The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

In today's Gospel we see that St. John is imprisoned. He is about to die and he is concerned for the welfare of his disciples.

St. John is well aware of the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. He has proclaimed this himself on other occasions. St. John has even exhorted his disciples to follow Jesus. So, he sends his disciples, not for his own sake, but for theirs.

Jesus in turn performs many miracles for them to see. This He has done so that they may believe in Him. He works miracles in His own name _ not calling upon God to perform miracles as the prophets have done.

The disciples of John ask in a very direct manner. "Art thou he that art to come, or do we look for another?" Jesus does not answer so directly, but leaves them to draw the conclusion themselves.

It would have been very simple for Jesus to say, "Yes, I am the Messiah." But, He chose rather to call their attention to the miracles that He performed and let them draw the necessary conclusion.

The people of that time were very eager to have a Messiah that would come as a worldly king. If Jesus had answered directly He would have caused political turmoil. The enemies of Our Lord would have had the opportunity to denounce Him to the Roman authorities. But, it was not the time for His great sacrifice yet. There is a season and a time for everything. This was not the time for Jesus to openly profess Himself to be the Messiah. That time would come. It came when He spoke to a Roman official and proclaimed, "I am a King." But, now is not that time. Jesus allows His listeners to draw the conclusion. He simply points out to them that all that was foretold of the Messiah has found its fulfillment in Him.

Jesus' final words to these men before they depart are very interesting: "Blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me." How or why would anyone be scandalized in Jesus? He is saying that they are blessed who are not scandalized at His poverty, His humiliation and persecution, His passion and death, His doctrine, which surpasses human reason, His commandments, which are so much in opposition to human passions, etc. He is blessed who firmly believes in Him and serves Him faithfully. Christ had reason to speak thus, for His poverty and humility, sufferings and death, precepts and doctrines, were to the heathen foolishness, and to the Jews a stumbling block. They refused to believe Him. But neither Jews nor heathen had any cause to be scandalized by Christ or His doctrine; they should then have paid attention to the prophecies, to the sanctity of His life, and to His miracles, especially to His resurrection; they should then have recognized Him as the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world; and His humiliation and lowliness would have caused them to admire His infinite mercy and goodness, and to love Him the more.

Christ was not the earthly king they were imagining. He was not going to conquer and rule with earthly pride and vanity. The worldly riches, pomp and ceremony are all beneath the dignity of God, and are not worthy of Him. And, yet this is exactly what they were looking for. It is as if they would say that He cannot be God because of His lowliness.

Tragically even today there are not a few who are scandalized, if not by the person, at least by the doctrine of Jesus _ the proud, the avaricious, the envious, the unchaste, and all who hate self-denial and mortification of the flesh. To them the doctrine of Christ is too austere; therefore they either reject it altogether or interpret it in such a way as to harmonize with their passions and inclinations. What blindness! We shall be judged, not according to the maxims of the world and the flesh, but according to the doctrine of Christ.

When the disciples of St. John had departed, Jesus begins to speak the praises of St. John. He avoided doing so in the presence of St. John's disciples so as to avoid filling their heads with foolish pride and vanity.

St. John was a prophet and as Christ says even more than a prophet. But, we do not see him dressed in the soft garments of kings nor living in the worldly pomp and ceremony so much sought after by the world. We see St. John in the desert clothed in coarse garments, living and eating simply and modestly. He was living a life of penance and sacrifice. This is the life of the prophets, and even the greatest of the prophets; and so too is it the life of the Messiah.

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