Isaiah 35:1-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Today we are reminded of the Jewish people progressing up to Jerusalem in celebration, but we find this story in the books of the prophets and not in the psalms of ascent. This is the story of the returning exiles, the members of a second exodus going up to Jerusalem after their time of imprisonment in Mesopotamia. Look at how God is being selective here; in Isaiah 35:8 it reads that the redeemed shall return, but the unclean won’t even be allowed to begin the journey. This is a consecrated road of return from exile to the land of promise; the road itself is safe from both lions and losers.

In Matthew 11:5 Jesus addresses the doubts of John the Baptiser and speaks of his own ministry as the fulfilment of John’s and Isaiah’s 35:5-7 prophecy saying tell John what is happening before your own eyes. We must remember that John is in jail at this stage, a prisoner of Herod, so he’s not able to see what his disciples can see. The signs prophesied by Isaiah as the marks of the road of return are evident in the ministry of Jesus. The blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, and the poor are restored to fullness: this is all the sign you need. Jesus doesn’t actually answer John’s question with a yes or a no, he never says “I am he” or “I am not he”; what he says is “look at the evidence and draw the obvious conclusion”. There is blessing for those who recognise the obvious truth; use your senses and be sensible.

In Matthew 11:10 we read where Jesus proclaims John the Baptist as greater than the greatest prophet: Jesus said this because John had the privilege of pointing out the Messiah in person. Where all other Jewish prophets had spoken of the one to come as an historical figure in the future, John was able to say, “there is one coming, and that’s him over there”. Yet Jesus goes on to say, and Matthew records this in 11:11, that even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than John. So, John is greater than any of the prophets and the patriarchs, not just greater than Isaiah and Elijah but greater than Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well, but he’s a nobody compared to the most insignificant Christian who has ever lived. How is that possible? It’s true because we each have the privilege of the lived experience of Jesus. John pointed to a man on the riverside and then met him in the act of baptism; but then Jesus departed for his own ministry in Galilee and John was arrested taken off to Herod’s dungeon. Unlike John, but like John’s disciples who carried his questions to Jesus, we have the evidence of Jesus the healer living amongst us. I can testify to Jesus because of things I have seen; you can do the same. This is the advantage we have in this Advent season, the lived experience of being where Jesus is ministering to us, to others, to others through us, and to us through others. John the Baptist didn’t get to see any of that, neither did Moses, and even the disciples of John only got to see it when Jesus was physically present with them.

We are eyewitnesses to the Reign of God; the places, and the times when the lived experience of the Kingdom of God really is “on Earth as it is in Heaven”. No-one who lived before the first Christians ever saw that; some places still haven’t.

It’s clear that John had his doubts. Perhaps, the very fact that he was in prison made him question whether Jesus was who John thought he was. After all, if you’ve just heralded the messiah and all that that means in Jewish history you might be asking yourself, and the aforementioned messiah, why the righteous are in jail and the Romans are in Jerusalem. Perhaps he didn’t have doubts, but he just felt out of the loop: John hadn’t been present for any of Jesus’ ministry, so news of the eyewitnesses was enough for him. Either way, John’s questions gave Jesus the opportunity to give some great answers. “Look at the evidence in light of the prophets” says Jesus, “I’m doing the things that Isaiah said would be done”. Seeing is believing, Jesus knows this, and Jesus suggests that it is actually okay to doubt. Jesus doesn’t dishonour John for his questions; he just points John towards the evidence, and praises John’s faith and obedience behind his back.

Doubt is not unbelief; doubt is various locations along the road to deepening belief. In today’s letter James points to the example of the prophets who spoke the truth of God with patience, speaking confidently about what they were unlikely to see fulfilled. In the time of the Baptist, Jesus’ work was underway, but it was yet to be completed, so Jesus’ message to John was to not lose heart. As a prophet, John had foreseen the end and he had foretold what was coming, but Jesus reminded him that the end is not here yet and the coming is still coming. It is still coming, you were right, and you can have faith in God, but be patient.

This message is good for us too. For all the brokenness we see in this world, we also see miracles, and we have heard the good news. We can be patient for what we want to see, based in the confidence of what we have seen.

So, what about those unclean who aren’t allowed a look in? Remember them from Isaiah 35:8? A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it. But it shall be for God’s people; no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray. This sounds a little harsh.

I think what Isaiah is saying is that the road is free of predators. It’s not that only the religious in-crowd gets to use the road but that it is safe from the deliberately evil, the muggers and murderers. Remember, this is a road through the wilderness, so you need to be on guard for bushrangers. Just as in Isaiah 35:9 where we read there are no ravenous beasts, we read in Isaiah 35:8 there are no ravenous men.

And Isaiah is saying that this road passes through what once was desert but is not anymore. In Isaiah 35:1 the wilderness is glad, and the desert is in full bloom. In Isaiah 35:5-7 we read of the miracles accompanying the travellers on this road, miracles seen in the ministry life of Jesus. There are no unclean upon this road because everyone who walks this road is made clean by walking it. If the dead can be raised and the blind can made to see, then anything ritually or morally inappropriate which might be carried by a pilgrim cannot last long on that road.

The pilgrimage we walk takes place along the road of miracles; the road of the coming king is the redeeming road of The LORD. We know it is, because we see the acts of healing and restoration taking place all around us, where the once-lepers are stopping to touch the blossoming of the desert itself, and the once-lame and once-dead are dancing alongside us on the road. Advent means that the promises we have heard, just like the once-deaf have heard, and the promises we have begun to see unfold, just like the once-blind have seen, fill us with hope for the more to come.

Our job is to follow the example of the disciples of John at the instruction of Jesus. “Go and tell what you have seen”: we can tell because we have seen. This is why John, who is the greatest of all who have been born on earth, is also the least of us; we have the privilege of telling what we have seen. Amen.