The First and Second Finding of the Precious Head of the Holy, Glorious Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist.
Great Fast Day 13. All-Night Vigil Feast.
2 Corinthians 4:6-15. Matthew 11:2-15.
Read Matthew 11:2-15
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
We all have our doubts. It is very natural for all human beings, because we are not perfect. We have doubts about things we hear, about viewpoints we were taught, and about information we receive, for everything is relative and there is nothing and no one we can fully rely on in this world. We do not possess the truth, for the Truth in its fullness belongs exclusively to God. Yet, even standing before the living incarnation of the Truth, Pilate is posing the eternal rhetorical question: “What is the truth?” Together with Pilate we are in danger of overlooking the Truth, and together with John the Baptist, whose first and second finding of the head we celebrate today, we may have our doubts even about Jesus.
One can only wonder, how John, the second Elijah, the greatest of all prophets entitled with the mission which was predicted in the Scripture, the one who pointed out to Christ saying: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes the sins of the world” can still have doubts in the One whose way he, as a Forerunner, came to prepare? Maybe he just wanted to reassure his disciples to follow Jesus after his death or perhaps, being on the edge of life and death, John wished to hear those final words of confirmation that his mission was accomplished and did not live his life in vain. We do not know, and we will never know, since every human heart is a mystery.
My guess is that John expected to see the results of his mission right away. Therefore, he hoped at least before his death to hear that Jesus is about to rebuild the mighty kingdom of Israel by destruction of all its enemies. John’s image of the Messiah was no different from that of the old prophecies, according to which Jesus was supposed to put an end to all evil powers by bringing the Judgement Day. What is why he was saying that the “axe was at the root of the tree,” that we need to repent, since the Kingdom of God is at hand, the winnowing process is about to begin and the divine fire of cleansing judgment already awaits for evildoers.
Similarly to Christ’s apostles, John did not see the whole truth about Jesus. He actually came to overcome Evil, but the ultimate victory cannot be achieved by brutal power, but by love. He actually came to reestablish the Kingdom of Israel, but he did not intend to do so merely by reaffirmation of the exclusive rights of the Jews, but by the establishing of the New Israel which will no longer be limited to one nation. He did not come to reclaim the throne, but to receive the crown of thorns.
Mother Teresa’s motto was: “He did it for me!” The key word is DID. Jesus did not come to this world only to pass on to us the new teaching, and to preach the Gospel by his words. The central message of the Gospel was not so much about what Jesus said, but about what he DID. It becomes obvious, from the answer of Jesus to John the Baptist: “Go and tell John what you see.” The same is true about us. People will not remember us from what we said, but from what we DID.