What if you’re wrong? What if you’re wrong, what if everything that you thought about something wasn’t so? Has this doubt ever nagged at you? If so, you can more than likely empathize with John the Baptist in today’s Gospel.
John the Baptist had had a hard time of it. He had spent much time out in the wilderness getting dirty with sinners, calling them to repentance. He had spent this time proclaiming the coming Messiah, proclaiming the arrival of the Saviour, and had hoped for some action.
Instead, the Messiah he proclaimed seemed to be doing little miracles and healings up in the north country, but nothing was changing around Jerusalem. What’s worse, John had offended Herod sufficiently that he was now mouldering in a jail cell. It wouldn’t be too much longer, although John had no way of knowing it at the time, before Herod would have John beheaded at the instigation of his niece Salome.
John was depressed and disheartened. Where were the signs that the Messiah had come? Where were the fire, the winnowing and the separation of the wheat from the chaff? So he sent some of his disciples off to see Jesus. He sent them with a simple, but poignant question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”
Jesus then does what he typically does when challenged. He appeals to the Scriptures. In Isaiah, there were several major prophecies of what the Messiah would do when he came. One of them, Isaiah 35, serves as our Old Testament reading for this morning. Jesus uses some of the details of that chapter along with some other details gleaned from other parts of Isaiah in his answer: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:4-6 ESV)
One commentator made the apt observation that where most people praise people to their faces and criticize them behind their backs, Jesus does the exact opposite; he gives John the harsh criticism up front–“blessed is the one who is not offended by me”– and then praises him behind his back, calling him the greatest of men born of women and the Elijah who was to come to prepare the way for the Messiah. John is not at all rejected by Jesus, even if John didn’t quite understand what Jesus was doing.
Having said that, make no doubt about it, Jesus is criticizing John here. John has one idea of the Messiah, which is gleaned from the Scripture, and Jesus isn’t denying that he will indeed be the great judge. In fact, a little while later on in his ministry, Jesus will point out that that is his exact role and function when He comes in glory. But for this go-round, He has come to fulfill those other parts of the Scripture which told of the Messiah, those parts of the Scripture which John didn’t want to see in Jesus, or hadn’t thought of seeing in Jesus.
Jesus has come to give the blind sight–both the literal blind and the spiritually blind. Jesus has come to help the lame walk–both the literally lame and those who have so long ago cast off the shoes of righteousness in order to stumble along the paths of sin. Jesus has come to heal the lepers–both those with contagious skin diseases and those with contagious sin diseases. Jesus has come to make the deaf hear, both those whose ears do not work and those who will not hear God’s voice proclaimed in the Scriptures. Jesus has come to raise the dead, both the physically dead and those who are dead in their trespasses and sins. Jesus has come to preach good news to the poor.
If that’s not Messiah work, what is, really? So Jesus also sends a gentle word of rebuke to his cousin. Blessed is the one who doesn’t find me to be a stumbling block, who doesn’t trip over me. He is reminding John and us that He is going to go about His work of saving the world and bringing it to account before God in His way, not in the ways we might think of or prefer.
And this is a good thing. As 2 Peter 3:9 (ESV) says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” On this third Sunday of Advent, we have as our focal point this very truth–that it is the patience of God which convinces Him to stay the final hour of this world, His patience and desire for all to be saved.
God has His way of doing things. God never promises to fit our schedules, however. John wanted results, wanted answers. On some level, I’m sure John must have wondered why he was rotting in a jail cell if the Messiah was out there. John must have wondered if he had gotten God’s message wrong, had misunderstood God’s design. So how about you? I remember one of my pastors, when I was a teenager, recounting to me the story of how when he was a young boy, he made a bargain with God that he would know God was really God if the Montreal Canadiens won that evening. They did, and the young faith of the child was saved. But how many of us stake our trust in God on similarly frivolous wishes? Sure, they might not seem frivolous at the time, but the attitude underlying them is the same. “Lord, if you’ll only do this, I’ll believe in you.” “Lord, get me through this problem and I’ll change. Really. This time I mean it.” It’s easy to stumble and trip in faith when we don’t get our own way, because we so often assume that our way must be God’s way.
As such, we want God to operate on our schedule and in our way. Let us rejoice greatly that God doesn’t operate that way at all! God answers prayers, for sure. He answers yes to many, many prayers. The problem is that, like John in the cell, we want the answer to be how we want it now, not how God is working it out through time. The problem is that, when it really comes down to it, we want to be in God’s shoes and to be able to take control of any and all situations. The problem is our selfish motives. As James says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:2-7 ESV)
It’s a call to repentance which we hear, when we are in submission to God. A call to turn from looking at the ways of this world and toward the kingdom of God. As Jesus also notes in our Gospel for today, although John was a great prophet, and a marvellous courier of the Law of the Lord, yet even he is a bit player in the larger picture:
“What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:7-15 ESV)
John is the greatest of prophets, the greatest of those born of women. He’s the finest preacher of repentance that the world had ever known. But repentance can only go so and so far. You might have noticed that we have a pink candle lit this morning, to go along with the two darker candles. That’s deliberate. For today is our “Joy” Sunday in Advent. Today is the day we rejoice that the story of God is not one based only on what we have to do, based only on our repentance. Today we rejoice that “Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal” as an old hymn says.
In a world which tells us that in order to be accepted you have to live up to certain standards, God simply tells us to trust in Him and follow Him. In a world that looks for great judgments and wonders and signs, God tells us to find Him in His Word and in His small signs of water and bread and wine. In a world which leaves Advent out on the street in favour of Christmas and then discards the baby Jesus the day after the presents are opened, God calls us to boldly trust this Jesus–the same one who died on the cross–24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In a world which is going to hell in a nicely decorated handbasket, God has broken through. Messiah has come and is coming. Fear not! Your redemption is at hand. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation.” (Zechariah 9:9 ESV)
He’s not the kind of king you’d imagine. John, who was the greatest prophet ever, didn’t get it. He thought he was wrong. But Jesus is the kind of King which you and I need; a King who gives sight to the blind, who makes the lame walk, who makes the leper whole and the deaf hear, who raises the dead–who even forgives your sins and remembers your iniquities no more.
That’s something you can trust in, and never need to doubt. God grant you that faith and trust as you await the day of Christ’s appearing. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.
Last updated December 2007 by the webmaster.