Expectations
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2 Now when John heard in prison about the things the Christ was doing, he sent word by his disciples to Jesus, asking, 3 “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” 4 Jesus responded, “Go, report to John what you hear and see. 5 Those who were blind are able to see. Those who were crippled are walking. People with skin diseases are cleansed. Those who were deaf now hear. Those who were dead are raised up. The poor have good news proclaimed to them.6 Happy are those who don’t stumble and fall because of me.” 7 When John’s disciples had gone, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John: “What did you go out to the wilderness to see? A stalk blowing in the wind? 8 What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in refined clothes? Look, those who wear refined clothes are in royal palaces. 9 What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 He is the one of whom it is written: Look, I’m sending my messenger before you, who will prepare your way before you. 11 “I assure you that no one who has ever been born is greater than John the Baptist. Yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
There is a saying: the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. It speaks to our arrogance as humans.
We often believe in very specific, black and white ways. We do this about many things, and while we often want to blame the arrogance of youth, adults are not exempt. How we think life is going to go is rarely how it actually goes.
What we believe about certain people is sometimes proven wrong when we actually get to know them. Even some of our deeply held beliefs are sometimes shaken when confronted with tragedy or when someone we love walks a different road.
Think about politics for a moment. I know, I shouldn’t even bring up the subject of politics, but bare with me for a moment.
If you are Democrat this morning you might look at Republicans as enemies with no good ideas on how our society and government should work. The opposite is also a possibility, if you are a Republican then you might look at Democrats being all wrong. The truth of the matter is that their is a lot that members of both parties can agree upon.
We are witnessing one of the most tumultuous times in our federal government. If something unexpected does not occur then the articles of impeachment will be passed against President Trump and the movement will head to the Senate where it will fail and then what?
I believe that there were unmet expectations following the election of President Trump. Democrats and some Republicans fully expected Hillary Clinton to be elected as our next president. When we woke up the next day we learned that Donald Trump had been elected.
Unmet expectations can lead to shaky ground. Our equilibrium is thrown off. How can what we always believed to be true possibly be wrong? Have you ever been there?
I read a story about expectations from a teacher. The story went like this:
After school one day, a young first-grade boy was sitting at the kitchen table, eating his afternoon snack, when he blurted out, “Mom, the teacher was asking me today if I have any brothers or sisters who will be coming to school.”
The boy’s mother replied, “That’s nice of her to take such an interest, Dear. What did she say when you told her you are an only child?”
She just said, “Thank goodness!” (https://www.preaching.com/sermon-illustrations/illustration-expectations-children/)
You might laugh at that. The first day of 7th grade and I was sitting in history class. The teacher began calling the roll. When he got to me he said Zipfel, oh my and then there were a few curse words, not another Zipfel. I recall saying, yes and I am the last one and he replied, thank God.
He had had 6 of my siblings before me so his expectations of me were not very high as I came to learn. I thanked my older siblings for them introducing me to the fun of high school!
Have you every had something confront your expectations, or even your belief systems, so drastically that you began to wonder what is true?
That is where John is in this text today. He had these ideas about who the Messiah would be and what he would do. He was anticipating this radical, cataclysmic judgment for those not following God, for those who have oppressed the people of God.
We saw this clearly prior to Jesus’s baptism when John references an ax at the root of the trees and says that the trees that don’t bear fruit will be thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10–12).
John was obviously waiting for the ax to fall. Yet here he is in prison.
He was Looked up in the fortress of Machaerus east of the Dead Sea, back in the wilderness.
Instead of watching his enemies fall by the ax of God, he now awaits the ax of his own death. So, he doubts. He wonders, Have I been wrong? Is Jesus really the Messiah?
John was the first to recognize the Messiah—while still in the womb—yet here he is, wondering. If the Messiah doesn’t look the way John thought he would, is he still the Messiah? If Christ isn’t working in my life or in the world the way I want him to, is he still Christ?
John questions whether Jesus is the Messiah.
He heard what Jesus was doing, and it wasn’t what he expected of the Messiah.
We saw in Matthew 3 that John expected more judgment from the Messiah. This is consistent with what we know most of the Jewish people believed about the Messiah.
I do not want to paint a picture that John the Baptist was doubting that Jesus was really the Messiah. Remember, John’s mother and Jesus’ mother were related. John would have grown up hearing all about his cousin Jesus and the miraculous nature of his birth. He would have heard about the Angels that announced Jesus birth. I believe that was firmly set in his mind that Jesus was the Messiah.
Consider that in the scripture text that Matthew wrote that when John
Common English Bible Chapter 11
heard in prison about the things the Christ was doing
The word Christ is not a name but is rather a title. Christ wasn’t Jesus’ last name, it was his title, Jesus Christ, Jesus, the Messiah.
John heard while he was locked up in prison all about with Jesus the Messiah was doing and wasn’t what he was expecting.
John like so many others were many awaiting a political king.
Matthew: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition Are You the One Who Was to Come? 11:2–6
It should not be surprising that John the Baptist doubted Jesus’ messiahship. A wide diversity of messianic hopes existed in Jesus’ time. Militaristic, political, priestly, and spiritual understandings of the Messiah competed for people’s commitment. If John was hoping for a militaristic Messiah, he naturally would question Jesus’ ministry because it failed to challenge Roman domination. At the least, John could have expected the Messiah to set him free from prison. Instead Jesus seems to have used John’s imprisonment as an opportunity to expand His own ministry.
We even know that at the time of Jesus’s birth the Magi went to Jerusalem seeking him since that was the logical place for a king to be born.
The freedom they desired was from political oppression.
Remember Jesus words in John?
36 Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you really will be free.
Jesus was talking about freedom from sin and the ways of sin while the people were wanting political freedom. Jesus was not what they were expecting in the Messiah.
We know that there was a great fear of Herod.
Herod Antipas was a jealous king who murdered his own family to stay in power.
At Jesus’s birth he put out an edict to kill all boys under the age of two in order to get rid of the threat of a new king. This paranoia is still present since Herod fears the followers of Jesus, and an uprising.
Herod also seems to assume that the Messiah is going to come for political rule. Herod is going to be quick to stomp any movement to challenge him.
So it is in this culture that we find John sitting on death row in prison. John was in prison and Jesus was free and he was preaching, teaching, healing and raising the dead. He had been the one to introduce Jesus to the world at his baptism.
John expected what the words of the Prophet Isaiah wrote:
4 Say to those who are panicking: “Be strong! Don’t fear!” Here’s your God, coming with vengeance; with divine retribution God will come to save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be cleared. 6 Then the lame will leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing. Waters will spring up in the desert, and streams in the wilderness.
This probably led him to some doubt about who Jesus was. If John was a faithful servant and prophet for the Messiah, why was he sitting in prison?
He is there because of his outspoken words against Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife. Herod had divorced his wife and had seduced his brothers wife to leave her husband and to marry him. John called him on that and told him that it was against the law for him to marry his sister-in-law.
John’s faithfulness to God led him to prison.
The works John hears about are not works of uprising or overthrowing governments but are acts of mercy.
John is looking for the ax to cut down the unfruitful trees, but instead he hears are about healings.
He has heard rumors about the grace-filled works Jesus is performing.
This is very different from the political uprisings he expected.
There were two words that jumped out at me as I studied for today. Those words are proof and evidence. If I say proof and evidence would you say that they mean the same thing?
Proof means: evidence or argument establishing or helping to establish a fact or the truth of a statement.
Evidence means: the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.
There is a difference between the two words. One author put it this way:
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 24: Matthew The Messiah’s Answer for John the Baptist
While John was asking for “proof” of Jesus’ messiahship, Jesus, instead of offering proof, gave him evidence. The walk of faith most often means to accept evidence in the place of proof. God is His own proof and faith will not stop short of coming to God Himself.
Did you catch that? God is His own proof!
The context in Matthew is interesting to explore.
After Jesus’s baptism and his temptation in the wilderness are these incredible acts of mercy and healing. It is also the location of the Beatitudes.
Instead of preaching about uprising and overthrowing governments, Jesus’s words are about loving enemies, being meek, humble, generous.
Jesus emphasizes that the peacemakers are the children of God and that the persecuted are blessed.
It’s also important to note that most of Jesus’s preaching in these chapters is not criticism of those in power but words of challenge for those who hear: a reworking of the law and a re-conceptualizing of how things are in the kingdom of God.
Jesus is demonstrating that grace is at work in the miraculous events that have taken place in the healing and raising from the dead. Grace is being announced by Jesus, it is not about a political overthrow, but a revolution in the hearts of the those who grab onto the message of Jesus.
Proof is not needed, the grace of God serves as the evidence.
Despite what was believed, the kingdom of God is not about political gain but about deep heart change that changes the lives of others in real ways.
It’s about loving God fully.
It’s about loving your neighbor fully.
It was very likely that John heard, in addition to the miraculous deeds Jesus did, of this radical way of preaching that ran counter to what they believed the Messiah would do in establishing a kingdom.
Jesus responds to John’s questions.
Jesus reemphasizes the acts of mercy he is doing.
The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are healed, the dead are raised, and good news is preached to the poor.
Jesus views these acts of mercy as evidence enough of who he is.
Again he is redefining the kingdom of God for John.
It’s not about political gain but about mercy, healing, and wholeness.
However, it’s important to note too that, after Jesus lists these acts of mercy, he gives another Beatitude:
Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.
This seems to emphasize the fact that his preaching about the kingdom is part of why John is struggling with the identity of Jesus.
This is a completely different way of thinking about the kingdom of God.
This also emphasizes the offensive and radical nature of what Jesus is doing.
Not everyone is going to accept Jesus’s words. Some are going to be offended by them. This is obviously counter to what people thought of the Messiah and counter to who people want to be.
Jesus also responds to the crowd.
7 When John’s disciples had gone, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John: “What did you go out to the wilderness to see? A stalk blowing in the wind? 8 What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in refined clothes? Look, those who wear refined clothes are in royal palaces. 9 What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 He is the one of whom it is written: Look, I’m sending my messenger before you, who will prepare your way before you.
The comparison to a reed is likely a direct comparison to Herod Antipas.
Herod used an image of a reed on his currency.
He would be royalty in soft robes.
This continues the theme that while the people think they are looking for political help, that isn’t truly the heart of the matter.
They entered the wilderness because that’s where revelation from God has happened for the people.
The exodus is a key example of this.
Prophets are often found in the wilderness. They find a prophet, not a king.
Prophets speak truth to power, whereas kings benefit from power. Our world needs prophets today. There are to many in our culture who are all about power. They will say what ever they want to help them maintain their power.
Prophets challenge the status quo, whereas kings often create the status quo through control.
If they weren’t looking for a king in the wilderness, why are they looking for a king in the Messiah?
The system is going to be challenged but not in the ways of the world, just like prophets challenge systems in different ways.
This is not that different from our looking for the Messiah in the world.
We often expect God to move in the ways we want him to. We ask God to bless us in very specific ways: money, fame, homes, etc.
What if God’s blessings look more like the Beatitudes than they do like material wealth?
What if it’s not that God isn’t blessing us while he blesses others but that our perspective is wrong?
We question where God is in the midst of tragedy. What if God is trying to show us that he is in the midst of the tragedy, grieving with us? We often view God as being on our side of a political opinion.
What if, instead, God is asking us to completely reframe our thinking—not around a political system but around the kingdom of God?
What if we are looking for political power while God is asking us to change our hearts and care for our neighbors?
When we look for a very specific type of Jesus, we often begin to question if Jesus is the Messiah he says he is.
We need to be looking at acts of mercy. In the ways we find people restored and freed. In generosity and love toward our neighbors. In the places where resurrection is happening.
Advent is about expectation—but what are we expecting?
How can we repent of the ways we have constructed a certain view of who Jesus is? How can we ask for eyes to see who Jesus really is and who he is calling us to be?
How can we remove some of the distractions in our lives to see these acts of mercy and grace not as disappointment but as the true fulfillment of the Messiah in our midst?
Conclusion
We are not that far removed from John’s questions. We question who Jesus is all the time. And it’s okay to have questions. Jesus didn’t reject John’s questions, and he doesn’t reject ours. But we often need to acknowledge that the more we know, the more we don’t know.
Our certainty about who Jesus is sometimes robs us of our ability to learn and embrace who Jesus is trying to show us he is.
This Advent, let’s take time to acknowledge the ways our ground has been shaken and the ways our expectations have let us down. Let’s learn to have new expectations—to expect that maybe God is doing a new thing in a way we could never have thought or imagined.
May we seek to be open to the questions that lead us to a new openness of trust in who the Messiah is.