A thought about John the Baptist and the Woman who anointed Jesus’ feet.
John the Baptist apparently wasn’t sure that Jesus was the Messiah, even though he announced Christ as superior to his own ministry, and that he was “unworthy to even untie his sandals”. John knew for sure that Jesus was superior, maybe even that He was God, but he wasn’t sure Jesus was the Messiah.
I wonder why?
Probably because John the Baptist like all people of his day believed the Messiah would come to conquer those who oppressed Israel. At the moment Israel was under the rule of the Romans, but they had been conquered previously by the Babylonians and Persians, and had been a surrogate to Egypt as well. The people believed when the Messiah came, the roles would be reversed and the oppressors would become the slaves. Instead, John’s disciples see Jesus healing a Jewish servant at the request of a Roman official. And so they sought confirmation, because it didn’t seem right.
Jesus’ response requires the hearer to have a familiarity with the Old Testament. Isaiah 35 and 61 describe the behavior of the Messiah, and Jesus said “Go and tell John what you see me doing” which just happened to be exactly what the Bible said the Messiah would do. Jesus even uses the same words as Isaiah “the good news (Gospel) is preached to the poor”, to make sure John understood.
Isaiah 35:5-6 And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. 6 The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy! and in Isaiah 61:1 it says “the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor”.
We don’t always appreciate or understand what God is doing, even though it is unfolding right in front of us, and is happening for our good. I think God understands. I don’t think He was upset with John, and He later states that no one was greater than John, so He clearly held John in high regard.
As humans, even though we can know the mind of Christ, we can’t conceive of all that God is doing. What is finite cannot contain all that is infinite. I guess that means we can know some of God’s thoughts some of the time. We can “participate in the divine nature” but we don’t possess all of it.
I am running out of time this AM to write, but I would really like to meditate on the sinful woman. I think she is our model for how we should come to Christ: humble, grateful, unreserved and expressive. The word “extravagant” should describe our worship and our service.
Hopefully the daily readings will circle back around to this woman, and I can spend more time on the thought.
Moving forward,
PR