Proper 9, Year A, Track 1
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
Psalm 45:11-18
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
"When I was a child, I developed a huge fascination with numismatics, or coin collecting. This started with my great-aunt, and I remember spending many summer days at her house dutifully sorting through huge bags of old coins, especially pennies. She had special books for displaying these pennies, and I would be filled with such joy every time I found a unique example to put in the display book. At first, I could scarcely tell them apart, seeing only a mountain of copper coins distinct only in their degree of wear. But as my great-aunt instructed me, I learned new things about these pennies. I learned that certain mints sometimes produced smaller quantities of pennies in certain years, making certain pennies worth more than others. I learned that during World War II, there was a period when the US Mint switched to producing pennies made of steel because copper was needed for the war effort. I also gradually learned that what we call the "face value" of a coin—that is, the numerical value literally printed on the face—is in fact of negligible importance in the world of numismatics. True value came from the uniqueness of the coin.
In 1949, a boy found a penny in his school cafeteria and took it home. He never spent it, and the memory of his acquisition probably faded soon after. But some 70 years later he rediscovered it and learned something incredible. This penny, minted in 1943, was part of a batch mistakenly struck in copper, possibly because blanks remained in the press when the mint began producing new steel pennies. Experts believe that only about 20-40 of these 1943 copper pennies still exist, and the man's forgotten boyhood find sold for over $200,000 at auction in 2019.
I sadly never found something quite so significant in my own coin treasure hunts, but I did learn from it how to discern value unseen by the untrained eye. I learned that modest things could surprise me and that flashy things could disappoint. I learned not to judge a coin by its face, or a book by its cover.
In the lead-up to today's reading, John the Baptist, now in prison, hears about Jesus' ministry and sends his followers to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answers them by telling them to report to John the miraculous things they have heard and seen. But John wasn't asking if Jesus was a holy man capable of miraculous things, he was asking if Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah. So why did Jesus answer him in this way? To understand, we must see, as John would have seen, the prophetic fulfillment of Jesus' words. Jesus knew John to be an immensely holy man who could recognize this fulfillment where few others could. He would have seen echoes of Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." In Hebrew, the word "messiah" literally means "anointed one." John would have also heard a fulfillment of Isaiah 35, which prophesies the return of God's people from exile to the holy land: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy." Even today's Old Testament reading portends a moment of great significance near the end of Christ's time on earth when he enters triumphantly into Jerusalem. We read in Zechariah 9: "See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey…He will proclaim peace to the nations." As Jesus' ministry grows, so too does the understanding of all who know the words of the prophets that there is a great deal more here than meets the eye.
We can then sense the exasperation in Jesus' words in Matthew 11 as he addresses those who have seen all he has described to John's followers, and who still refuse to see what his ministry truly means. All of Christ's teachings and miracles have been focused on one main goal: to reveal, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he is the promised Savior, and by that revelation to save those of every generation who believe in him. He makes the urgency of this goal clear in verse 27 when he says, "No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." The intent of Jesus' ministry is not self-glorification, but to restore the relationship between God and us. Jesus is fighting against doubt for the salvation of all humankind, and in return, so many in his time and ours ask him to dance to the tune we are playing. We remake Jesus into whatever form most appeals to us. We put words in his mouth or take them away as it suits us, but the intrinsic value of Jesus Christ does not change simply because we wish it to or because we cannot see past what the face value might be to us. "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, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her actions." Thanks be to God that Jesus is a friend of sinners! Otherwise, who could hope to be called righteous but for that friendship and that great redemption? Jesus then says, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." Again, Jesus implores us to look beyond the face value. The very wise of his day were trapped in such a web of legalism and skepticism that they could not comprehend the simplicity of Christ's love, freely given. But a child is free of the prejudices that congeal around our first impressions. A child simply knows love and does not fear or doubt it, nor question its purpose.
When I think about that boy in 1949 who by happenstance picked up that exceptionally rare penny, I have to wonder what inspired him to do so. I wonder if he simply saw another cent that he could spend on a piece of candy, transacting with it the way he would any other coin. Or did he perhaps see something special in it? Did he see something no one else noticed? I like to imagine he did, and that was why he held on to it for so long. When we see Jesus, do we see a static picture, frozen in time, like the statue above our narthex? Do we see a Jesus who has evolved to sport the colors and ideology of our political party? Do we see Jesus in one another, in friend and stranger, in tax collector and sinner? We are blessed that Jesus tells us exactly who he is in the Gospels. He is the bread of life. He is the light of the world. He is the good shepherd. He is the gate. He is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in him, though they die, will live. Whatever our expectations may be of who Jesus is or should be, none are of consequence but these ways by which he identified himself. Whatever face value we may give Christ, his intrinsic value is redemption, salvation, and everlasting life for all who turn to him. Amen."