In Defense of John the Baptist

I was disturbed when I heard a preacher on the radio saying that John the Baptist had a crisis of faith when he sent disciples In Luke 7. I had to write this in his defense. Here is the story first.

¹⁸ John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, ¹⁹ he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

²⁰ When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”

²¹ At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. ²² So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. ²³ Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

²⁴ After John’s messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? ²⁵ If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. ²⁶ But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ²⁷ This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way before you.’

²⁸ I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Now the defense.

Mr. Anderson the religion teacher at the mission in Guatemala had to leave town. He told his students that the Pope himself will be teaching them until a new teacher is hired. Many students didn’t know exactly what a “Pope” was. The students were sad. A third grader said “We don’t want you to leave. We like learning religion from you. We don’t know if we can trust this Bishop to teach us the right thing.” Mr. Anderson explained you can totally trust the Pope

 

Student: Should believe whatever he tells us?

Anderson: Yes

A 6^th grader decided to play along. “Suppose he tells us not to listen to the priest?”

Anderson: He won’t do that?

Student: What if he does?

Anderson: Then you would listen to the Pope.

Student: Suppose he says Father Tony is not even a priest anymore?

Anderson: You would listen to the Pope.

Student: So who could tell us that Jesus is not the Messiah?

Mr. Anderson was a bit taken by the question. After thinking for a while he said” No one can. Only God or the Son of God”

Mr. Anderson looked at the back of the church where Father Tony was sitting. Father nodded in approval.

After class Mr. Anderson asked Father Tony, “So when John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah, John must have already known and believed that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God?”

Fr. Tony: Indeed!

Anderson: So why ask?

Fr. Tony: The first question we should be asking is why did John the Baptist still have disciples after he told all his followers that he is only here to prepare the way for Jesus? Did John do his very best to make his disciples follow Jesus instead?

Anderson: Yes

Fr. Tony: Is it a good thing that there were still disciples that followed John?

Anderson: No

Fr. Tony: Do you think he tried his best to get them to stop following him and turn to Jesus?

Anderson: Yes

Fr. Tony: So why did they continue?

Anderson: Maybe they were emotionally attached to him.

Fr. Tony: I think so. So this was a sort of intervention for those disciples’ emotional problem. Instead of telling them to go follow Jesus which they seem to refuse, he tells them “Go ask him a question for me”. Doing that he puts them in a mind set to listen to Jesus and do as he says. He also makes himself seem unsure (intentionally). He also knows that when they go see Jesus they will witness great miracles.

And Jesus (knowing everything) “plays along” speaking as if John was stumbling.

Did you notice that Jesus has so many good things to say about John? But he only says those things after John’s disciples leave. Jesus always had great things to say about John (some of the greatest testament by one man to another ever). The only time he says something less than flattering about John was when John’s disciples are around. As soon as they leave he goes back to saying great things about him.

Would Jesus, who knows the heart of every man say such things about someone who has a crisis of faith?

Why did Jesus say so many outrageous things?

Once upon a time there was a conservative candidate for the presidency who was known for being ultra conservative. He was opposed to illegal immigration and probably all immigration. He strongly opposed same sex “marriage” and gay couples adopting children. When he was asked about his view on immigration he said, “I don’t care if it is legal or illegal. I just don’t want this country to become Mexico.” When asked about children of gay couples he said, “Gay and lesbian couples can’t have children.” His responses were immediately picked up by all the news media. Many experts said that this was the most outrageous statement ever by a presidential candidate. “In the era of soundbites this is all you have to do to end your campaign”, the experts said. “He should’ve known that now even conservatives can’t stand by while he says things like that”. When liberals heard of this they were duly outraged. They said that now conservatives will have to abandon him or be viewed as lunatic right wingers. “This is the end of his candidacy.” The big surprise was that most, if not all, conservatives agreed with him. His support among conservatives increased. Even middle of the road conservatives, and some moderates and independents, liked his views.  Conservative media were now replaying his quotes round the clock energizing more conservative voters. There was no way for anybody to avoid hearing those quotes. Almost every person in the country knew about them. Each side claimed that those quotes helped their cause and converted some undecideds to their side. But, one thing was certain, his quotes reached everyone. He became the most well-known politician in recent history. Did he win the election you may ask? No he didn’t. You can say he energized the opposition too much!  He was accused of hate speech and forced to drop out of the race.

The most amazing thing about our candidate was he was able to use his opposition to spread his message. The same quotes that the opposition thought were outrageous and absurd and thereby replayed over and over, those same quotes were picked up by his followers and repeated with great pride and affection. Imagine if this happened before there was the internet and news TV. Imagine further that this was before newspapers, when the only news was word of mouth. How amazingly effective was this mechanism of spreading the word? That is why when his history was written by his followers many years later most of what they remembered verbatim was those outrageous quotes. If you read their reports you might think that half of what he said was so outrageous and outlandish. Or as one priest said “Deliberate exaggeration intended to shock for the desired effect”. I think he probably had a lot more “reasonable” things to say. But, it makes sense that if no one wrote any of them down at the time, then they would be more difficult to remember so many years later.

Think about how many outlandish quotes from the gospel were repeated by Christian parents, priests, preachers, and teachers? Quotes about hating your parents and plucking your eye out! They were repeated with great pride, respect, and affection. These are the kind of quotes that non-Christians would say is all they need to show how crazy those Christians are. My thesis is that for a few years, even decades after the ascension, those quotes continued to be repeated by both sides. And that is why those quotes are over represented in the gospels. Jesus basically used his opposition both to spread his word and as a memory aid. The quotes had to be exaggerations to achieve that.

A Parable about Transubstantiation

When Mr. Anderson who is the director of religious education at St. Mary’s in Metamora teaches catechism he has a saying which he repeats so much that the school children can finish the sentence for him. He says, “English…” and they say, “..is a terrible language for theology”. One of his examples is the word substance. He says that its Greek origin stands for, “that which lies under the appearance of”. He says its use in English (mainly in physics) totally obscures what the word really means. So, transubstantiation means changing that which lies under the appearance of bread and wine.

That, together with an episode of “The Suite Life on Deck” and the live size (human size) statues of angels by the altar at St. Mary’s, gave me an idea for a parable on transubstantiation. In the episode of Suite Life, Zack and Cody pretended to be statues of some ancient Roman figures. They dressed up in togas and then sprayed themselves completely with a white dust. I Put all this together and came up with this parable.

I was walking around the art museum the other day with Jesus. We were talking about transubstantiation and the meaning of the word ‘substance’. We passed by a statue of an angel and he asked me, “What is this?” I said, “I am not sure what you mean Jesus. Are you asking what it represents? It’s supposed to represent an angel.”  He said, “OK, so it has the appearance of an angel?” I said, “Yes just the appearance and really only from a distance”. He smiled and said, “That is fine. But, what is its substance?” I said, “Stone”. He said, “Exactly. What lies under the appearance of an angel is stone. How do you know that?” “Well you can feel it.” I said, “It’s hard as a stone.” 

He then walked up to another statue and asked, “Who is this.”  I said, “This represents Julius Caesar. But what lies under the appearance of Julius Caesar is stone.”  He said, “Well this time you are wrong. This is someone pretending to be a statue. So under the appearance of Julius Caesar is a statue but under the appearance of the statue is a human being.”  ‘Wow, he’s doing such a good job standing so still” I said, “and holding his breath. I couldn’t tell.”  Jesus said “squeeze his arm”. I said, “No, Lord I believe you. I don’t need proof”. He said, “I want you to feel his arm”. I squeezed his arm and it was obvious that it was a human arm.

Next, came a statue of King David. Jesus asked, “How about this one?” I said, “I don’t know. It has the appearance of King David, and under that, has the appearance of a statue. But, what is under that?  I can’t tell.  Is it another person pretending to be a statue?”  He said, “Yes. Feel his arm.”  I said, “Jesus I believe you and I trust you. I have faith in you. I don’t need to test what you tell me.” He said, “Good. I need you to have that faith. You will need it here pretty soon. Now, feel his arm.”

I started to squeeze the statue’s arm but it was solid as a rock. I said, “Jesus I can’t squeeze his arm. Why is that?”  He said, ‘It’s because this man has put on such a thick layer of stone that you can’t squeeze through it.  Are you having doubt now?” 

I said, “No, I will never doubt what you say. You said there is a live person underneath. And that is that.  I am sure that a stronger person can squeeze hard enough to crush the stone layer and feel the person underneath. “

Jesus: “No, there is no human being strong enough to do that.”

“How about we just watch or listen for him breathing, or do some kind of x ray or ultrasound or a biological activity scan or something of that sort?”,  I asked.

Jesus: “Actually, there is no human sense or device that could see through that stone and feel the live person underneath.”

“So, Jesus, no human will be able on his own to sense or prove that there is a live person underneath?”

Jesus:  “No, quite the opposite. All your human senses, tests and devices will “prove” that there is nothing but stone.”

“So how would anyone find out?”

Jesus: “They don’t find out. They know.”

“How do they know?”

“I tell them and they believe me. There is no other way. Do you remember what I told you before I asked you to feel that statue’s arm?”

 “That I will need faith?”

Do you still have it?

 I said, “Yes, Lord.”