Advent 4C

Matthew 1:18-24

December 23, 2012

The intermittent relationship between John and Jesus began very early in life.

Before they could know each other, understand each other or even see each other, from the darkness of his womb we are told that John sensed the vibrant presence of Jesus and jumped for joy.

In later years, did Mary and Elizabeth talk in hushed voices over their mutual miraculous births?

Did they compare the growth progress of their little boys?

Since Elizabeth bore John in her old age she probably died before he could leave her for the wilderness.

But probably not before she told John of his amazing birth and his even more amazing cousin.

But how much would John understand of this old wives' tale?

Did Jesus and John play together as children at clan gatherings?

Then, grown wiser in adolescence, did they discuss the nature of girls and the meaning of life?

They must have drifted apart in mind before they were separated physically-

John to the desolate desert and Jesus to the carpenter shop.

John chose isolation and hardship while Jesus chose social community and ordinary existence.

Their different experiences no doubt helped form their different images of the same God.

For John, God was an uncompromising judge, saving good people and condemning bad people.

For Jesus, God was a Father bent on saving all his children.

When Jesus asked John for baptism, did John recall any of their previous relationship?

Or even if they had forgotten each other over 30 years, did Elizabeth's strange words about a Messiah in the family come back to him?

Jesus and John , then, return to their separate ways of following the same God's will for them.

John continues to rail against evil and pronounce God=s judgment, while Jesus, announced God's kingdom of forgiveness.

John fasts while Jesus feasts,

John condemns while Jesus blesses.

It is perhaps symbolic that John is beheaded for accusing an adulterer, and Jesus is condemned for forgiving an adulteress.

Strange how experience with people paints a different picture of God;

and that picture of God affects how people are experienced.

It must have been difficult for John to play straight man to a Messiah.

So, before John is executed for proclaiming God's justice, he makes one last attempt at clarifying his relationship with Jesus.

As is his simple custom, he asks a simple question of Jesus: "Are you the Messiah?"

But Jesus' experience has taught him that few things in life are that simple.

He could have asked: "What do you mean by messiah ... which kind of messiah will people accept ... what sort of messiah will survive long enough to preach God's kingdom?"

But Jesus merely asks John to view his actions in the light of John's famous predecessor, the prophet Isaiah.

We can only hope that John made the proper connections and died content that he and his cousin had worked well together.

Jesus outlived john by only a year or so, then was also executed.

Not for this or that specific deed, but in general, for the kind of person he was and the kind of God he preached.

Like John, he was surprisingly successful at first, then lost his crowd appeal when religious rubber hit secular road.

It is one thing to be cured and forgiven and blessed;

it is another thing to cure and forgive and bless.

But that's another story.

Today, we simply see two pregnant women exchanging motherly concerns in a peasant village.

From such simple beginnings and such ordinary people does God work his magic among us.