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SERMON III

NONE BUT CHRIST TO BE LOOKED FOR

ST. MATTHEW xi. 3.

"Art Thou he that should come, or do we look for another?"

THESE are the words of a great saint, one of the greatest of saints, one of whom our Lord witnessed, that of those born of women there never had arisen a greater than he. He had been sent to prepare the way of the Saviour. He had been commissioned to point to a meek and humble man, who in no respect appeared at first sight to differ from those about Him, and to say of Him, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." By and by the faith of this servant of God was put to the test. He was cast into prison, and as he lingered there, apparently unnoticed by Him to whom he had borne witness, his faith began to fail. “If this is the Messiah," he thought within himself, "why does He not assert his claim in such a way that all the world should at once acknowledge Him? If He be the Messiah, why does He keep us in doubt? Let Him say plainly who He is.” So he sends from his dungeon two of his disciples with the question, "Art Thou he

that should come, or do we look for another?" Art Thou the long-promised deliverer, the desire of all nations, the child on whose shoulder is to be the government, or do we look for another? Art Thou only like myself, a precursor, a forerunner of some still greater deliverer?

Jesus sends him an answer, "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."

I think that these last words are decisive as to the purpose for which St. John the Baptist sent his disciples to Our Lord. The passage has been frequently interpreted as if St. John's faith had not wavered in the least, but that he sent his disciples in order that their faith might be established by seeing the miracles that Jesus wrought. But is there any extraordinary difficulty in supposing the faith of any saint at times to waver? Abraham's faith wavered. Not that it failed ever, but it showed that after all, no matter how divine its origin, it was still human faith. So did St. Peter's: so did that of the rest of the Apostles. Why, then, should we suppose that St. John the Baptist's was perfectly unwavering? I cannot help thinking, then, that this message

of the Saviour was to St. John himself, and intended for the strengthening and confirming of his faith. I believe that St. John was, as our Lord said, no reed shaken by the wind. He was a prophet-more than a prophet-of those born of women none had arisen greater. And yet he had his times of weakness, when he, as well as his brethren, required a comforting and assuring message from his Redeemer.

Now let us look to the message that the Saviour sent to him: "Go and tell John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." This sounds to me as if Jesus said, What sort of a Messiah are you looking for? What do you expect Him to do? Do you look for a Messiah of your own imagination, one coming with observation, with pomp and power; or do you look for the one prophesied of, who should come to heal the bodies of men of their diseases, and the souls of men of their sins? You know what the prophets have foretold; you know that Isaiah prophesied of the great anointed of God, that "the Lord had anointed him to preach good tidings to the meek" (or poor). You know that the same prophet, in speaking of the times of the Messiah, prophesied that God will come and save, and that the sign of His coming

should be, that "the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." You have heard how I do, and do abundantly, all these things. You have heard how My Father is present with Me to heal, so that every form of human suffering vanishes at My touch. You have heard how even the grave has to give up its prisoners at My word. 'You have heard how the poor have the gospel preached to them. You have heard with what power and efficacy I bring home to the poor the chief consolations of God, namely, the forgiveness of sins, the favour of God, the life everlasting, and all its joys; the blessedness of suffering and privation, if sanctified by the Spirit that God is ever ready to give. Go, and show John these things, and he will see that He who does these things must be the Christ of God; for there can be nothing beyond these things: no man can do greater things than these, or do these things as I do them. If, then, God has given it to you, as He has done, to bear witness to Me as the Christ, and if I have these marks of the Christ that was to come, waver not for a moment as regards My mission from My Father. "Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me."

Blessed is he that shall believe in Me,

and cleave to Me, even though for the present I hide My glory in weakness, and show Myself only to faithful hearts.

The key, then, to this incident is, that St. John's faith wavered because the Saviour delayed the manifestation of Himself as he expected. The Saviour reassures him by showing him that He had all the marks of the Messiah that St. John had a right from his knowledge of the prophets to expect; that He did works, and so did them that there could be no doubt of His divine mission, and that men must trust in Him though in humiliation, and though His outward circumstances might be otherwise than what they expected, till the time appointed of The Father.

From this question thus asked by the Baptist, and from our Lord's answer, we learn this, that the One Great Remedy for all the evils of human nature has been given, and that no other remedy for sin and sorrow is to be looked for till the present scene vanishes away, and time is swallowed up in eternity.

Till the time of Christ the whole unredeemed world was waiting for some one to come; some great deliverer was looked for. We have the word of a heathen author to assure us, that throughout the whole of the East men were in expectation of some one arising who should have dominion. What amongst the other tribes of the East was but an uncertain dreamy

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