Your Lying Eyes
Rev. Delwyn Campbell / General / Advent / Kingdom of God; Trial; Criticism; John the Baptist; The coming of the kingdom and the Son of Man / Matthew 11:2–15
16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely."
I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?
If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Luke 3:15–18 ESV
As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.
John had faithfully fulfilled his vocation of preparing the way for Christ. John pointed others to Christ; he did not claim for himself any position or following other than what God had given to him. When Jesus Christ came to him, he humbled himself before him, even to the point of hesitating to baptize Him, then submitting when Jesus declared that it was fitting to do so.
John believed that the coming of the Messiah would lead to the establishment of His Kingdom, that the righteous judgment of the LORD would fall upon the unrighteous. For this reason, he called the people of Jerusalem, Judea, and the region around the Jordan to repentance. He even exhorted the religious leaders to repent rather than trust in their religious status to shield them from God’s righteous judgment. Not even the earthly authority of Herod, the pretender to David’s throne, was exempt from John’s call to repentance. John’s preaching reaches a point where Herod fears his impact .
Luke 3:19–20 ESV
But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
It looks like God abandoned John, but why? John was doing his job!
Matthew 4:12–17 ESV
Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Historically, it makes for an interesting timeline. In terms of the unfolding of God’s Mission, this is even more significant. What my earthly understanding sees totally as an unjust, evil act - the arrest and ultimate judicial murder of John the Baptist, is part of God’s unfolding Mission. Everything that had taken place, from the long childlessness of Zechariah and Elisabeth, to John’s ministry in the wilderness of Judea near the Jordan, up to and including his arrest by Herod, took place under the watchful, just, and loving hand of God who called him while in his mother’s womb. John knew only two things - that the Messiah was coming, and that he was to prepare His way. He did not know when or how he would be rewarded for his service. He did not know when, how, or in what form the Kingdom of the Heavens would be inaugurated. He worked faithfully, fulfilling his vocation until Herod’s fears took him out of the public’s eyes and ears .
Matthew 11:2–3 ESV
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
Some would criticize John’s question that begins our Gospel text. How many people do we know, however, who have left their first love of Christ because the circumstances of life turned in ways that seemed contrary to the promises of God? How many took disappointment as evidence of God’s displeasure, or worse, His absence, instead of looking to His fulfilled Word for comfort?
Matthew 11:4–6 ESV
And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
We get offended at God because we don’t get what we wanted, even thought that we needed, in order to have the life that we believed that we should have. Equally as bad, we forget the grace of our Lord and begin to seek for a way to earn God’s blessing, looking in books or messages for the key that will unlock the treasures of Heaven for us, replacing our disappointment with satisfaction, looking for Jesus to fill us from our equivalent of five loaves and two fishes.
But there is another wrong here as well in our text, even worse than John’s moment of questioning. It is that which brought forth our Lord’s caustic rebuke of the crowds when they heard of John’s question:
Matthew 11:7–10 ESV
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
We look at other’s situations to try to determine their standing with God, their obedience to God, or their faith in God. People write books and make speeches that argue that you can tell who is blessed by their degree of earthly success. “Your best life now” becomes the marker of your eternal relationship with your heavenly Father. This, because we forget the Scripture which says:
1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
Right now, it looks like the righteous struggle and the wicked prosper, or that God is a respecter of persons. In fact, what you see now truly is just temporary - a light momentary affliction not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed.
Matthew 11:11–15 ESV
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
No, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. (NIV 84) is not a proper translation. Nor are we called to “storm the gates of heaven” by our prayers or acts of self-denial that are intended to force God’s hand to our comfort or pleasure. Dr Jeffrey A. Gibbs, author of the Concordia Commentary: Matthew 11:2 - 20:34, wrote:
Concordia Commentary: Matthew 11:2–20:34 Commentary
To be sure, God’s ultimate purposes in Jesus will prevail. But Jesus now reveals that in him, God is reigning in a hidden, lowly, resistible fashion. John, the forerunner of the reign and of him in whom God is reigning, is the prime example. Herod Antipas, that violent man, has arrested John, and soon John will be executed. As the unfolding narrative of Matthew’s Gospel now will begin to emphasize, Jesus himself will increasingly meet with opposition and unbelief, calling forth his condemnation of the places to which he has gone but where no repentance and faith in him have resulted from his gracious ministry (11:16–24).
God has spoken; let the church say, “Amen!” The night has passed, and the dawn is breaking. Our Lord will return and His reward will be with Him. While we wait for Him, let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we don’t become discouraged. Let us continue to do good to all, and especially to the household of faith.
And let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
