After Easter…disappointment?

Put in plain language, ‘Are you the One, or should we look for somebody else?’

I have always made much of Sundays leading up to Easter. However, after Easter there is something that does not quite seem right. There is a flatness in the air, a low feeling. Disappointment even. It may be that we feel we have done it all. Been there, done that.

It may also be that before Easter, we expect something transforming, overwhelming, new. After Easter it feels like the same old. Self-interest, little care for the poor, adulation for the rich persists. And what little hints of Easter glory there may have been, what little taste of Easter transformation there may have been, quickly vanishes.

Here we all are after Easter back again as the same people just as we were before Easter. No wonder there is disappointment.

And we are not alone.

A teenager in my previous parish asked me, “What is so great about Jesus?’ It was a good question. It was a brave question. And it was the right question. I congratulated the young man for asking it.

This is the age of superstars, the super smart and the super wealthy. Minnows matter little and winning is the only thing. Who dreams of one day becoming a Methodist minister? My guess is not many, if any. The young man went on to say, ‘If Easter is all about a dead guy, then that’s not cool. Jesus is a loser!’

Who, today, would not agree with this?

In our world Jesus is not the model for living. Our world demands clear, instant and simple answers. Victory belongs to the smart and quick, conflicts are won by might not right.

What is it about Jesus that might capture our attention - especially in the aftermath of his greatest moment, the resurrection?

The two questions which appear in Luke’s gospel reframe the sense of disappointment. Before Jesus was asked, ‘Are you the one who is to come?’, he had already acquired the reputation of doing some impressive things - raising the dead and, more importantly, attending to the living, the blind recovered their sight, the sick healed, the hungry fed, women are heard, children cared for, sinners forgiven. The news of all these deeds reached the followers of John the Baptist and they came to Jesus to ask, ‘Are you the One or should we look for somebody else?’

It is worth remembering that John the Baptist, unlike Jesus, looked like a prophet. He wore a beard, spoke with a loud voice, ate wild food, lived rough and wore dark edgy clothes. John the Baptist was a prophetic performer and was, from the gospel account of his work and life, very successful at it. John is out there pounding the countryside and getting noticed in high places. His disciples are wondering and rightly asking, ‘Who is this Jesus? Is he the One we are to expect? Or should we look for somebody else? Is he where it is really happening? Are we to look for somebody who looks, sounds and acts like John the Baptist; only bigger, louder and better than John? Is that who we should be looking for?’

Of course, the implication is Yes! That is exactly who we should be looking for.

No wimpy prophet for us. We want somebody whose telephone calls get answered, somebody who demands and gets attention, somebody who asks and gets respect. We don’t want somebody who lacks the spine.

These questions, ‘Are you the One who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’, are put to Jesus out there and he answers them with a litany of results – the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the sick are healed and the poor have good news preached to them. Jesus is saying I have done all these things and I have given hope to the poor, why do you have trouble believing all this?

Jesus knows that the image and reality of a prophet does not square up in his case. He is not a prophet cut out from the copy book of prophecy. He does not compare himself to the greats like Elijah, Jeremiah or Isaiah and the rest of them. He is not even a successful comparison to his own cousin John the Baptist.

Jesus understands that ‘they’, meaning ‘we’, have trouble with all of this because it may not be what people are looking for. It may not be what ‘we’, ‘they’, are waiting for. All these things have happened, says Jesus, but is this what you want? Is it what you expect?