December 12, 2004

Mindekirken, Dec.12, 2004
Pastor Jens Arne Dale

Matt 11:2-11

A little bit more than a week ago I was together with a group of good colleagues. We talked about what energizes you and what drains you. One of them told about his father. He had been a strong worker all of his life. Now he was old.

Maybe you recognize the situation. We have to take care of our own parents when their health declines. When it comes to what drains you, you might put words to quite different things as well.

For some people, life’s big minus factor may be a cold relationship to their spouse. Others are concerned about the fate of their children. Or it may be conflicts at the job or lack of self-esteem, loneliness or illness that drains.

In today’s text, we meet a disappointed man, John the Baptist. Last Sunday the text portrayed him at the top of his career. Numerous people were converted due to his preaching. Lots of people were baptized in the Jordan River. There was a revival around John the Baptist.

What energizes you? If we had asked John the Baptist, we might have gotten to hear that it had been the lonesome years in the wilderness of Judea when he prepared for his public appearance. Maybe he was of the kind who got energized by solemn quietness and prayer. But we might have gotten the opposite answer, too. To be the central character of the powerful movement with a lot of people might have given him a kick. Some really recharge their batteries by being in the center of events. Maybe that applies to quite a few of the people on the public stage. It seems like they love to be seen by others.

We don’t know whether John was burnt out after the revival or not, but we know he was put in jail. And that situation was very different from the loneliness he had experienced in previous years. The loneliness of prison was different. He who had had so much to give to others, sat there totally tapped of energy in the dark hole of Herod’s jailhouse. His body declined. His strength was exhausted. The darkness sneaked into his mind. Depression came over him and choked his joy of life.

Once he had said: He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3.30. But I don’t think John is his wildest fantasy could have imagined that this was the way in which he would decrease. He didn’t feel like a spiritual hero. He must have felt miserable. His spirit of life was at its lowest. He was close to despair. And when it was at its darkest, John sent someone to Jesus to ask him: Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?

What do we do with our doubt? John brought his doubt to Jesus. He got an answer which was more than a simple yes or no. The answer came as a Bible verse from the Old Testament: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them..

Some might have felt an answer like that as scorn. John didn’t experience anything of what the Bible verse predicted. He wasn’t freed from jail by an earthquake or by an angel of the Lord. He wasn’t healed or liberated. Quite the opposite. He was beheaded. Where was God then?

We can’t know if John felt any comfort from the Bible verse he got from Jesus. Hopefully he did. Anyway, we can relate to the situation; we may pray and feel we don’t get any answer. People we love get sick and die. Where was God when the accident happened? Sometimes the questions outnumber the answers….

Today’s text suggests that the pure Bible's word is sufficient. We may be drained, exhausted, and have low spirits, but God keeps us. Christian life is not about splendid miracles displayed in our lives. The word of the cross is not spectacular, but even so, it’s the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.

An old, sick lady was once asked by a friend of hers how she was doing. Let’s take a look, she said, and opened the Bible. And there she read one of the Bible verses which tells about what Christ has done for us. I’m doing fine, she said; I’ve got it written here. Maybe you also have a Bible verse you consider basic to your faith, a Bible verse which expresses the most important thing.

In Gjøvik where I come from, Matthew 11.28 is written beneath the altar painting: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. For 120 years this has been a favorite Bible verse for a lot of people in Gjøvik. A Bible verse like that may give strength even if the circumstances of one’s life are not changed.

In the book Steingrunnen the author Bo Giertz tells about a pious man who declined mentally in his older days. Then he kind of experienced once again his younger days as a soldier. People got upset by hearing the rude things that came across his lips. They wondered if they should regard him as fallen away from faith when they heard him swear and curse. No, the book answers, The grace of God reaches further than our mental health. The grace of our baptism is not erased even if our common sense disappears.

It’s not our job to carry Jesus, but it’s he who carries us. I think the text about John the Baptist in prison teaches us that the grace of God is sufficient, even when we are miserable. We don’t get to hear that John got peace with himself. But we know he got peace with God. That’s what Jesus teaches us.

Among those who are born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist, Jesus said. He was the greatest among those who was born of women because he got to point at Jesus more clearly than any of the other prophets of the old covenant. Yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Why? It’s because even the least in the kingdom of heaven is born of God. In the new covenant the full blessing of the death and resurrection of Jesus is present. What Christ has given us is the greatest of all.

Glory be to God, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

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