“I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish.”
That’s a quote from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, which has a new French language movie adaptation coming out this week. People love stories about revenge, and The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the best. The main character, Edmund Dantes, was an honorable young man finding success in every area of life, but then the jealousy of others had him falsely accused, thrown into a prison, and completely forgotten. But when the opportunity for revenge comes, what will he do?
If you think about it, vengeance is a part of a lot of great stories, both true stories and fictional ones. Even in the Bible we read about Samson, finally humbled, asking God for strength one last time to kill Israel’s enemies and get revenge on them for putting out his eyes. Or the vengeance against the men who conspired against Daniel, when they were thrown to the lions after Daniel emerged safe. There’s something about an unpunished crime that gets us, like a seed stuck in your teeth, and we just can’t let it go. And just like the feeling when you finally get that seed out of your teeth, when justice comes there is such a sense of relief, like the world is right again. Yes, revenge doesn’t always work out in the stories the way that we might want or expect, but you can’t have an ending without addressing the problem. There needs to be justice. There needs to be resolution. Someone has to do something!
There’s a similar sense of justice to the message that John the Baptist proclaimed about Jesus. He was crying out, “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is near!” Hidden crimes won’t be hidden anymore. Justice will be dealt out. And John called out the hypocrites, the Pharisees and Sadducees who acted as if they were the gatekeepers to heaven even though their own hearts were full of malice and wickedness. To them John said, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” And he said, “Already the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And finally, he warned them about the one coming after him. So mighty that John isn’t worthy to untie his sandals. Baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire. Burning the chaff with unquenchable fire.
This is the kind of vengeance and justice we like to hear about. Crimes getting their due punishment. Evil people meeting an evil end. Injustice, every injustice, set right.
So why didn’t he do it?
You might say that John was a fire and brimstone preacher, preaching about the just fire and brimstone this world needs, but then when Jesus—the one for whom John was preparing the way— came, where was the fire and brimstone?
Jesus publicly assured John and all the people back then, and he assures us today. God has not forgotten justice and vengeance. But what we really need more than anything is God’s salvation. So rejoice, and look for Jesus to come with healing.
John the Baptist was only about six months older than Jesus, and his time of preparing the way for Jesus was probably not much longer. We don’t know the timeline exactly, but after Jesus began his ministry John was arrested. He publicly called out Herod for the sin of adultery, and Herod threw him in prison. Now there’s a terrible injustice! This imprisonment would lead to John being put to death, one injustice after another.
John had disciples of his own and Matthew tells us how during this time John sent them to Jesus with a question. They asked him, “Are you the Coming One or should we wait for someone else?” This question is one that people have puzzled over for many centuries. Did not John say that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? How could he be asking this question? But there are a few possibilities. The first is that John, great prophet as he was, was not immune to temptations of the Devil. Only Jesus is perfect and holy. All others need Jesus to redeem us from sin. Might it be that as the days wore on while John sat in prison, the devil wore him down by saying, “There is no justice. No ax at the root of the trees. No fire burning the chaff. And if there is no justice, there is no Messiah.” This doesn’t mean that John lost his faith, but maybe John knew that he needed strength and encouragement that doesn’t come from within, from saying “I’m just going to believe harder,” but from Jesus, and from his Word.
It’s also possible that John was asking this question not really for himself, but for the sake of his disciples and many others who would listen. John had said, “He must become greater and I must become less.” This was a chance for John’s disciples and for all the people to hear what Jesus had to say about this.
But don’t you think that if Jesus had looked like the kind of mighty Messiah that John talked about, there wouldn’t have to be any question? If Jesus had come as a glorious king, he could have been the one throwing Herod in prison, and setting John free. He could have been the one putting the Pharisees and Sadducees on trial, instead of them arresting him. And maybe instead of John being beheaded and Jesus going to a cross, it would have been the wicked people facing death and punishment.
We may not be asking that same question, “Are you the Coming One, or should we wait for someone else?” But we also need the same kind of assurance that question sought. Because we still see injustice in the world. We see the strong preying on the weak. We see the innocent punished and the guilty going free. And our question is, “Who will get vengeance? Who will bring justice? Who will reward the good and punish the evil and set the world right again? Is it you, Jesus? Or should we wait for someone else?
And Jesus says, “Go, report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not take offense at me.”
Jesus pointed John to the evidence of what he was doing. These are great things, amazing things, things no person has done before. Even the greatest Old Testament prophets did not perform miracles the way that Jesus did. But more than that, Jesus was demonstrating that he is the one who fulfills the Old Testament. He is the Lord who comforts his people, as Isaiah said, as Isaiah said earlier in his same book, who heals the blind and the deaf and the lame.
Indeed, even John himself is a fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus spoke of him to all who were gathered there. John is not someone fickle or weak. He does not blow with the wind. Through every hardship and persecution he was faithful to his calling as a prophet of God. And what a blessed prophet he was, who saw the very Messiah he foretold. Jesus said,
What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? No, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. So what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you! And he is much more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
God’s word was being fulfilled right in front of them. And this is still true today. God’s word continues to be fulfilled. We see this in the troubling signs of the end times that Jesus told us to look for. But we also see it in the good news being preached to the ends of the earth.
And though we long for justice in the world and for vengeance on those who do wrong, what we need even more is the healing that Jesus brings. Because we too are wrongdoers. We too have perpetrated injustice. We have sinned against God and against men, and there is nothing we can do to appease God’s wrath. Jesus came to be our comfort. He came to bring God’s mercy. He came to cure us of our blindness, our blindness to the glories of God, and our deafness to the truth of God’s Word, and he came to make us who were lame to walk with him in righteousness. We were dead in our trespasses, with the spiritual death that ends in eternal death, and Jesus came to raise us to life. He came in the fullness of time in humility and meekness to heal the bodies of people in need, and to accomplish healing for souls by his death on the cross. And he still comes to us with that healing that he brings. By our Baptism we are washed of sin and raised to new life, as Jesus himself works through water and word, sending the Holy Spirit with his gifts of rebirth and renewal. And by the word of Jesus preached and taught we are strengthened and encouraged in the faith. And by his Supper we are satisfied with forgiveness for eternal life.
Yes, Jesus is the one, the one who fulfills the Scriptures, the one who heals the sick, the one who preaches the Gospel to the poor, the one who saves us from our sins and the vengeance that they deserve. He will come in judgment. He will bring justice and vengeance. He’ll uncover every hidden sin and judge every sinner. But for you, you whom he calls his own, you who place your trust in him and in his mercy, there is no vengeance that remains, because he has taken your punishment on himself. For you there is light and life and salvation.
Look for Jesus to come with healing. Leave the vengeance to him, and focus your mind and your heart on his Gospel, on the good news he proclaims. “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. Rejoice in the healing your Savior brings. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson