Are You the One Who is to Come? // Matthew 11:1-24

INTRODUCTION

Illus. Aragorn the unassuming king — In the first book of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, we’re introduced to a character who turns out to be very different than we first expect. The scene isn’t a throne room or a battlefield but a smoky little tavern called The Prancing Pony. And back in the dimly lit corner sits this shadowy figure — hood pulled low, weather-worn cloak, with muddy boots. He looks less like royalty and more like someone you’d want to avoid. The locals don’t trust him. They call him Strider — basically a drifter. Nothing about him says “king” — No crown, no announcement, no banner, no kingdom. Just a tired ranger sitting in the shadows of a small tavern. But as the story unfolds, you start to realize that this unassuming wanderer is actually Aragorn, son of Arathorn, heir of Isildur — the rightful king of Gondor and Arnor.

And what builds so much tension in the story is this: He was king the whole time — even if he wasn’t the king people would have expected. And because he didn’t look the part, people walked right past him without notice. They missed him. Not because he wasn’t the king, but because he didn’t look, sound, or act the part according to their expectations.

This morning, we’re picking back up in our study of Matthew’s Gospel starting in Matthew 11. Throughout the Gospel, we’ve paid close attention to all the ways in which Matthew is inviting us as readers to see that Jesus is the true Messiah of Israel’s Scripture — he is the one to whom all the prophets and the broader story of Israel has pointed. He is the greater Adam, the greater Moses, the greater Solomon, and the greater David.

But a key tension in the narrative of Matthew’s Gospel is that so many people who should have been the first to understand this —the Pharisees, scribal elite, and religious leaders who knew the Scripture better than anyone— we’re actually the most resistant to accept him as such. Why? Because for a number of reasons, he didn’t meet their expectations. He isn’t what they thought the Messiah would be. He didn’t do the things they expected he should. They expected a physical restoration of the Kingdom of God — a strong man to throw off the powers of the oppressive Roman empire and reunite God’s covenant people together as an established nation.

I want us to pay attention to that tension this morning — that even though Jesus fulfilled exactly what the Scriptures said of the Messiah, those who should have received him missed him because he didn’t meet their expectations.

Three vignettes: John the Baptist, crowds, cities

Matthew 11:1–24 CSB

When Jesus had finished giving instructions to his twelve disciples, he moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns. Now when John heard in prison what the Christ was doing, he sent a message through his disciples and asked him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news, and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.” As these men were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? See, those who wear soft clothes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you. “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, and the violent have been seizing it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you’re willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come. Let anyone who has ears listen. “To what should I compare this generation? It’s like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to other children: We played the flute for you, but you didn’t dance; we sang a lament, but you didn’t mourn! 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, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Then he proceeded to denounce the towns where most of his miracles were done, because they did not repent: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until today. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

Central Warning: Don’t miss the real Jesus looking for the one you expected.

Three vignettes:

John — Disappointment

Crowds — Demands

Cities — Indifference

The question for us this morning is not just “Who is Jesus?” but “How do we respond to who Jesus actually is?”

EXPOSITION // Matthew 11:1-24

John: Disappointed Faith (Matt 11:2-6)

Matthew 11:2–6 CSB

Now when John heard in prison what the Christ was doing, he sent a message through his disciples and asked him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news, and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.”

Matthew’s narrative cue: Jesus is “the Christ”

Christ = translation of the Hebrew “messiah” (Jn 1:41) both coming from terms meaning to “anoint with sacred oil”

Jesus’s office and function foreshadowed by three groups of anointed officials in the OT → prophets, priests, and kings

Ceremony of pouring perfumed oil upon the priest’s head (Lv 4:3) and there is evidence of anointing prophets (1 Kgs 19:16, Ex 30:22-33) but this is not required by the Law or a standard practice

Represented an internal reality of the gift of the Spirit (1 Sm 16:13) →Similarly at his baptism, Jesus received the outpouring of the Spirit and God’s mandate to begin his ministry (Mt 3:16-4:17)

God working through this people for his purposes → “The anointed person was not a free agent. As a prophet, priest, or king, he spoke, served, or ruled in the name of the Lord as his representative to the people of God.” (Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible)

Gospel narratives — many recognized Jesus’s Messianic identity

John denied being the anointed one but identified Jesus as the Christ (Jn 1:20)

Jesus’ first disciples followed him because they knew he was the Messiah (Jn 1:41)

The demons recognized him as “the Holy One [anointed] of God” (Mk 1:24, Mt 8:29)

At his trial, Jesus’ claim to be the Christ was the decisive factor in his condemnation (Matt 26:63, 64, 68; 27:11, 17, 22, 37)

Peter’s “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16) — “earliest and most basic article of the Christian confession” (Baker Encyclopedia)

Pharisees, scribal elite, and religious leaders — those who should have been most likely to recognize him because they knew the Scripture better than anyone — missed him because he didn’t match their expectations.

The Messiah was to “proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners” (Isa 61:1) while John himself languished in prison.

“Jesus was from the very first a little baffling, a little strange; less messianic than he had expected and less cataclysmic than he had preached.” (Bruner)

John’s doubt → He preached about the coming judgment of God and the establishment of his Kingdom over and above his enemies. One commentator notes how John’s favorite word was “fire” — he was all about God coming and laying axe to the root and establishing his rule on earth as it is in Heaven.

John preached that message of repenting for the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand (Mt 3:2) — the same message Jesus echoes as he begins his earthly ministry (Mt 4:17); he was a true believer, we see that in his life.

Preach against the evil of King Herod who had taken his brother’s wife to be his own — landed him in prison

Why he asks the question: Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? (Mt 11:3)

John’s wavering of doubt foreshadowed by the crowds → followed him as the Prophet, the new Moses (Jn 6:14, 32) but deserted him when they realized that his kingdom was a spiritual and not political realm (Jn 6:66)

Jesus’s answer to John the Baptist (Mt 11:4-6)

Fulfillment of the OT prophecies → Authenticated by the words and deeds of Jesus

Allusion to Isaiah 35:5 “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.”

Matthew 11:6 “and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.” = Blessed are those who accept Jesus as he is

Reference to Isaiah 8:14–15 “He will be a sanctuary; but for the two houses of Israel, he will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured.”

Invitation to John is to persist “in his faith in Jesus” whereby he will “experience the enormous blessing that he longs for, just not as quickly as he had hoped.” (Quarles)

Application: Is Jesus still King when we are disappointed in him?

Crowds: Consumer Faith (Matt 11:7-19)

Jesus affirms his identity in John’s proclamation — “What did you go out in the wilderness to see?”

Quarles — “Jesus’s question may imply that the crowds tended to view John as more of a spectacle to behold than a prophet to hear and obey. It may indict the people for seeking to be entertained more than edified.”

Reed shaking in the wind = something weak and unreliable, a shaking reed even depicted sinners under judgment in 1 Kgs 14:15

Jesus reminds them of why they were at first drawn to John — he didn’t wear the soft clothes of the acolytes that surrounded the king who believed he could do no wrong; John openly decried the king’s adultery with his brothers wife even though it cost him his freedom and ultimately his life

The crowd flocked to John because they recognized that he was a prophet who spoke for God (Mt 21:26) — John was a herald who announced God’s coming.

Jesus affirms this prophetic identity by associating him with the Elijah to come in Mal 3:1 — noting how he wore the same unusual clothing. John is not just a prophet but part of the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy

Just like John — many expected Jesus to be a bringer of power and divine judgment (Mt 3:10-12) — one who came with “fire”

Clarifying John’s role

John is the last in the line of prophets who sums up Israel’s prophetic hope

He is the Elijah who was promised to return before the Day of the Lord (Mal 4:5-6)

A new age is dawning — though “the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence” (aka John’s martyrdom, Jesus’s crucifix) and they were therefore victims of violent, unscrupulous men; however in God’s eschatological kingdom, the victims would become victors as God will crush all evil and sentence these “violent” men to the punishment they deserve.

v.16-17 refers to a game played in the market where a child would play the flute — if it was a happy wedding song, the other children would dance in celebration; if it were a sad song, the children would mourn like it was a funeral

Complainers = critics of the ministry of John and Jesus; they wanted John to play the wedding song, but he spoke about repentance (Mt 3:2) and had a rugged lifestyle (Mt 3:4, 9:14). Jesus seemed more like a party even though he included notorious sinners and prostitutes (Mt 11:19, cf. Mt 9:9-13). The complainers always wanted the opposite of what God sent to them.

The point is that the people were fickle and dissatisfied with any spiritual leader who did not “dance to their tune” (Allison)

v.19 — “wisdom is vindicated by her deeds”

the works of wisdom (τὰ ἔργα) mirror Christ’s deeds (τῶν ἐργῶν) — parallel identifies Jesus as wisdom incarnate

Personified wisdom — concept in Jewish intertestamental literature which views Wisdom as “a breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty” (Wisdom of Solomon); Wisdom is responsible for the mighty deeds of Yahweh in the OT such as rescuing people from the flood, the Exodus, and parting the waters of the Red Sea.

Jesus as Wisdom - high Christology describing Jesus’ deity and role in creation

Cities: Unmoved Faith (Matt 11:20-24)

v.21-22 pronouncing woes to Chorazin and Bethsaida

Jesus had done most of his miracles in these towns

“Woe to you” = pronouncement of judgment

They saw these and rejected him anyway

Judgment will be like that of Tyre and Sidon who had been punished by God for their sins — become an “object of horror” (Ezek 27:36); arrogant defiance of God (Joe 3:4)

Sackcloth associated with mourning deal of a loved one (Gen 37:34; 2 Sam 3:31) or because of the judgment of God (Jer 4:8, 6:26) — consequently, sackcloth became a symbol of repentance (Jon 3:8)

Jesus’ point — even the most depraved city of sinners would have heard the message of the gospel and repented; it isn’t about what you have done or how you have lived, but how you respond to the call of the gospel

v.23-24 — pronouncing woes on Capernaum

Jesus’ description of them going down to Hades rather than exalted to heaven is a reference to Isa 14:13-15 in which Israel sings a song about the demise of the king of Babylon; comparing the king of Babylon to the tiny and insignificant Capernaum mocks their audacity before God. What they share in common is their extreme pride.

Later Jesus asks Peter a provocative question — you’ve seen everything I’ve done, heard everything I’ve taught, considered the disagreements of my opponents… but who do you say that I am? Everything hinges on how you answer that question.

The Bible isn’t the stuff of fairytales and Jesus isn’t just a great moral teacher; is he Christ the Lord or is he not? There is no category for accepting Jesus is Lord only kind of

You can’t look for two Messiahs — some want to trust in Jesus for the eternal/spiritual and then in other philosophies for the temporal/physical

APPLICATION

How might you be missing Jesus because of your expectations?

Later Jesus asks Peter a provocative question — Having seen everything I’ve done and heard everything I’ve taught, who do you say that I am?

Everything hinges on how you answer that question

Faith is not submitting to the God we want but the God who is

CONCLUSION

Communion