July 5, 2026, First Lutheran Church, Throggs Neck, the Bronx
Were you able to enjoy the fireworks last night? Brilliant colors against a night sky? Concussive explosions you can feel in your teeth? The pride swelling in your chest as the star spangled banner waves over the nation’s 250th birthday?
Whenever fireworks explode over head my mind goes back to July 4, 1968. I had just returned from a three year deployment in England and was now serving as a chaplain’s assistant at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita. My roommate had just returned from a year-long assignment in Vietnam.
His name was Corneilius E. Smith III, but he preferred to be called Neil. We were extremely compatible as roommates. We disagreed about most everything from religion to politics but we gave each other space to go our own way.
We were in our barracks room that July 4th when fireworks flashed and detonated overhead. Our room shook with thunderous noise and I quickly went to the window to enjoy the show. I turned to share my joy with Neil.
But Neil was sitting on the edge of his bed, shaking, holding hands over his ears, stifling sobs.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, probably unnecessarily. “You okay?”
He pressed his hands more tightly against his ears.
“Sorry,” he said. “Sounds too much like Vietnam.”
I remembered that Neil had spent a horrible night in a bunker when the Viet Cong sent a large barrage of missiles toward the base.
Clearly we had different views about fireworks.
In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus reminded his disciples that he – and they – were regarded with dramatically different views.
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” (Matthew 11:18-19)
Have you ever found yourself in profound disagreement with those around you? Have you ever been ridiculed by friends or neighbors or co-workers for your views or your lifestyle? Do your political or social views conflict with family members and ruin Thanksgiving dinner?
How do you handle it? Or, how do you wish you had handled it?
How did John the Baptizer handle his sudden doubts that he and Jesus were not on the same projectory?
John is in prison because he because he spoke truth to power. He rebuked the king, Herod Antipas, for divorcing his wife Phasaelis and unlawfully marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias.
There is no way this could end well for John.
We can imagine the Baptizer in a dark cell, trying to keep his spirits up. But he is clearly at the end of the line of his prophetic ministry and doubts begin to cross his mind. In his desolation he calls upon his followers to go to Jesus and ask,
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:2-3)
This is a shocking question from Jesus’ own kinsman. John knew all his life that he has been called by God to prepare the way of the Lord. John had seen the heavens open when he baptized Jesus and heard God’s voice express pride and pleasure in God’s son. We can only guess the depth of John’s despair that made him doubt himself, his life, and now he is feeling doubts about the Messiah’s legitimacy. It’s almost as if, in his desperation to restore his faith, he sends a message to Jesus asking, “are you for real? I think you are. But I need to check.”
But as he sits in his darkened prison, assured of an imminent execution, is he struggling with doubts about this celestial assignment?
Jesus is neither offended nor threatened by John’s question. He responds with compassion and understanding.
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
And Jesus shows he has not lost faith in John:
“What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind. What, then, did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. 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.’
“Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist.
Matt Skinner, Asher O. and Carrie Nasby Professor of New Testament
Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., asks, “Why do people fail to heed both John and Jesus? Jesus criticizes the recalcitrance of “ this generation,” meaning a mindset of resistance manifested in people who refuse to embrace either John or Jesus.
“Jesus likens the folks of 'this generation' to children who refuse to go along with the rules of a game. When urged to act joyfully, they won’t dance. When the situation calls for gloom, they won’t mourn. Whether they’re foolish, immature, or haughty, they choose to be hardheaded for the sake of hardheadedness.
“Then Jesus cracks open his general maxim to make it more specific: John conducted his ministry with righteous intensity and asceticism, yet his opponents belittled him as deranged and demonic … By contrast, Jesus conducts his ministry with joy and inclusion, yet his detractors label him vulgar, unserious, and soft on sin. It doesn’t matter what kind of messengers God sends; no one wants to hear from prophets and teachers.”
This is exceedingly odd. God is offering blessings and salvation and Jesus is offering comfort and mercy.
Matthew writes about both judgment and mercy.
Just as we may have different views about politics or lifestyle or even fireworks, we tend to differ on what is meant by judgment and mercy.
But “Judgment is not an expression of Jesus’s desire to punish as much as it is an outcome that derives from people’s determination to obstruct mercy or from people’s refusal to extend mercy themselves,” writes Professor Skinner. “To dismiss Jesus’s ‘deeds of power’ is to dismiss the needs of those who benefit from his mercy.
And Jesus desires most urgently to see mercy spread to every corner of our nation, our homes, our families, and our lives.
