The first impression one might get
when reading today’s gospel lesson is this: There is hope for all of us! If
John the Baptist had to send disciples to Jesus and ask if Jesus was the one who
is to come or if he should look for another, then maybe the doubts we have are
okay too! While it is true that doubting is both normal and okay, we have to
wait for the Sunday after Easter and the story of “Doubting Thomas” for that
kind of affirmation.
To land on the doubting theme is to
miss the tremendous blessings this passage can bring. There is way more going
on here than just John trying to appease his doubts. Of course, it was natural
for John to have questions, considering where he was when he sent his disciples
to Jesus. He was in prison. We find out in Matthew 14 why John was incarcerated:
Herod had put him there because John had told Herod that it was against the Law
of Moses for him to marry his brother’s wife, Herodias. Philip, Herodias’ first
husband, was still alive and had not divorced her, so she was still married to
Philip, but was with Herod.1 Sounds like a soap opera!
But John’s inquiry about Jesus
raises a question for us: Did John really doubt Jesus’ identity in those
difficult circumstances? After all, it was John who first recognized Jesus when
the latter came to be baptized. When Jesus showed up next to the Jordan River,
John pointed out that he ought to be baptized by Jesus, not the other way
around!2 And then when Jesus came up out of the water, the Spirit
descended in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven declared Jesus to be
God’s beloved Son.3
So, with that kind of an event
confirming what John knew about Jesus already, and given that John’s whole jo
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