In 1969 Australian muso Russell Morris bombarded global radio with his call to Come and See the Real Thing. In a time of psychedelic drugs, alcoholic binges and cultural revolution, I wonder what people were thinking the ‘real thing’ would turn out to be?
Maybe you remember Mr Bean from his first movie from a few years ago? Disaster-prone, he accidently destroys the original Mona Lisa in an art gallery then uses chewing gum to replace the real thing with a fake. He removed the original and stuck it to his bedroom wall. But like any attempt to replace the real thing with a poor-quality fake it was eventually exposed for what it was, a lie: a poor imitation of the authentic.
Things get a lot more serious however, when it comes to Jesus and the real thing.
When it comes to crazy people claiming to be the real Christ, there’s no shortage of dodgy wackos out there. And we don’t even have to travel far to find them.
A recent controversial religious movement called Divine Truth, based in Queensland, Australia was founded by Alan John Miller who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth. His partner, Mary Suzanne Luck, claims to be the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene. How original! I suspect they’ve probably watched the De Vinci Code a few too many times.
It’s a wonder though, how or why such people end up with such large followings of dedicated disciples?
It seems that when it comes to searching for the real thing, at least in a religious or spiritual context, people often haven’t got a clue! Their individual circumstances may be complex and varied, but in general they’re what Jesus referred to as ‘sheep without a shepherd’. And when sheep follow the wrong shepherd, consequences can be catastrophic.
In Matthew 11:3 John the Baptist asks Jesus this question: “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
John’s question here, initially seems a bit odd. Only a few chapters earlier in Matthew we read of John not wanting to baptise Jesus. He felt it should be the other way around suggesting he knew in that moment who Jesus was, the one he had been preaching about, the one who would baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
So, what changed for John? Why is it that he now questions Jesus about his messianic identity? We can only speculate, but we do know that John’s question was asked through his disciples, sent on his behalf while he was locked in prison. John could be excused, therefore, for having some doubts here. If Jesus was truly the Messiah, then why was he locked up in prison instead of continuing to prepare the way for the Christ? What was God thinking?
John’s question is so important here. It’s the question of all questions.
‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’
To put it another way, ‘Are you the real thing Jesus? The Messiah? The Christ we’ve been waiting for?’
This isn’t just a question for John the Baptist. It’s a question for everybody. No one can ever escape this question. It’s closely tied to what Jesus later asks his disciples. “Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29)
And we must all give an answer.
Each year as we approach Christmas, as we once again reflect on the birth of baby Jesus, it would be very easy to become caught up with the ‘How’ questions that surround this miraculous, incarnational event.
Asking things like:
How could God become man? How could Mary give birth to a son and remain a virgin? How could the Creator of the universe become totally reliant on his mother’s care?
It’s incredible to think that the sustainer of the entire universe was at one time being sustained by his mother’s milk.
But I want to suggest that the ‘How’ questions are the wrong questions.
The right question to ask is not ‘How?’ but ‘Who?’
Who is Jesus? Who is this Christmas baby?
This is why John the Baptist asks, “Are you the one?” It’s the ultimate ‘Who’ question.
For when we know the answer to ‘Who is Jesus?’ and believe it, the how questions pale in significance. They become simply matters of faith.
The challenge has been laid at our feet, seeking our faithful response. God, through John the Baptist has truly prepared the way. He has asked the question of all questions, both for himself and for us.
What will our response be? Who do you say that Jesus is?
Jesus, who are you? We need to join John here and listen carefully to Jesus’ response.
Matthew 11:4-5 reads: 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers[a] are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
We might ask, couldn’t Jesus have just said, YES!
Instead, he gives John an answer that’s so much better. So much more powerful. By recalling his work among the people, Jesus points John directly to the words of the prophet Isaiah.
John would have known exactly what link Jesus was making between himself and Isaiah’s messianic prophesy. And these words would have been so comforting to John as he struggled to keep the faith in his prison cell.
Isaiah 35:3-6:
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
There’s no mistaking what Jesus is doing here. He is affirming himself as the one who is to come, the Christ. There is no one else who John, or any of us, should be looking for.
As it says in Acts 4:12, ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.’
But we can go a bit deeper here with the Isaiah passage. There’s an extra piece of comfort we can get from taking a closer look at the Hebrew language.
There are three important verbs in this Isaiah passage that are worth looking at.
In verse 4, when it says that God will come and ‘save’ you, the word YO-SHA, translated as ‘save’, is an active verb, indicating that God is actively causing this salvation to happen. In other words, the work of being saved is the direct result of God’s action, not our human action. Basically, when it comes to our salvation, there’s nothing we can do to make it happen, it’s all God.
Now, the idea of God actively causing salvation is emphasised by the verbs from Isaiah that Jesus uses to describe the work of his ministry. When Jesus says, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped, we need to think of these actions in both a literal and spiritual sense.
The Hebrew verbs translated as ‘opened’ and ‘unstopped’ are passive verbs, passive in the sense that, those whose eyes and ears are opened are simply receiving these as gifts of God’s active grace.
Consider what this means. Our God is an active God. Active in his love, mercy and grace. And it’s only by His direct action that any person is saved at all.
By God’s electing action we are transformed to see and hear his Word and truth for what they really are, to understand with the eyes of the mind, to hear with the ears of the heart, who Jesus is – the one who is to come, the only cause of our salvation, God’s only Son who enters our world as a helpless baby and later dies and is resurrected for the sins of the whole world.
Can you see this? Have your eyes been given sight? Can you hear it? Have your ears been opened to hear what Christ has done for you?
For once we know who Jesus Christ is, we have nothing left to fear. What was it that Paul said? Where, O’ death is your victory? Where, O’ death is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55)
Jesus invites us to gaze once more into the manger this Christmas, to come and see the real thing, and to experience the reality of his active gift of grace.
God’s grace, mercy and peace be with you this Christmas.
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