“What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.”(Matthew 11:7-8)
The words of Jesus of Nazareth…words spoken in the midst of a conversation about his cousin, John…John, who had found himself in Herod’s prison cell because he touched one nerve too many with his prophetic judgement against the king’s very public adultery.
John’s view from his prison cell was not an attractive one, and second thoughts about announcing that his cousin was the Messiah were eating away at his faith. When he sent the, “Are you really the one?” question to Jesus in verses 2-3, the answer he got back had nothing to do with political power or overthrowing the oppressor. Instead, the signs Jesus pointed to involved healing, resurrection, and hope (verses 4-5)… down payments of a different kind of kingdom. Somehow he was certain John would understand.
But he wasn’t through talking about John. He turned to the crowds and asked, “What did you go out to see…?” And when he offered the choice, “a reed shaken by the wind”, it’s likely that he had in his mind the coin Herod had made picturing a reed as a symbol of himself, his authority, his power. Not clear enough? He went further. “But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.” Clearly a shot at Herod.
A delineation…a clear contrast of powers…the earthly kind of power that finds itself residing in frail human containers dressed up in the finest of royal garments vs. the divine kind of power that finds itself residing in frail human containers clothed in camel hair, the garment of the working poor. The soft, royal garments of political and economic privilege flutter in the breeze…indeed, they are blown about from all directions…like a reed shaken by the wind. But supernatural strength clings to humbly-clothed honesty like a heavy garment of camel skin.
Then…then Jesus gives John the highest compliment possible in verse 11 – that “among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” – at least it was the highest compliment possible until he added the next line, “but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
This kingdom…this kingdom of heaven is the crux of the matter. Jesus goes on to say in verse 12 that from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. I’ve heard sweat-soaked sermons proclaiming that we have to violently take hold of the things of God…His truth, His ways. Those sermons have morphed from the religious right into calls for dominion…taking this country back to its moral and religious roots. And those sermons have also morphed from the religious left into calls for social justice…a revolution that will liberate the oppressed. Both extremes have been seen in every age…including the age into which Jesus spoke.
But what if Jesus was not talking about cooperating with the kingdom of heaven through violence? What if he was referencing those who had been trying to prevent the effects of that kingdom since the days of John…in other words, the softly-clothed King Herod and all he represented…political power, military power, economic power, religious power, personal power. Any voice, like John’s, which points out the moral corruption that is the natural outgrowth of that power and points to another kingdom, has to be silenced…violently.
Indeed, Jesus later found himself on the receiving end of that violence. And as he hung in naked frailty on that violent symbol of the power of Rome and Jerusalem, he allowed himself to become the ultimate victim of all the shaking reeds in the history of the world and freed us from having to depend on them.
So…what does all of that mean for us right now? It means that we’d better be very careful to answer Jesus’s question correctly. What did we come out into the wilderness to see? Are we looking for our answers in the king’s house or in the prophet’s prison? Are we looking for a political answer to a spiritual question? Are we as Americans expecting more from our democratic process than it can deliver? When we look in political races for the kingdom of heaven or for someone announcing the kingdom of heaven or even for someone who stands for the truths of the kingdom of heaven, are we looking within a system that, like every other political system in the history of the planet, is diametrically opposed to that kingdom?
Any person who comes to that system, whether from the right or from the left, with the intent to make it fit into the kingdom of heaven, inevitably ends up putting on the soft clothing of compromise. The kingdom of heaven cannot and will not fit inside any earthly system, because it is, as Jesus told Pilate, not of this world.
So as we watch the political maneuvering over the next few months, let’s keep it in perspective. It is right and good for us to be involved in our country’s political process only if we recognize it for what it is…a very fallible system that can do some immediate good but will never be able to provide the ultimate answers. The ultimate answers will not come from the dominion sought by the right or the liberation offered by the left, because every person who aspires to a position inside that system ends up being blown about like a reed in the wind. And, I don’t know about you, but that is not what I came out to see.
