2019-12-15

Waiting… For What… Who???

So there is an interesting issue that I have working for the church, maybe some of you experience it in your job too. Basically, the issue is that I often find myself somewhere like Cafe Arabica waiting to meet someone and I have no idea what they look like… Perhaps it’s a local school chaplain, pastor, whatnot, who is new to the area, it varies, but someone where the only thing I have to go off is maybe a text message, a few emails, perhaps a phone call… The funny thing is that I often don’t realize this will be an issue until I am sitting there waiting… Now this isn’t like my online dating days where you at least have a picture of who you are meeting but instead trying to imagine what this mysterious person looks like based off what… a few emails? I often end up just sending a text message or calling, sometimes only to find that they are sitting about 2m away… Probably having the same dilemma...

I’m sure that most of you have had similar experiences of waiting for someone, waiting for something, but realizing along the way that you’re not entirely sure how to recognize who or what you are waiting for...

That is exactly the kind of thing that we see in this passage today…God’s people, Israel had been waiting for God to fullfil the promises right back at the start of the Old Testament… That they would be a great nation and a blessing to all humanity…

And that brings us to our passage today...

Matthew 11:2–3 TEV

2 When John the Baptist heard in prison about the things that Christ was doing, he sent some of his disciples to him. 3 “Tell us,” they asked Jesus, “are you the one John said was going to come, or should we expect someone else?”

So we fast foward into Jesus ministry and the things he was doing are being noticed by those who are paying attention...

Are you the one John said was going to come.... What does that even mean… Well God’s people were waiting for someone...

4Mins: Bible Project Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dEh25pduQ8

The Good News Translation The Messengers from John the Baptist

4 Jesus answered, “Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: 5the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. 6How happy are those who have no doubts about me!”

Matthew 11:4–6 TEV

4 Jesus answered, “Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: 5 the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. 6 How happy are those who have no doubts about me!”

Jesus tell them what is happening… This isn’t just a random list of great stuff that Jesus is doing… These are things that should draw the attention of those who are waiting for the coming messiah...

The Good News Translation The Messengers from John the Baptist

7 While John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus spoke about him to the crowds: “When you went out to John in the desert, what did you expect to see? A blade of grass bending in the wind? 8What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in fancy clothes? People who dress like that live in palaces! 9Tell me, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes indeed, but you saw much more than a prophet. 10For John is the one of whom the scripture says: ‘God said, I will send my messenger ahead of you to open the way for you.’ 11I assure you that John the Baptist is greater than anyone who has ever lived. But the one who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John.

Matthew 11:7–11 TEV

7 While John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus spoke about him to the crowds: “When you went out to John in the desert, what did you expect to see? A blade of grass bending in the wind? 8 What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in fancy clothes? People who dress like that live in palaces! 9 Tell me, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes indeed, but you saw much more than a prophet. 10 For John is the one of whom the scripture says: ‘God said, I will send my messenger ahead of you to open the way for you.’ 11 I assure you that John the Baptist is greater than anyone who has ever lived. But the one who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John.

Jesus tells the crowds these things too… God is doing something, pay attention

Thoughts

The coming of Jesus, understanding what he was doing, was not self evident… Even for John’s followers...

Seeing where we sit in the story

The lead up to Christmas is a time when we talk about waiting, but not waiting like being board, being expectant and ready...

For us today, we find ourselves in the same situation. We are in the midst of a long story of God’s redemption of creation.

We don’t wait in advent just because waiting is good, but rather waiting as perparation, to remind ourselves what we are looking for, to remind oursevles where we fit in the story and what we think God will do next.

We are reminded that we live in the time between Jesus ministry and the renewal of all creation and that these things that Jesus was doing, the stuff that was told to John...

Matthew 11:5 TEV

5 the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor.

All of this stuff, it’s our job now. That as God’s people, we are to be a a community that embodies the Kingdom of God, where something of God’s love, healing, wholeness is made real now… Today…

More than that, part of advent is reminding ourselves that are still waiting for Jesus return… That the final renewal of all creation, the final defeat of evil and brokenness is still yet to come… But at the church we embody a foretaste of that now...

Our seeking to be more like Jesus in the mean time is important because it helps our community and our world to see something of God through us… To be better able to recognize God’s grace and redemption displayed through key events like Christmas and better able to know that they are invited into this story of redemption too...

As we head towards Christmas, may our lives individually and together as a church be something that helps our local community to recognize Jesus, to know something of his Kingdom and experience something of the healing and wholeness that helped God’s people recognize what God was doing in Jesus...