Manuscript Illumination with Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist, ca. 1515
South Netherlandish,
Tempera, ink, and shell gold on parchment; 6 1/2 x 4 5/8in. (16.5 x 11.7cm) Mat: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Isaiah 41:13-20
Psalm 145: 1-4, 8-13
Matthew 11:7-15
At the beginning of Matthew 11, we read that John the Baptist is in prison. John has sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus tells them to describe to John what they have seen and heard him do which will affirm to John Jesus’ identity as the Messiah.
After they’ve left, Jesus speaks to the crowds about John’s identity as the forerunner to the Messiah and messenger of the coming kingdom. “What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you’.” (Mt.11:10). Honouring John further he says, “truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist.” “Yet” Jesus says, “the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Could the crowd even begin to understand what Jesus implies – that we, the least, are greater because we belong to Christ?
Do we today as the body of Christ truly live into the fullness that Jesus is speaking about here—about our identity in Christ? We through the love and grace of God are divine image-bearers, God’s children. Participating in the work and blessings of God’s reign now, we live in Advent anticipation of the fulfilment of what is yet to be.
Dorothy Dahli