Gospel – Matthew 11:2-11   What sort of Messiah is this?

John the Baptist is in prison because he challenged Herod for marrying his brother’s wife.  We learn later in the Gospel that Herod has John beheaded.  While John is in prison, fear and doubt set in.  John is wondering if Jesus really is the Messiah.  This ia quite a turnaround from the John who felt unworthy to baptize Jesus in the Jordan and who declared ‘the kingdom of Heaven has come near’ (3:2).  John led quite an ascetic life and fasted frequently.  The reports he now hears about Jesus include fasting, telling his disciples they do not have to fast, associating with tax collectors, drunkards and sinners.  So one can understand why John began to have doubts.  What sort of Messiah is this?

During these times, people had a checklist of ways to recognize the Messiah; it included liberating captives, healing the sick, raising the dead and restoring sight to the blind.  Jesus’ response to John’s enquiries is that his actions speak for themselves.  Jesus’ actions are reminiscent of the Jubilee year of restoration (Lev 25; Isa 61) where injustices would be overturned, the land would be restored and the people given a fresh start.  All of these things are being fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry.  The Gospel ends with a paradox: John is the greatest that has ever been born; yet the people who are considered the ‘lowest’ or the ‘least’ in this world are considered even greater than John by God.  The more we reflect on this statement, the more we come to see that both aspects of it are true and in harmony with one another.  In this new age that John has announced, the poorest and those considered the lowest in society will be greater than John himself.  This is the Kingdom of Heaven that Matthew announces to his readers.  A new era, a great upheaval has begun.        © Triona Doherty & Jane Mellet, 2022.  A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Matthew.  (Dublin: Messenger Publications 2022.

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“The problem is not feeding the poor, or clothing the naked, or visiting the sick, but rather recognising that the poor, the naked, the sick, prisoners, and the homeless have the dignity to sit at our table, to feel ‘at home’ among us, to feel part of a family.  This is a sign that the Kingdom of Heaven is in our midst.               Pope Francis