Jan. 17, 2010
Background Scripture: Matthew 9:27-34; 11:2-6
Devotional Reading: Luke 5:27-32

When I was a boy, my favorite radio program was “The Lone Ranger.” Later in life,  my sons enjoyed watching him and Tonto on television.

For me, his appeal was that he was clearly on the side of victims, never the victimizers. He rendered justice dispassionately and always conducted himself humanely. He never shot to kill.
Most of his episodes ended with someone asking, “Who was that masked man?” The Lone Ranger answered that question, not with words, but deeds.

I don’t know what George W. Trendle, the Lone Ranger’s creator, intended with his peerless champion of the downtrodden. But, intentional or not, he characterized the Lone Ranger as a kind of Christ-figure – someone sharing our corruptible flesh, yet demonstrating a level of humanity that, while not beyond our grasp, is seldom really pursued.

So, it is understandable that there were many in Jesus’ day who wrestled with the question: “Really, who is this man?” Jesus answered in his own inimitable way.

Are you the one?

We might expect that of all of Jesus’ contemporaries, John the Baptist would have been one of the least likely to question who and what Jesus was. It was he who, when Jesus came to the Jordan for baptism by John, protested, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Mt. 3:14).

In the Fourth Gospel, the Baptist points to Jesus and proclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn, 1:29). So, how is it that, now a derelict prisoner in Herod’s dungeon, he sends his disciples to ask: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Mt. 11:3).

Reading it in the comfort of our own homes or Sunday school classes, it is a seemingly curious, even insinuating, question. But John was in a prison hole that is virtually unimaginable in our day and time (but not as unimaginable as we may think). He knows he might never be freed.

Ending up a prisoner, it seems his own ministry has been a failure. Instead of the great crowds that followed him throughout the wilderness and came to him for baptism, now he was in solitary confinement. Once, the expanses of the wilderness had been his own world; now, he was shut up like a caged animal.

Perhaps his disciples were confused and possibly even questioning his role as the prophet of the Messiah and the new age to come. So we should not be too surprised at John.

Jesus might have responded to John’s disciples: “Well, you know, when John baptized me at the Jordan, as I was coming up out of the water, I heard a heavenly voice saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ So, yes, I am the Son of God. And yes, I am the Messiah for whom all Israel is waiting.

“Here, look up these passages from the Holy Scripture; they will testify to what and who I am. Tell John that these are the things he ought to believe about me.”

The fruits

More surprising is the answer that Jesus actually gave. It is not about doctrine to be argued, but is purely pragmatic: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me” (11:4-6).

They are asking: “Who are you, really?” It is really the same question that the devil asked Jesus: “If you are the Son of God …” (4:3,4).

And if we are the Church of Jesus Christ, where are the fruits? The churches of North America are in retreat. Memberships continue to melt faster than the Arctic glaciers.

Maybe we have erred in spending too much time in trying to answer, “Are you the one?” and too little in producing, for all the world to see, the fruits of Christ’s good news: communities, families and people healed in mind, body and spirit and full-time ministries to the poor, the oppressed and the prisoners.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.