We find ourselves becoming numbed by an onslaught of rising costs, suffering, political divides and cultural ruptures.
For the past month, I have been wrestling with Jesus’ agitating—yet inspiring—answer to followers of John the Baptist, who felt a similar anxiety in their day.
In Matthew 11, we find John the Baptist in jail for speaking truth to power and building a burgeoning movement. As he awaits his execution, John questions the validity of his life’s work; and so he sends a few of his followers to confront Jesus with a simple question.
“Are you the one or should we expect someone else?” Wouldn’t the messiah have created more political change? Wouldn’t the messiah have broken John out of jail?
Jesus answers simply and directly by asking John’s followers to look around, see what is happening in people’s lives, and to trust what they see as God’s divine work.
“The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
Jesus doesn’t try to convince John’s followers that all is well or that he is the one they are waiting for. He makes no promises. He does not tell them to not worry about what is happening in the world or to wait for an afterlife where all will be well.
He asks them “What do you see?”
John and his followers are witnesses to the kingdom breaking in, to the divine light shining through the cracks. These moments of beauty and caring are not done by Jesus alone. His followers are a part of this work as they care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger— as they heal and proclaim the good news.
We live in a world saturated with meanness, cruelty and apocalyptic messaging. So it is easy for us to miss the tenderly powerful moments when people choose to carry each other.
What can we learn from Jesus’ response to John’s followers?
Look around! What do you see? Don’t believe what the empire is telling you. Look beyond that.
Do not let fear overwhelm you. It leads one to lose sight of the moments of the kingdom breaking in or the indicators of how to journey on the good road. It is easy to miss love’s movement if we are not paying attention. If we focus on fear, it changes both what we see and how we understand what is happening in the world. Fear crowds out the space for generosity and curiosity. Fear’s job is to shrink our sense of possibility. Fear consumes paths to opportunity. Fear eats at our soul.
Pay attention. Be present. Recognize the moments of people striving to live lives rich with love. Notice our actions with each other and how we spend our time with each other. It is the story we tell and to whom we tell it.
Fear metastasizes and overwhelms while love accumulates and builds. Intimate acts of community and love and courage shrink fear just as much as grand actions. Fear acts quickly and recklessly. Love moves slowly with abandon and accumulates beyond imagination. Love moves boldly and humbly. Love moves with courageous humility.
In doing so, it is easy for us to see the movement of love in the world if we pay attention. Love does not command our attention the way that fear does. So Jesus needs to give us hints of what to look for, echoing what the prophet Isaiah said long before him.
Jesus claims the language of Empire—“the good news”—and repurposes it into a message of love, liberation and flourishing. The good news is something we can help make happen. Love is all around. The sacred happens everywhere. It’s the story we are called to tell. It's the story that will move this world towards equality and justice. We want a place for people to flourish, to grow and to become how they can be. The good news is all around us if we pay attention.