Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? (Matt 11:3)
Are you the one? This question is asked of Jesus by the disciples of John the Baptist, but it sounds like a very modern question to me. It’s also a theme of a certain kind of story-telling that’s been at the forefront of popular consciousness and culture for fifty years or more. These stories frame the struggle between good and evil as a cosmic battle that also takes place on a personal level, a battle for the human soul, both corporate and individual. Blockbuster films for these last fifty years, sometimes borrowing from books, have often been concerned with this question. Think of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, of Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings, or of Harry Potter - around each of whom swirls this question: Are you the one?
Or think of Neo in The Matrix. This is how the character Morpheus in that film describes the One:
“It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth - as long as the Matrix exists, the human race will never be free. After he died, the Oracle prophesied his return and that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people. That is why there are those who have spent our entire lives searching the Matrix looking for him.” The question haunts Neo: Are you the one?
By contrast, that question does not permeate ancient mythology in quite the same way. My theory is that if you have a pantheon of gods, you don’t have to worry so much about which one is “the one;” there’s always another god available; there’s always another god at the ready to do what some other god failed to do or wasn’t interested in doing.
Perhaps it’s the case that the question, “Are you the one” is more likely to arise in a monotheistic culture that takes for granted that there is only one God. And if there is only one God, then perhaps there can be only one true and complete manifestation of God or of God’s chosen one in the world.
We see an expression of this possibility in the Hebrew scriptures when the Lord sends Samuel to Jesse’s house to identify a new king for Israel. One by one, the sons of Jesse are brought to Samuel, but none of them is the one chosen by God. Samuel asks Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And it turns out that there is one more - the youngest son.
And when David comes before the prophet, the Lord says to him, “Rise and anoint him; for he is the one.” (1 Sam 16:12)
He is the one. No wonder that the New Testament writers are often at pains to link Jesus to the house and lineage of David, to the family tree of which Jesse is the root. Of whom else was it ever said so plainly, “He is the one”?
So, John the Baptist, whose life had been devoted to Jesus since before either of them was born, is obviously deeply concerned with this question: Is he the one? Is Jesus the one who is to come? Is Jesus the one who will finally hail the destruction of the Roman oppressors, end warfare, and bring freedom to the Jewish people? Are you the one, Jesus? Are you the one?
Despite the recent tradition of blockbuster films posing this question, it remains to be seen whether modern people are really very interested in this question outside of fiction. Does this story-telling tradition reveal a desire for a true faith in the one, living God, and a deep longing to know him and his chosen one? Or are we simply responding to something embedded in our psyches that yearns for stories with a hero?
I suppose that answering that question also depends on whether or not we perceive that there is an actual struggle taking place between the forces of good and the forces of evil in the world; and whether or not we believe there is a force that is powerful enough to win that battle decisively. And I suspect that Americans are actually pretty deeply uncertain about this question, maybe even suspicious of it. You’d not be without reason for wondering whether this is a helpful question to ask, since you can see that to answer it brings power; and that power can easily be abused.
More fundamentally, western culture has become an intentionally consumerist society that loves to be distracted by amusements. Isn’t this why I am asking the question through the lens of films most of us have probably seen? And consumers who are devoted to their entertainments are, it seems to me, very likely to prefer a pantheon to one God and one God only. Whether we admit it or not, we often live our lives like people for whom there is always another god available, and we rather like it this way. We like to be able to shop, after all. And besides, what difference does it make if you don’t believe that you need a chosen one to do anything for you, anyway? What difference does it make if you believe you are already free, and if you don’t mind being at war?
It’s typical of Jesus, of course, that he does not actually answer the question posed to him by John the Baptist’s disciples. But it behoves us to look closely at what Jesus does say when asked, Are you the one?
“Go and tell John what you hear and see,” he says. “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” He might as well have added, “What do you think?”
But this answer is not what most people expected in the Messiah, the anointed one of God. They were not wondering if someone was coming to bring freedom and release to the blind and the halt, the sick and the impaired. They had already given up hope for the dead. And they already knew that, as far as they were concerned, there was no good news to be had for the poor - only misery and shame. And perhaps they did not see the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the sick as casualties of a conflict between good and evil. These conditions were just the results of someone’s sin. They had forgotten that death came about as the result of a failure to love God enough to obey him. And they saw the poor as a necessary, possibly unfortunate, part of the system, but not a result of injustice in a world that could easily provide for everyone.
But what about us? What do we care about those who have less than we have and less than they need? Or about the sick, and the troubled, and those in want? What do we care about the dead? Are we interested in a Savior who has come first and foremost for them? Do we care if good triumphs over evil, if we get the stuff we want, all the same? Do we think we could be freer than we are?
As Christmas comes, we hear the question posed to Jesus: Are you the one?
As we prepare to try to welcome this little Lord into our hearts, we are prepared with that question ringing in our ears: Are you the one?
Do we believe that there is an actual struggle taking place between the forces of good and the forces of evil in the world; and that there is a force that is powerful enough to win that battle decisively. And do we think that the answer to that question could be meaningful not only to us, but also to the many, many souls who are in greater need than we are, whose lives are less easy, and who are poor for no good reason except the injustice of a world that could easily provide enough for everyone?
For my own sake, I find it helpful to be reminded of those many times that the culture around us has asked some fictional character, “Are you the one?” Be it Luke Skywalker, or Bilbo Baggins, or Harry Potter, or Neo. I don’t mind one bit, engaging with fictions that point us to the question of whether or not there is a conflict between good and evil, and whether or not there is one who is powerful enough to win that conflict decisively. I think these questions nag at us for a reason.
Because as far as I am concerned, Jesus answered with all the clarity that’s needed, when John’s disciples came to ask him, “Are you the one?”
What do you think? The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Could there be a more powerful witness that there is only one God, and that he has the power to decide the conflict between good and evil?
Come, quickly, Lord, and complete the work that you began so long ago in Palestine. Hear our prayers, and be for us the Savior that we need, not the hero we think we might want. Teach us that there is no other God but you, and that living our lives as though there will always be another god available gets us nowhere. Come to us, Lord. For, yes, you are the one!
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
11 December 2022
Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, Philadelphia
