Today’s Reading: Matthew 11:1-15 I occasionally love cheesy movies. OK I admitted in earlier posts that I like the old black belt theater movies but now I’m going a step further and saying that I love goofy, dumb, no sense, cheesy movies like “A Knight’s Tale” with the late Heath Leger. My favorite character is Geoffrey Chaucer played by Paul Bettany. The running theme is that he is the flamboyant herald to the Knight Von Leichtenstein. He is envied by the antagonist’s herald who tries to outperform him at the jousting events. Heralds were very important in those days. It was them who would announce the coming of the sovereign. When the sovereign was heralded by the herald everyone stopped and paid their respect by bowing or getting low to the ground. In today’s passage it would be appropriate to tell the story from a perspective other than Jesus but still highlight Him. John the baptist is in prison at this time and he is feeling a little unjustified. Remember this is the same John who was Jesus’ cousin and “leaped” in the womb when his mother Elizabeth was around the pregnant Mary. (Luke 1:41) The same John who ate locusts and honey while living in the desert. This is the same John who wore camel skins for clothes. Also the same John who was foretold that he would  be the forerunner to Christ. He was also the one appointed to baptize Jesus. He was put in jail because he was the one who told Herod that it is wrong to “be” with his brother’s wife. While he was in jail he probably was at an emotional low. (Ya think?) He probably experienced doubts about what he heard about Jesus. He probably wanted a vindication of what he was teaching was true. So John sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask Him if he IS the Messiah or should they seek another. Then Jesus replied to the disciples and instructed them that “Go and report to John what you hear and see the blind see, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. And if anyone is not offended because of Me, he is blessed.” Then He goes on to add that those who went to see that which was in the was greater than what they expected. It was Jesus’ own herald, the one who was prophesied about by the prophets – John. When we go to evangelize we are in a sense heralds. We are commanded to “proclaim” that the Messiah has come and is coming again. Can you picture if we heralded the coming Messiah like Chaucer did in the movie mentioned above?