“Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” (Matt 11:3). Does this question, uttered by John the Baptist from a prison cell, surprise us? After all, John leapt in his mother’s womb at the mere arrival of Mary, pregnant with the child Jesus. Shouldn’t he know for certain? And, if he doesn’t know, how can any of us?
Therein lies the beauty of today’s Gospel. Rather than surprise us, might today’s scene give us comfort? When we find ourselves despairing or doubting, losing hope or maybe even losing faith, can we come back to this question and know that to wonder about God and God’s work is not to be faithless but to be human?
It is through questions that we go deeper into relationship with God. It is in the moments of doubt that God rushes in to fill the void with a deeper love and a wider perspective around what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We are not granted certainty at every turn. We are not promised a life without suffering. We are not guaranteed prosperity and power. Too often we humans want to make Jesus into the kind of king we recognize, and perhaps that’s why the doubt creeps in.
If we are faithful, shouldn’t all of this make sense? But we are thinking as humans think and not as God thinks. So, question, wonder, doubt, but do not step away. The One we are looking for is already and always beside us.
