Not your words but your works!

Matthew 11:2-14

John, meanwhile, had been locked up in prison. When he got wind of what Jesus was doing, he sent his own disciples to ask, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?”

Jesus told them, “Go back and tell John what’s going on:

The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,

the dead are raised, the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.

“Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!”

When John’s disciples left to report, Jesus started talking to the crowd about John. “What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A weekend camper? Hardly. What then? A sheik in silk pajamas? Not in the wilderness, not by a long shot. What then? A prophet? That’s right, a prophet! Probably the best prophet you’ll ever hear. He is the prophet that Malachi announced when he wrote, ‘I’m sending my prophet ahead of you, to make the road smooth for you.’

“Let me tell you what’s going on here: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer; but in the kingdom he prepared you for, the lowliest person is ahead of him. For a long time now people have tried to force themselves into God’s kingdom. But if you read the books of the Prophets and God’s Law closely, you will see them culminate in John, teaming up with him in preparing the way for the Messiah of the kingdom. Looked at in this way, John is the ‘Elijah’ you’ve all been expecting to arrive and introduce the Messiah.

Food for thought!

In order to respond to John and his emissaries, Jesus did not cite words but works. They had come with a question, "Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?" To this question Jesus replied by pointing to his works, "Go and tell John what is going on." What Jesus does is to point to his works, not to his words and sermons.

The ultimate proof of Jesus is not his words, but his works. It is not his sermons; it is his touching lives; it is not his words but his works that prove him right. It means that Jesus' greatest teaching is not what he said but what he did!

Jesus was the only person who could ever demand without qualification to be judged not by what he said but by what he did. The challenge of Jesus is still the same. He does not so much say "Listen to what I have to tell you" as "Look what I can do for you; see what I have done for others."

Jesus wants us to judge him not by his words but by his works; not by his sermons but by his miracles. Like Jesus, at the end of our lives we too shall be judged not so much by our words as by our works. It is not how much we said or preached but how much we did, not so much by how many people we taught but by how many people we touched, how many lives we transformed by our lives.

While it is only a few people that ever climb the pulpit to preach, everybody is engaged in some works. Our works, the things you and I do, are more important than our words, our sermons. Remember what Jesus said a few days ago, "It is not those who say 'Lord, Lord' who will enter heaven but those who do the will of my Father."

Remember the parable of Jesus in Matthew 25:31ff, "I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, I was homeless and you gave me bed, I was shivering and you gave me clothes…"

Remember Revelation 12:13, "And I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Favored are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they can rest from their labors, because their deeds [not their words] follow them.”