Prisons are not good places to be. Prisoners are dehumanized, often brutalized. Prison is not a place where hope is easily kept alive. So John the Baptizer, messenger of God, now in prison has questions. What about his own ministry and his hopes for the renewal of his people? What about this Jesus? He looked so promising, and John even dared to believe, but now, in this dark, dank, inhuman place, he wonders. His hope and his dreams of the promised new day are collapsing. So he needs to hear from his closest friends about what's going. What the buzz about Jesus now?
Matthew's gospel is written to a community dealing with shattering change. Matthew and his community know very well that too much change overwhelms. Individually and as communities the experience is like being in prison: a prison of our own dark worries and demons, or of the oppressive regime around us, or of the polarized and thus demoralized culture in which we live.
In such dire circumstances, the ministry of witnesses is crucial. When our confidence in God wavers we need those who are in a better place and free, to come and witness to us again of what the Christ is up to in the world. In my view, that's just what John's disciple-friends likely did for him—at his request.
The Matthew 11 story reminds me of the situation of Martin Luther, the genius reformer. His theological insight and passion for the gospel was the driving force of most of his career. Yet he was also a deeply troubled soul and every so often descended into a prison of darkness where he felt that he was losing faith and confidence in the gospel as he had experienced, preached and taught it. So what did he do? Somewhat like John the Baptizer, he asked his friends, who were in a better place faith-wise, to surround him and “preach” the gospel to him until once again his faith was renewed. He needed to be reminded again and again about the works of God in Jesus the Christ.
Remember that Quadratos is based on the supposition that each of the gospels was written in and/or to a particular community. Matthew's gospel itself is a witness to the acts of the Christ in the midst of great change. Witnessing is powerful stuff when it is done in community and as compassionate friendship, not as arrogant theological bullying. There are times when liturgy becomes that for the people of God. There are other times when the ministry of friends does the witnessing.
Think of how Jesus' words in Matthew 11can be taken as metaphor, and thus help us to bear witness in specific ways to persons and perhaps faith communities in crisis:
“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. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
Where is this happening now? What does it look like in your corner of the world? Or are you in prison and longing for hope and reassurance?
In this Matthean Advent we are blessed if we recognize our imprisonment and ask for friends to speak the good news to us and our community; and we are just as blessed if we discover that we are free enough to see what the Christ is doing even now, in this time of the shaking of the foundations.
Either way, blessed is anyone who takes no offense at him who lives the way of God in a world and time of change.
