I believe that Jesus Christ is the savior of this world. I believe that He knows me more intimately than I even know myself. I believe that He loves me in spite of all those things He knows about me. I believe that He is with me every moment and desires for me to know Him in as much detail as He knows me. .
Christ knows every hair on my head, and presumably that means He even knows every hair on my legs when I get lazy in the winter. Yet, I feel as though I know very little about Him. This Jesus I am calling on to save me from myself is often faceless, nameless and without depth of character to me.
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I get to know the people in my life that I love very well. I want to know what they love, what they hate, what they do when they are sad or happy or scared. I want to know them. So slowly but surely I am trying to learn about my Lord, my Agape and my friend. I want to know what makes Him happy and I want to recognize Him in an instant when my life on earth is over because I have spent my life on earth in His presence.
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So this is a call out to biblical scholars, which I am not. I am reading multiple books of the bible at once in an attempt to make up for lost time in which I feel I have never truly learned the story of God beyond the story of my own life.
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This morning I was reading in Matthew (Matthew 11:1-19) when John hears in prison about what Christ is doing throughout the land. He sends men to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" They do this and of course Christ confirms to them that He is the One. Then He goes on to tell a crowd of people about how John is the prophet who was to prepare the way for the coming of the Christ (himself). And how John the Baptist is the greatest.
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This is all great but now I am confused about my friend because yesterday I read in Matthew 3 when John is baptizing people in the name of Him who is to come. Then he MEETS Jesus and Jesus asks John to baptize him. John clearly recognizes who this is because he says "I need to be baptized by YOU". Jesus then goes on to tell him that it's a fulfillment of the scriptures for John to baptize him so he does.
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Now, where did John go from recognizing Jesus as the Christ and baptizing Him and witnessing the Holy Spirit descend upon Him and TALK to Him (can't really miss this) to being in prison and telling his men to go ask this man if He is really the Christ or if he should be waiting for someone else? My first inclination was that John is like the rest of us and one moment he knows clearly who Jesus is and in the next moment is questioning everything. I do this often enough to recognize it when I see it. But then I am wondering if there is some scholarly thing I am missing out on in an attempt to know every hair on Jesus' head (and legs :).
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Thoughts anyone?
3 comments:
The Book of Matthew isn't in chronological order. Of the books of the NT, Luke is your best bet for a chronological order read. Hope that helps! Although, for your interpretation for our cloudy view of our savior...i like it!
P.S.--I'm not a Bibal scholar.
I wouldn't say I'm a scholar K, but I'll throw by two cents in for what it's worth...
I tend to lean a lot in favor of your thoughts about John being just like us in our "up and down" relationship with Jesus. How many times do I acknowledge Jesus on Sunday as King and live on Monday as if He's a nobody??? Too many to count.
All in all, a great question: Why did John, who previously recognized Jesus as Messiah ask this question?
It is possible that John did not ask this question for his own sake, but for the sake of his disciples - he wanted them to go to Jesus and ask the question for themselves, causing them to focus their attention on Jesus.
This would be in keeping with John’s heart in ministry: that Jesus would increase, and that he would decrease (John 3:30). Jesus’ answer to John the Baptist’s disciples: "tell John that prophecy regarding the Messiah is being fulfilled."
Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."
Jesus wants to assure both John and his disciples that He is the Messiah. But He also reminds them that His power will be displayed mostly in humble acts of service, meeting individual needs - not in a spectacular display of political deliverance...which is where follower in His day and in our day generally miss it!
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