Was it everything that you had expected? You ripped open the rapping paper on Christmas morning to unveil the toy that you had seen advertised so many times on TV. You had been sure to put it at the top of your Christmas list in great detail taking away any of the possible guess work as to which one you wanted. And now you held it in your hands. Alright, you held it in one of your hands because it wasn’t quite as big as it looked on TV. Those amazing interactive features, weren’t quite as amazing as they had appeared in the advertisement. And all those accessories shown in the commercials? When they said, “Sold separately” they really meant ALL of them sold separately! It wasn’t quite what you were hoping for. With such an experience, it’s hard not to become a little cynical over the years. Really, that tape it going to hold my boat together in shark-infested waters? Really, that thing is going to make a golden-brown chicken, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside in just 20 minutes? But every-once-in-awhile, there is something that turns out to be as good or maybe even better than advertised. There is that item that you thought might be nice to have around, that exceeds your expectations, something that you wonder how you lived without.
As John the Baptist sat in prison, he was trying to figure out which was Jesus was. Was Jesus all that John had expected Jesus to be or not? Now you might be wondering if this is the same John the Baptist that we met last week. That John the Baptist seemed so bold and confident. Remember that John? This was the man who was the voice in the wilderness of Judea calling out to people, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:2). This was the man carrying out the special mission that God has chosen him for, to prepare the way for the promised Messiah. And John had specifically identified who that Messiah was. One day, while John was with his disciples, he saw his relative, Jesus of Nazareth walking by. In front of his disciples and crowds of people, John points to Jesus and says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). There didn’t seem to be any question in John’s mind on that day about who Jesus was. So, what had happened to cause John to question and doubt if Jesus was THE One?
Maybe it might help for us to remember why John was in prison. John had been put into prison by a regional ruler named Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas had decided to take his brother’s wife, a woman by the name of Herodias, as his own wife. When John said that what Herod had done was sinful, Herod was not happy with John’s assessment of the situation, and he had John put in prison. Now think about that. John had done the right thing, been faithful to God and to God’s Word, and what did it get him? He was now sitting in prison. Considering the circumstances, I think that we might be able to better understand how John may have begun to wonder about Jesus. John needed to be reassured that the One he had pointing to was in fact the right One.
While talking with some of his disciples who had come to visit him while in prison, John sent two of them to Jesus with a very specific question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). Jesus’ answer is kind of interesting. Jesus says, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Matthew 11:4,5). Where does Jesus point them to for the answer? He points them to the Bible and specifically what the Old Testament prophet Isaiah said the Messiah would do. And then Jesus says to look at what he had been doing. The answer was obvious! Jesus was doing exactly what the Messiah was promised to do.
Now it might be easy for us to wonder how John could miss something that was so obvious. But God’s answers aren’t always to obvious when you’re the one sitting there and thinking and seeing that things didn’t go exactly as you had expected them to go. Those are times when the doubts and questions can come rather easily. You begin to wonder if God is really everything that you thought he was when his power and goodness don’t seem so evident in what you’re going through. You begin to question if you can really trust God to do what he has promised when your prayers are not answered within the time and in the way you thought they should. You begin to question if being a Christian is worth it when someone gets angry at you for lovingly correcting them, or when you lose a friend because you didn’t go along with something you knew was not you’re Savior’s will.
When you find yourself in those situations, go ahead and be like John. Take your questions to Jesus. But then also be like John and be ready to listen to Jesus’ answer. Because Jesus’ answer is the same to us today. God points us to the Bible and what he has promised and what he has done. He tells us to come stand with him at the beginning of time when there was nothing except God himself, and to watch through the words of Scripture as he calls into existence the universe and all that is in it. He tells us to listen carefully to a promise he made 6000 years ago to Adam and Eve after they had ruined the perfect life he wanted all people to experience. Listen as God tells how a descendant of Eve would live and die in the place of every sinner so that they could once again have that perfect life God wants for all forever. Walk with God through the pages of the Old Testament as he keeps that promise, revealing one detail after another, after another of what that Promised Messiah would do and be, how he would be born and where, how he would suffer and die in the place of sinners to bring peace between God and man. See God’s faithfulness to that promise even when people forgot and doubted God’s ability to keep it. Watch as God orchestrates all of human history to perfectly fulfill hundreds or prophecies written over thousands of years about the Messiah, every single one of them perfectly fulfilled in one person, Jesus of Nazareth. See the miracles Jesus performed, witnessed by thousands, every one of them evidence of his divine power. Stand at the foot of the cross and hear Jesus call out with his dying breath that Satan had been crushed, that the price of sin was fully paid, that peace is ours. Listen to God proclaim through the angels on Easter morning, “He is not here!” as Jesus demonstrates again both is power and faithfulness, to overcome death and win life for all those who believe in him. Yes, just stop and listen to the many powerful answers that Jesus gives.
I know that this might sound strange, but this is one of my favorite accounts of John the Baptist, because I think it’s so easy for us to relate to him. John’s faith was not perfect, and neither is ours. There are times of doubt and questions in every Christina’s life. But our faith is in a Savior who was perfect and still is perfect. That’s what brought John the Baptist renewed peace and confidence as those two disciples returned to Herod’s prison and relayed to John what Jesus had said. You can only imagine John’s response, “How could I have ever doubted? This Savior is just as God promised!” Yes, it is Jesus who makes even our faith perfect, as he forgives us for our doubts and with that forgiveness creates in us an even greater appreciation for his faithfulness, strengthening our faith to follow and serve him wherever he may lead and in whatever he may call us to do.
What Jesus says to the crowds after John’s disciples left is kind of interesting. Jesus goes on to talk about how great the man is who had doubted who he was. Jesus says, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind… A man dressed in fine clothes… A prophet? Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:7-11). John was certainly unique because of his God-given mission, to prepare the way for the promised Messiah. He was certainly faithful in carrying out that mission as we saw last time, calling people to repent of their sins. He did not bend to tell them what they wanted to hear or try to draw attention to himself. It was always about pointing people to Jesus as Savior. John was a one-of-a-kind prophet in that he not only proclaimed God’s Word, but was also the fulfillment of God’s Word as promised by Old Testament prophets. But John’s mission and position did not make him any more or less important in the kingdom of heaven. His membership in the kingdom of heaven was the same as anyone else’s – faith in Jesus – a Jesus that was exactly as promised.
It wasn’t long after this that John’s ministry and life came to an abrupt end. Herod Antipas threw a big birthday party for himself at which he promised to do whatever a pretty dancing girl requested of him. The dancing girl happened to be the daughter Herodias, the new “wife” of Herod Antipas, who wasn’t too fond of what John had been saying about her relationship with Herod. So, she asked for John’s head on a platter. Herod reluctantly obliged and John was beheaded.
While John’s death meant that he would not see the crucifixion or Jesus’ resurrection, John could live and die with the same confidence that we too have. Jesus is THE One. That Jesus is just as God promised, all that we need for salvation. Amen.
