Last Sunday, we heard about John the Baptist boldly crying out in the wilderness. He proclaimed that “the kingdom of heaven has come near” and demanded the people repent and reorient their lives toward God.
This weekend, we once again hear about John, but in very different circumstances. Now he has been arrested by the authorities and is languishing in prison. Where once he was so certain God was about to act, now he’s wondering if he perhaps misunderstood the whole thing. He betrays his doubts as he sends a messenger to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” He’s on the edge of giving up, nearly convinced that God has abandoned him.
In response, Jesus invites him to look at what’s happening. It may not be what John had pictured, but God is working. God’s promises are being fulfilled. Today, of course, we know more of the story. We know Jesus was and is God in the flesh, the one the people had been waiting for. And yet, we can relate to John’s questioning. Perhaps more often then not, God doesn’t act the way we expect. Waiting is still hard.
Here’s this week’s sermon on Isaiah 35:1-10, Luke 1:46b-55, James 5:7-10, and Matthew 11:2-11. We also celebrated the baptism of Charleigh Corrao this week! I found helpful this lectionary blog from Cory Driver and this week’s ELCA World Hunger Sermon Starters email from Robyn Brown. A portion is also drawn from my sermon in 2016 on this story.
Here’s the audio from Christ the King and the service livestream video from Living Hope.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our coming King, Jesus Christ. Amen
The very first sermon recorded from Jesus is in Luke chapter 4, where he reads these words from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolls up the scroll and tells the congregation, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The prophet is writing about him; this is what Jesus has come to do, his mission statement. This is the mission we’re baptizing Charleigh into.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus references this same passage, but there’s one line missing. I don’t know if you caught it, but in the message he sends to John the Baptist, Jesus skips the line about setting the prisoners free, which is a big deal for John, because he’s in prison.
I know we just met John the Baptist last week, but we’re jumping around in the story a bit, and at this point, Jesus is in the middle of his ministry, and John is in prison, wondering what happened, what went wrong. Last week he was John as this wild man out in the wilderness, wearing strange clothes.
It seems odd, but scholar Cory Driver points out that John is following a fairly typical pattern for prophets. In particular, he had patterned his life and career after the prophet Elijah. Just like Elijah, John had refused to play by the rules of the world, living in the wilderness, on the edge of society.
Rather than tailoring his prophetic message to curry favor with the powerful, he proclaimed the need for repentance to everyone. Back in his day, Elijah had made powerful enemies because he called out the sin of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.
Later, in Matthew 14, we’ll find out that the reason John the Baptist is in prison is because he had called out the sins of King Herod, so Herod had him arrested.
When Elijah got in trouble, God provided for him. Maybe you remember—we actually looked at this story back in June. Elijah was overwhelmed by everything going on, and God sent angels to give him food.
God gave him rest (it was the foot massager sermon, and by the way, I still have foot massagers if you want another one or you have no idea what I’m talking about.) The point is, God protected Elijah. Eventually, “at the end of his life, Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire.”
That’s the path John seemed to be on. He spent his life calling for repentance, living as a prophet, but there’s no sign of any fiery chariots coming for to carry him home. Instead, he’s in prison, probably well aware that he’s eventually going to be executed.
This is not what he signed up for. He’s done his best to be that messenger preparing the way for the Messiah, God’s savior, the promised one who would restore God’s kingdom, but so far, the Messiah who was supposed to make the world new doesn’t seem to have changed very much.
He’s not even claiming to be releasing the prisoners, which again, would really benefit John right about now.
John could use some overthrowing of the earthly powers the way Mary sang about, with the powerful being brought down from their thrones, the proud being scattered, the lowly being lifted up. He could use some evidence of God’s promises being fulfilled, and he’s just not seeing it.
And so John wonders, what if he misunderstood? Maybe Jesus isn’t who he thought. Maybe his cousin whom he baptized isn’t the messiah after all. What if he’s got it all wrong?
I wonder if you’ve ever had similar questions or doubts. What if the atheists are right, and there’s no god and we’re just deluding ourselves? What if when we’re praying we’re just talking to ourselves, just making ourselves feel better?
For some people, those questions are big enough for them to abandon church, abandon being Christian. These are real questions.
Or maybe the questions aren’t about whether or not God is real, but about whether God is good, or loving? What if you don’t believe in God hard enough? What if you aren’t good enough to get to heaven? What if you mess up one too many times?
Or, and here’s the hardest one for me, if God is good and powerful, why doesn’t God act to stop suffering? Why do pandemics happen? Why do babies get viruses, and people lose their homes to fires?
Where is God when people have strokes and die, or lose their memories and keep living? Where is God when people are bombed in their apartment buildings? We keep saying the light is breaking into this dark world, so why is it taking so long?
If we’re honest, I believe all of us wrestle with these kinds of questions. Faith is hard. Waiting is hard.
And so John from prison sends his disciples to ask Jesus the question that’s at the heart of Advent, maybe even at the heart of our faith. Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?
Is Jesus really God? Does this guy who lived and died two thousand years ago have anything to do with you and me?
Sometimes, we act like doubt is the opposite of faith. We worry that asking questions means we don’t believe, as if somehow once you’re baptized, everything will suddenly make sense and you’ll never have to wrestle with doubts again. But the reality is the opposite. Doubt is part of faith, because doubt means you’re wrestling with faith. Doubt is a sign faith matters.
John’s questions don’t mean he’s lost faith; they mean he’s seeking someone to trust. He’s seeking hope. His blind faith and optimism may have shifted—and in prison, who can blame him—but he still wants to believe. He’s still looking for hope. He’s still looking for God’s kingdom to come.
Jesus responds by sending a message back. Look at what’s going on. The blind are receiving sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the poor have good news brought to them. The light is breaking into the darkness. God is indeed at work here. He doesn’t say it explicitly, but John and his disciples know: This is the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied.
It’s true, it doesn’t look like what John expected. It’s not happening all at once. The prison doors aren’t swinging open immediately. It’s not happening in all the ways we want it to. God’s activity rarely seems to fit our human expectations, or maybe I should say we rarely manage to calibrate our human expectations to the ways God is acting.
And you and I have even more evidence than John did, because in addition to all the other miracles he got to hear about, we have the witness of the resurrection. We have the testimony of each other, the witness of the church throughout history.
There are times when the promises of the Christian faith might seem too good to be true. It sounds like a fairy tale, a dream, to talk about a world of peace. Streams in the desert, lions and lambs together, no more suffering, no more pain, no more death.
In a world where the news is full of division and fear, where we know the present realities of suffering and death, it’s hard to picture. But this is the promise we await in Advent. This is the promise we claim.
Are you the one who is to come? Can we believe in a God big enough, loving enough, powerful enough to bring in a kingdom of justice and peace? Can we believe this baby to be born is the Son of God?
Can we believe God’s promise of salvation includes sinful people like you and me?
Can we believe that a toddler getting some water splashed on her forehead is claimed forever as a child of God?
While we’re waiting with John for the new reality to be revealed, we see glimpses of hope, flashes of joy as God’s light breaks in, yet we wait for the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. James says, “Be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” That’s a tough command.
But our waiting is different than John’s, because we know how the story ends, even if we sometimes have trouble believing it. We know who Jesus truly was and is, because we know the truth not just of Christmas, but of Easter.
We know Jesus died, and we know he rose again. We know the forces of evil have been defeated, and the power of death has been broken.
Maybe we didn’t know exactly what we were signing up for when we said yes to following Jesus, but we get the joy of being involved in the in-breaking of God’s kingdom. God works through us to lift up the poor, to pray for our neighbors, to reflect God’s light by sharing the good news of what God has done for us.
No matter how dark it gets, trust that the light is coming. Jesus is the one who was promised. Come to the table and taste and see God’s grace and forgiveness. Cling to the promise of being claimed by God in the waters of baptism. Wait, watch, and listen, for the Savior is coming, and the world is about to turn.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.