures, there are tons…
pictures of John the Baptist smiling…
only that cheeky one by DaVinci.

-His was perhaps the common hope of a warrior king
or a High Priest putting things right.
a secular liberator
or a religious official with a auspicious genealogy going back to Moses’ brother Aaron
… and instead Jesus offers self-sacrifice and love.

                I can imagine John taking offense…
especially while jailed…
Look, if you were rotting in jail for pointing to a guy who you believe is doing God’s will,
you too might think, “is this the way God works?”

                So, Jesus tells John a little about himself
—lets him know how God is righting the world!
How God is working and continues to work.
Jesus describes his deeds (essentially a summary of Matthew chapters 8-9):
The dead are raised,
The disabled are able,
the diseased are at ease,
deprived are privy to the good news of God
God is on the move!

When people meet Jesus they are Gospelized by the living word of God!
They experience good news in an embodied sort of way!

 

Then Jesus goes on and witnesses about John the Baptist.

                He turns to a crowd gathered, people curious about how these two men relate to one another. He almost harangues
—perhaps Jesus finds his inner John the Baptist here,
or maybe he’s just doing an impression, asking:

“What did you go into the wilderness to gawk at when you went to see John?”
What were you looking for?
What did you expect?
What caught your attention!”

 

                Have you heard the term the Attention economy before?
It is a whole line of research in business, marketing and political circles
—what keeps people’s attention,
and what is that worth?
One such study suggested that social media companies make approximately a dollar for each hour we keep our eyeballs looking at a screen,
and so they do all sorts of things to make it harder for us to look away.
Impossible AI produced videos, polarized and siloed rage-bait, sex and violence with the dial set to 11, bigotry masquerading as conspiracy and conspiracies masquerading as entertainment…
all with little to no concern for what these tricks do to humans and our flourishing.

                On the other end of the spectrum
—have you thought about what science fiction pays attention to…
Sci-fi, at its best, pays attention to the future, in order to see our present.
Orwell wrote 1984 to clearly see totalitarian dangers in 1946,
HAL from Clark’s 2001: A Space Odessey helped people 1968 wrap their minds around IBM,
Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 to draw attention to book burnings and acts of censorship in the 1950s.

Yes, Sci-fi pays attention to the future, in order to see our present…

 

                So, asking again for Jesus, what caught your attention?

                Did you expect Herod Antipas who holds John captive?
Were you drawn to the Herod? Did you look to the villain!

-Herod, his image on a coin flanked by reeds
—while John is flanked by prison guards.

-Herod in comfortable clothing,
John in camels hair.

-Look to the royal palace,
where the decision to behead John is already in process.

No! Look at John!
He is the hinge of history,
preparing the way
for the one who is the Way.
Preparing for the one in whom Good News is embodied,
who is among the vulnerable
and bring them into his very self,
who dies and rises
so the dead might rise and see God!

 

Maybe John is a sort of attention economist
—by wrestling with Jesus,
questioning him and making it all plain and out in the open,
he is pointing us, making us pay attention to, Jesus.

Jesus who is worth your time and attention!
Our attention to screens might be worth a dollar an hour,
but Jesus is priceless!

Or maybe John is something of a sci-fi author himself
—the one John washed in water and upon whom the Spirit descended
—is our future.
Pay attention to those hopes about him,
because then we see him in our present as well!

Jesus witnesses to John the Baptist,
and witnesses about John the Baptist.
Drawing our attention to the one place that we know God is on the move. Amen.