Getting ready for Lent

John the Baptist was locked up under Herod’s palace. It was not the massive European palace of the middle ages with tens of rooms and a view over a flowing river. It was smallish, stone and mud and fit well into the hillside along Jerusalem. The story goes that John was held in the jail under the palace. John was cared for by his disciples; those who hung on his every word. Many of whom probably thought John was the Messiah, the one who is to come.

John sent his disciples to Jesus with one question. Are you the one? Are you, if you will, the one who was to save Israel, from itself?

Jesus sent the disciples back, not by sending back with a simple yes, because that might have been questioned. Jesus said, Matthew 11:4-5 continues the dialogue “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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.”

To me it is simple. Jesus could very well of said, yes, I am. But he didn’t. Why? I think it is because if he had simply said yes, it would have been one more story, mind you a convincing one, but really just one more story of God’s work in the world of which there are volumes. No, Jesus said, you tell John both what you see yourselves and hear about. Tell him the blind see; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; and, the poor have good news brought to them; and the lame, well they are leaping like deer. That answer is experiential; it is verifiable.

That answer enabled John to meet God face to face with the understanding that the long awaited savior, the Messiah, had arrived.