Showing John the Baptist the Gospel
Good Morning. We live by expectations, and that’s not necessarily bad. When we go to bed at night, we expect the alarm to work. We expect others to stop at stop signs. In fact, we have a lot of expectations about how others should act. Our days are full of these expectations, and they give order to our lives.
Matthew 11 is a chapter about expectations, especially what we expect from God. At the end of our lesson, Jesus says that the least of us in the kingdom of God, meaning in the church, is greater than John the Baptist. I wouldn’t expect that. In fact, still have trouble with that one. Now I know why it’s true, and I know what Jesus means, so you don’t have to explain it to me after the service, but what I mean is, I accept it because Jesus says it, not because I understand it.
Jesus continued this teaching asking the Jewish leadership which is opposing Him what they expected his ministry to be like. They complained “Since John fasts and abstains from alcohol, he must have a demon.” Then they complain Jesus doesn’t fast. Jesus tells us that the miracles he did, if they had been done in Gentile cities, those cities would have repented and turned to God.
Our lesson from today, is meant to show when we expect a certain outcome from God, and we see something different, we have a problem adjusting to what God is doing. Like with us being greater than John the Baptist. It’s true.
Our expectations can warp our image of who God is, where God shows up, when God “closes his eyes,” and how God acts. And if God does not meet our expectations of what He should do, we are often quick to question God rather than examine ourselves or repent for making ourselves God.
This is where we find John the Baptist this morning, trusting his expectations of what God should be doing more than he trusts what God actually is doing. John the Baptist, Jesus cousin, had a miraculous birth, which Luke says included an angel appearing to his father, Zacharias, in the temple to announce his arrival, and what his life would be like.
John was personally sent by the Holy Spirit to prepare the way of the Lord in the desert, and his ministry was a direct fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. John was told to announce the Messiah is coming, bringing a new kingdom, SO BE PREPARED! And it seems he went right to our Old Testament this morning.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Put a pin here for later, but that’s how to prepare the way!
John’s expectations gave him the confidence stand against the corrupt religious establishment, to go and preach in the desert. And really, who would run out into the desert to preach there without expectations God will act!
But today, the gospel offers a very different picture of John. Today he is a prisoner with a question for Jesus, “Are you really the Christ, Messiah? Should we look for someone else, because you don’t look or act like I expected?”
How did John get from faith in the desert to fear he messed up when he identified Jesus as the Messiah? The story started when he criticized King Herod by telling him “It is immoral to marry your [brother’s ex-wife].” The Jews at the time considered it incest if the brother was still alive. When Herod heard about it, he arrested and imprisoned John.
John spoke the truth, and it ended up getting him sent to jail. That’s not supposed to happen, right? Not for God’s special prophet anyway. That’s the historical answer for John’s problem, but the Bible always invites to see and listen more deeply, to see ourselves in the lesson.
While Herod put John in jail, John’s own expectations of God, of Jesus, seem to have done him much more damage. John is a man of God, a prophet, and he finds himself confused by God. First, this should give us some hope when we, in the midst of turmoil, we can’t see what God is doing.
So John sends the message: Where is the ax, the fire, the pitchfork that he the winnowing fan (whatever that is, it sounds bad)? Where is the wrath of God against sinful man? And perhaps a little more subtly, “Aren’t you going get me out of prison!” Now, he doesn’t say that directly, but I doubt he’s not thinking that. I would be thinking that. What he said precisely in our lesson was:
Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
That’s how our lesson began anyway. John expects the Messiah that Isaiah promised. Jesus answers him, helping John to see the whole of the Gospel.
And here’s the neat thing, he answers him quoting the rest of the verse from Isaiah 35, verses 5 and 6.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
And while the main understanding of that fulfillment is spiritual, Jesus shows how he is the right one by fulfilling it physically as well as spiritually. John only saw part of the picture, but God’s plan was greater than he imagined.
Twenty two years ago, I was in the deepest depression and confusion of my life. I had lost my job, and was living in Fargo, far from friends and family. While I can see today what God was doing and how it led to the greatest blessing that ever came into my life, I was in my spiritual prison. I was frustrated because God wasn’t doing what I wanted Him to do, which would have solved everything.
In reality, what I wanted would have been the worst thing that could have happened, which I can only see now looking back. We don’t always get that opportunity, of course, and I thank God that he has blessed me to see how wrong my expectations were. But our inability to see God’s Plan, His Hand and Providence, don’t mean God is not there.
In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul describes struggling with what he said was a thorn in his flesh, and he begged God, over and over, to remove it. But God said no. You keep it, because it protects you from arrogance, and makes sure you know that it is my power working through you, and not your own, because God’s Power is made perfect in our weakness. Like Paul, like John, we often ask God to make us strong, but He often instead calls us to discover His strength in our weakness, because when we are weak, and admit our powerlessness, we truly know it is God who is working.
Like John, we often want God to destroy all our enemies, but he commands us to love them and pray for them, that they would have their hearts turned.
Our lesson this morning hopefully gives us some time to check exactly what it is we are looking for from God, and putting that First thing, our Salvation, first.
