by Fr. Tommy Lane
John the Baptist was in prison for preaching on marriage (Matt 14:3-4; Mark 6:17-18; Luke 3:19-20). John the Baptist had disciples just as Jesus had disciples, but when John baptized Jesus, some of John’s disciples transferred to become disciples of Jesus. One of them was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, and another is presumed to be John the Evangelist himself (John 1:35-40). We don’t know how many more of Jesus’ disciples had been disciples of John the Baptist before transferring to become disciples of Jesus.
By the time we get to today’s Gospel (Matt 11:2-11), we have moved on in time a lot and it was really time for the remainder of John’s disciples to transfer to become disciples of Jesus, but they were slow in doing so. When John sent his disciples to Jesus with his question (“Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?), they personally saw the miracles Jesus performed. Jesus asked them to take back this reply to John:
Go and tell John what
you hear and see:
the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. (Matt 11:4-5)
So, John’s remaining disciples saw the blind regaining their sight, the lame walking properly again, lepers being cured, the deaf hearing again and the dead being raised. This was surely the incentive for them to transfer now to become disciples of Jesus like the others previously. Up to now they had delayed in becoming Jesus’ disciples. Now they would have no excuse.
They were not the only ones in the Gospels slow in becoming disciples of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea was a secret disciple of Jesus out of fear but when Jesus died, he let it be known publicly that he was a disciple of Jesus by asking Pilate for Jesus’ body and laying it in his own tomb (John 19:38). Nicodemus was also a secret disciple of Jesus. He came to Jesus by night (in order not to be seen) near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry asking him questions (John 3). After some time when people wanted to arrest Jesus, Nicodemus said to the chief priests and Pharisees that they should give Jesus a hearing first (John 11:50-51). Finally at the end of John’s Gospel, Nicodemus became a public disciple of Jesus as he assisted in the burial of Jesus (John 19:38-40).
We see in John the Baptist’s disciples, in Joseph of Arimathea and in Nicodemus that becoming a disciple of Jesus is not something that happens overnight but for some it can take years. That urges us to ask ourselves where we are on the road of discipleship of Jesus. Are we like John the Baptist’s disciples, still with allegiance elsewhere and needing to make a full commitment to Jesus? Are we like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus early in the Gospels, growing in our discipleship of Jesus but afraid to witness to it. Or are we publicly disciples of Jesus like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea at the end of the Gospels? We are all someplace on that journey.
If we find it difficult to still give full allegiance to Jesus, maybe it is because we have the same question as John the Baptist: “Are you the one who is to come or have we to wait for another?” Whatever prompted that question, John’s disciples benefitted as they saw Jesus’ many miracles and now must have had the faith to transfer to become Jesus’ disciples. If our prison, some cross or trouble, or the world not being the way it ought to be, is holding back our full commitment to Jesus, Jesus’ final words to John the Baptist today are helpful: “blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” (Matt 11:6) In the Greek which Matthew wrote, it is “Blessed is the one who does not trip over me.” When we have a cross or trouble, or the world is not the way we would like it to be, blessed are we if we do not trip over Jesus. Tripping over Jesus would be losing our faith because of an incorrect understanding expecting Jesus to fix everything that we humans upset. Tripping over Jesus would be blaming Jesus for something even though Jesus did not cause the problem. Blessed are we if we maintain our faith in Jesus despite the troubles of life because Jesus is not the one who caused them.
We are all on the journey to Jesus. Some of John the Baptist’s disciples were slow in transferring to Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were secret disciples of Jesus but at the end of the Gospels were public disciples of Jesus. If we still find it difficult to give our full commitment to Jesus, blessed are we if the troubles of life do not make us trip over Jesus because Jesus did not cause the problems. As this season of Advent continues, may it be for us a time of giving a full yes to Jesus.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2022
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
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