Not the Advent You Were Expecting

Introduction: A Gift You Weren’t Expecting

Have you ever been disappointed by a Christmas gift because you were expecting to get something else? Even better, has that disappointing gift ever turned out to be even better than what you wanted in the first place?

I can think of one silly example from when I was a kid in high school. Now, I’ve always been a fan of most things nerdy, but at that particular time I was at the peak of my love for the show Doctor Who. That year, I got it in my head that I wanted to ask for a bunch of the old classic Doctor Who adventures on DVD, I went online and looked them up and made a whole list of which ones I wanted. But when Christmas came, no Doctor Who. Instead, my main present that year was something I hadn’t asked for: a Lord of the Rings extended edition Blu-Ray box set. It was a fantastic gift, I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and I still have those movies sitting in the vicarage condo. I’ve watched them so many times at this point, far more than I would have watched those Doctor Who episodes. It was a better gift than what I asked for. And yet, my ungrateful self was so set on what I had asked for, that for just a little bit, I couldn’t appreciate what I had received. My expectations got in the way of appreciating what I actually got.

What Kind of Messiah do You Expect?

John

Someone else who could relate to being disappointed by comparing what he got to what he had expected was John the Baptist. In Matthew, John the Baptist came on the scene preaching a fiery message about how the kingdom of heaven, the powerful rule of God, was about to come on the world at any moment. John warned that someone was coming and that someone would clean house, put the evildoers and bad actors in their place, and set everything to rights. Last week we heard John warned the Pharisees and Sadducees,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

What a picture. From those words you might expect Jesus to come with an ax in one hand and a flamethrower in the other. This “coming one” sounds like quite the firebrand.

But then Jesus came on the scene. And he didn’t seem to quite line up with John’s fiery picture. Jesus didn’t really seem to be taking the fight to anyone at this point, on the contrary, one of the major themes of his Sermon on the Mount was NOT fighting back against enemies. Jesus did not seem to be putting anyone in their place (with the exception of a few demons of course), even Jesus’ conflict with the Pharisees and Sadducees was still mostly nonexistent at this point in the Gospel. All Jesus seemed to be doing was healing a few people way out in the sticks. Which is all well and good, but it doesn’t exactly seem like the inbreaking of the mighty kingdom of the heavens.

Especially not when John was languishing in the prison of Herod Antipas, an all too worldly and human king, an embodiment of the corrupt establishment, the kingdom of this world. What must John have been thinking as he heard news about Jesus? When was he going to start overthrowing the enemies of God? What kind of Messiah leaves his herald and prophet in the dungeon of a rival king? Perhaps he thought of the prophecies of Isaiah about how the Messiah would proclaim liberty to the captives, and wondered, “what about me?”

Of course, John was far too faithful to question or confront Jesus openly, at least at first. Surely Jesus knew what he was doing. But the longer he sat there, the more questions may have formed in his mind. We’re told in Matt ch 9 that some of John’s disciples asked Jesus, “how come we fast, and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t?” We aren’t told the question came from John himself, but perhaps he was thinking some of the same thoughts. Just what was Jesus thinking with these unconventional tactics of eating and drinking with sinners?

Finally at the beginning of our text, the questions and the doubts seem to have increased to the point that John himself sent messengers to ask Jesus point blank, “are you the coming one, or should we start looking for someone else?” This was not the Advent, the “coming,” that John had expected. John wanted a mighty Messiah who would chop down the unfruitful trees. What he got was Jesus, the humble servant who wouldn’t break a bruised reed. Maybe John himself didn’t know what he wanted Jesus to be, but he wanted something more, something different than this. He compared what he got to what he expected, and he was disappointed.

Us

Who are you expecting Jesus to be for you this Advent? What kind of Messiah are you expecting? Maybe like John, you want a fiery Jesus, who will bring judgment on the evildoers. Maybe you’ve got enemies or persecutors that you want to see get their comeuppance. It could be that you’re alarmed at how culture seems to be becoming more hostile to Christianity, you’re afraid you could even be put in prison like John someday, so you want Jesus to defeat your enemies in the culture war. Maybe it’s more personal, and you have coworkers or family members that mistreat you, and you would dearly love to see them put in their place. In that case, you need to be reminded of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. In Jesus’ kingdom, we defeat our enemies by loving and praying for them, not by fighting back and putting them in their place. We turn the other cheek and win by suffering wrong. And we need to remember that the real enemy is looking us in the mirror. The battle we need to focus on is the battle with our own sinful desires.

Perhaps the Jesus you want is more like the reed blowing around with every wind or the king in soft, pretty clothes. Maybe you want a squishy Jesus who will affirm all of your choices, and give you an easy time. You want Jesus to be there for the holiday warm fuzzies that he gives you, but you’d like him to step aside when he makes the conversations with family and friends awkward. You would do well to listen to Jesus’ words from chapter 10, “For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Jesus is kind and gentle and patient, but he won’t be pushed away into a corner. He calls for your whole life, and following him often leads to conflict and suffering.

There is no end to the expectations we come up with for who Jesus ought to be, but if they are not shaped by watching and listening to the words of Jesus himself and the works he does, then they are always bound to leave us disappointed.

What Kind of Messiah Do You Need?

Text

But Jesus was gentle and patient with his cousin John the Baptist, as he is with all those who are weak or wavering. He didn’t shame John in front of the crowds. In fact, he defended John’s ministry to the people, calling him the greatest man ever born of woman. He didn’t send the messengers back saying, “go and tell John, how dare you?” He directed John back to the Scriptures, and he told the messengers to bear witness to the words and works of the Messiah.

Jesus pointed John back to the prophecies of Isaiah, including our OT reading, that spoke of the things that would happen in the messianic age. When God established his kingdom and ended the exile, blind eyes would be opened, deaf ears would be unstopped, and the lame would not just walk but leap. Isaiah 26:19 adds that “your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.” And Isaiah 61 promises that the Messiah anointed by the Spirit of God would preach good news to the poor. All these things were prophesied by Isaiah, and all of them were taking place in the ministry of Jesus.

Between the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus began “preaching good news to the poor,” and our text in Matthew 11, there is a specific example of every one of the things Jesus mentioned here. In chapter 9, Jesus restored the sight of two blind men who cried out “have mercy on us, Son of David.” Earlier he showed his authority by healing the paralytic, a lame man, telling him to pick up his mat and go home. On his way down from the Sermon on the Mount, he met a leper and cleansed him. Another time, he healed a man who had been made deaf and mute by a demon. And he even raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. All the signs were there for one with eyes to see and ears to hear. So he told the messengers, go tell John what you are seeing and hearing. The words and works of the Messiah are being done. I am the Messiah that you need, even if I’m not what you were expecting. You did well, John, to prepare my people with the warning of judgment. But what you need most is not a firebrand with an ax and a pitchfork. You need a Messiah to raise the dead and preach the good news of the victory of God’s kingdom to the poor.

And his final words to John are gentle and inviting, “blessed is the one who is not offended, not caused to fall away, on account of me.” He doesn’t say “blessed is the one who has no doubts or questions,” but “blessed is the one who is not scandalized into giving up on me.” I really like the way one commentator on Matthew, Frederick Dale Bruner, paraphrases these words: “And God bless you, John, if you do not throw the whole thing over because I am a different kind of Messiah than you were expecting.”

Today

Jesus speaks those same words to you today, blessed are you if you don’t let your expectations put you off of Jesus this Advent. The words and works of the Messiah come to you once again as a gift. Receive Jesus for who he is, through the message of the Gospel and the Sacraments. Whatever you want Jesus to be for you, what you need him to be for you most is the Messiah who raises the dead and preaches good news.

You need the power of Jesus’ resurrection to raise you from the death of sin. Just as Jesus walked through Galilee, rescuing his people from the powers of death that held control over their lives, Jesus holds power over Satan, sin, and death in your life as well. In his death, He brought the ax and the fire down on the enemy that matters most: Satan and his demonic forces. He freed you from the tyranny of your own sinful desires and misplaced expectations. By the power of his resurrection, he gives you a life that will endure to the age to come, when the rule and reign of God is fully established on this earth.

That is the good news that you need preached to you. Jesus is reigning over everything for your good and your salvation, even if he isn’t running things how you would prefer. If you feel poor, like things aren’t going your way, if you feel like you’re languishing in some kind of prison, if you know that you’re a sinner in need of rescue and help, then you’re just the person that Jesus came to preach good news to. He opens your eyes to see his salvation. He opens your ears to hear those words, “I forgive you.” He cleanses away the leprosy of your sin, the shame and guilt that weigh you down. He strengthens your legs so that you can walk in the way of Holiness. And he gives you fresh life to sustain you and raise you up everyday. That may not be the Messiah that you wanted or expected, but it is the Messiah that Jesus is, and that is the Messiah that you need.

Conclusion

John the Baptist never received the gift that was on his Advent list. he remained in prison until he was ultimately executed by Herod Antipas. He didn’t get to see the tyrant overthrown, nor was he freed from captivity in this life. But he did remain faithful. He kept trusting right to the end, in spite of his doubts. He was blessed, because he did not let himself be offended by Jesus. He didn’t throw the whole thing over, just because it didn’t meet expectations. And he learned that what Jesus was was better than what he had expected.

Receive Jesus as the gift that he is this Advent season, and check your expectations at the door. I can’t promise that he’ll be the gift that’s on your list, the thing you want most. I can’t promise he’ll give you immediate rescue from the “prison” you’re in, nor that you’ll never have doubts or questions. What I can promise is that if you trust in him, he will give you the gift you need: eternal life under the reign of God. And you’ll find, that’s a better gift than you could have expected.