Luke 7: 18-28
And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent
them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
Today is Gaudete Sunday; the
third Sunday of Advent in the liturgical calendar. We light the pink candle on
the Advent wreath and we recall the word of our Lord which is recorded in the Introit
for this day;
“Rejoice in the Lord
always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the
Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.
Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob."-
Philippians 4:4–6; Psalm 85; 84:1
Yet John does not see any
reason for rejoicing. In fact, he finds himself frustrated. Where is John?
In prison. And it doesn’t seem right that he should be. John hadn’t done
anything wrong. No, in fact, he had done something right, very right. And yet
here he is, languishing in prison. And what is Jesus doing about it? Nothing,
it seems.
While in
prison, John received reports about what Jesus was saying and doing. Some of it
seemed right – the healing and the miracles. But lots of it was just plain
wrong. Going to parties with drunkards, tax collectors and prostitutes – that
was not something the Messiah was supposed to do.
Turning father against son and mother against daughter
didn’t sound right either. Wasn’t the Messiah supposed to bring peace, love and
unity?
And what’s all this talk about paying taxes to Caesar
and blessing those who persecute us? Wasn’t the Messiah supposed to throw off
Roman rule and give Israel her liberty?
Of all the things for the greatest prophet to be
confused about, John is confused about the identity of Jesus the Messiah. He is
confused about Christ.
Where were the armies? Where was the attack on
Caesarea? Where was the winnowing fan, the axe, laid at the foot of the tree,
and the fire from heaven as John expected? Why wasn’t any of that
happening?
John begins to wonder, as he wastes away in prison,
that maybe Jesus is not who John thought. There had been false Messiah’s
before. Could it be that Jesus was a false Messiah?
John calls two disciples, and asks them to go ask
Jesus if He is the promised one, or if they should look for someone else.
John refers to Jesus as The Coming One. The One Who
Comes in the name of the Lord. This is the same verse the multitudes shout and
sing when Jesus enters into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday.
In Psalm 118 the Psalmist looks forward to the coming
of the Messiah when He will set up His kingdom. In the chapter, there are also
several references to being protected by God and being placed at his side to
destroy the nations.
This is what John was hoping for. This is what John
prayed for. And it was not happening. Just the opposite was happening. His
hopes were being crushed. His faith was being weakened. Doubt began to grow.” John’s
question “are you the coming one or
should we look for another?” reveals or at least suggests, uncertainty.
Do you ever have uncertainty and doubt about Jesus? Do
you ever wonder if He really is who He says He is? Do you ever have questions
about something He said, or did?
Do you ever wonder if He is working on your behalf? If
so, you’re in good company. John the Baptist is right there with you.
That’s comforting to know that even someone like John
had doubts and fears and misunderstandings. If you have ever voiced your doubts
or fears to other Christians, very likely you were told that Christians don’t
doubt, that true Christians don’t fear, that true Christians don’t question
God’s Word or God’s ways.
But John doubts just like we doubt. But see how John
handles his doubt. What do we do when we doubt? When we doubt, we stop reading
our Bibles. We stop praying. We stop spending time with other Christians. Not
John. When he begins to doubt, when his faith begins to waver, he reaches out
to Jesus for answers.
You see, doubt flourishes in the dark. It’s like a
mushroom. It thrives on the cold, dark loneliness of the human spirit. In
solitude, the questions seem larger, more ominous, more hopeless.
John was in a dark cell, where the mushrooms grow.
Darkness feeds doubt. But light dispels it. So when in doubt, go where the
light is. Do not neglect time with God. Do not ignore your Bible reading. Do
not forsake the assembling together of other Christians. When in doubt, get as
much light possible into your life.
When in doubt, turn to Jesus.
That’s a little bit scary – admitting doubt to the one
we are supposed to trust. But don’t be scared. See how Jesus responds to John.
We can be certain that He responds to us in the same way.
Jesus does not rebuke John. He doesn’t reject John. He
doesn’t write John off. Instead, He kindly, gently, patiently, lovingly shows
John once again who He is. Jesus confirms that He truly is the Messiah.
The LORD always wears a disguise. Jesus looks like a
man, lives like a man, dies like a mere man. Yet faith says, “Jesus is LORD.”
You do your daily work, you sweat, you put up with
rude customers, you deal with unruly students, you do the ho-hum work of the
daily grind. Yet faith says, “My labor is
holy, divine work, for I am God’s tool that He uses to take care of others.”
Yet you get sick, you lose weight, you hurt, you cry,
you wonder how long you can last. Yet your faith says, “I am a blessed child of God, well-pleasing to Him, and I will live
forever in Christ.”
The Savior takes your doubts and your fears and your
shame and your bitterness and He makes them His own. And He takes His faith and
His hope and His life and His joy and His glory and He makes them your own.
He doesn’t remove your outward troubles; He gives you
something better: inward peace. He may leave in place your dysfunctional
family, your disease, your addiction, your pain, but He will not leave in place
a heart empty of peace.
Like Thomas, we deem these things to be real: a
freshly dug grave at the cemetery; a bank account fizzled to near nothing; a
child who just won’t listen; a spouse who doesn’t care; peers who mock; friends
who betray; a conscience that won’t shut up; a job that doesn’t satisfy; a
sickness that grows stronger and more vicious day by day.
Those are the things we consider real, as real
evidence that God is holding out on us, is mad at us, doesn’t love us as much
for us as He does for others.
No you haven’t bet on the wrong horse. Jesus is the
right one, the only right one. Let him assure you today, like he assured John
the Baptist: “Go and tell John what you
have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news
preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
You see, Jesus was doing the blessing part of the
Messiah job right then and there. Not everything was getting fixed, but enough
good was going on to make it plain that Jesus would indeed complete the job.
And that will include all the fixing up and
straightening out, all the tree-whacking and grain-garnering, and all the
sick-healing and dead-raising there is to do. But all in due time. Patience,
child, patience.
Yes, that can be tough, but that’s the way it is. If Jesus
does the key part of being the Messiah, that assures you he will do the rest,
that he will do it all. No need to be looking for someone else. He is the one
who was to come and who will come.
“The blind
receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” And the good
news is, all of this will come to pass, and Jesus has already guaranteed it.
He did this by himself suffering an unjust arrest, by
himself being killed most unfairly. Jesus, the most righteous one–the only
perfectly righteous one–he would be arrested and tried and put to death, when
it was clear he was entirely not guilty.
But he did this for you, for you and for John and for
all the perplexed people of this world. Justice is done. All the wrongs and the
sins are paid for. By Jesus’ holy blood on the cross.
Now your fears and your worries have a place to go to
find an answer. To the cross of Christ.
This assures you that there is ultimate hope and remedy
in store for God’s oppressed. As Jesus burst forth from the tomb on Easter
morning, so he will call us forth from our prisons and from our graves when he
comes again. Maybe not next Thursday. Then again, maybe it will be next
Thursday. Who knows? We don’t know when, but we do know He will. Jesus will
come again, and he will set everything right.
“Are you the one
who is to come, or shall we look for another?” No, you don’t have to look
for another. You don’t have to look any further than this same Jesus. For he
did not come looking for perfect people. Indeed, he is the friend of tax
collectors and sinners!
Yes, Christ came looking for people just like you and
me. “For the Son of Man came to seek and
to save the lost.” If that describes you, then you are in good shape. Jesus
came looking for you, and he has found you, right where you are.
Passive Sentences –5%
Readability – 86.4
Reading Level – 3.9
Image John languishing in prison copyright © Ed Riojas, Higher Things
[i] Chad Bird
[ii] Charles Henrickson
[iii] Jeremy Meyers
No comments:
Post a Comment