Bible Text: Matthew 11:2-10 | Preacher: Pastor Andrew Richard
We don’t know whether John was asking for his own sake, or whether he sent his disciples to Jesus with a question for their sake, but regardless, we do well this Sunday to take up the question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Mt. 11:3). They ask this question because Jesus seems to defy expectation. John had proclaimed Jesus as a strong and great man, saying, “He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry” (Mt. 3:11). John was by no means wrong, but Jesus didn’t look the part of a strong man or a great man. He looked the part of a rather ordinary man, to judge by outward appearances. John had preached of Jesus, “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Mt. 3:12). Again, John got it exactly right. But at the time of today’s reading Jesus had not yet carried out His judgment. It didn’t look like the last days had come, even though it is clear from the New Testament that the first coming of our Lord did usher in the end, as it says in Hebrews 9, “now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26). But Jesus’ actions didn’t seem to align with John’s words. And now John sits in prison. Is this how the great forerunner of the great Messiah should be treated? We would expect otherwise, and that means our expectations need to be straightened out, for Jesus is the One who is to come, and we should not expect another.
John’s disciples come to Jesus to ask their question, and they find Jesus in the midst of healing many people, as it says in Luke, “that very hour He cured many people of their infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many who were blind He gave sight” (Lk. 7:21). As Jesus is showing these great signs, He simply directs John’s disciples, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see” (Mt. 11:4). Then Jesus points out the signs He is performing, and how they fulfill Isaiah’s prophecies about the Messiah: “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness” (Is. 29:18), “Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (Is. 35:6), “the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted” (Is. 61:1). We see that we recognize the Christ not because He fulfills our self-invented expectations, but because He fulfills His Word.
Jesus’ answer stands as an everlasting testimony to His identity as the Messiah, the Coming One, the Savior of Man. We should look for no other, for no other has done what He has done. He has performed a multitude and variety of miracles for the wellbeing of man, and He has done them in His own name, simply saying, “Young man, I say to you, arise,” and, “I am willing; be cleansed,” and, “Lazarus, come out.” The answer to the question is plain for the whole world to see: He is the One who is to come. Yet Jesus ends his litany of signs with a blessing and word of further comfort, “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Mt. 11:6). We should consider why He ends this way, and what comfort these words hold for us.
Those who are offended by Jesus are those whose expectations of the Messiah are not satisfied by Jesus. The problem, of course, is not with Jesus, but with having false expectations. The inhabitants of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, took offense at Jesus because their expectations of the Messiah were off base. They expected that they would not know where the Christ came from. They expected that He would not seem ordinary in the least, but that everything about Him would be grand and glorious. So they say in Matthew 13, “‘Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?’ So they were offended at Him” (Mt. 13:54-57).
Taking offense at Jesus is very dangerous. When Jesus meets the expectations that He has set in Scripture, then our faith is strengthened, as when He directs John’s disciples to His miracles. But when Jesus doesn’t meet the expectations that we have invented, we risk harming our faith by wrongly telling ourselves that Jesus isn’t who He’s supposed to be. How many people have walked away from the Christian Church because it isn’t what they thought it would be? How many people have stopped believing in Jesus because He didn’t adapt Himself to their preconceived notions? He should have given me this. He shouldn’t have let this happen. False expectations of Jesus are a danger to faith and death to souls, and that should lead each of us to reflect seriously: Are my expectations of Jesus the right expectations?
For our sinful flesh, everything about Jesus is offensive. He comes as a baby in a manger and dies as a man on a cross. Is this our hope before the judgment seat? Is it this weak-looking man? Is He the Mediator between God and men? How easy it is to doubt that He has fulfilled all righteousness and that His righteousness is yours! His Church looks poor and stupid in worldly terms. How many people are there in Casper, and how many have made it a point to hear the pure Gospel and worship Jesus rightly this morning? The Church is small and despised, a little rag-tag group of sinners. How easy it is to take offense at the Church, that it is full of people like him and her and doesn’t have anything more respectable to show! And the continued mighty acts of God are Baptism, which looks like nothing more than a splash of water, and the Lord’s Supper, which appears less substantial than breakfast.
Or what about the Christian life? You’re a beloved child of the heavenly Father. Christ has betrothed you to himself in righteousness and all his riches are yours. The Holy Spirit has been poured into your heart and you have become a temple of God. And then you get sick, just like everyone else does. You endure hardship, just like everyone else does. Your milk goes sour and your grandma dies, just like everyone else’s does. In fact, it often seems that you have it even harder in this life being a child of God, because you do. You’ve renounced the devil and the ways of the world. You have to wrestle with your sinful nature instead of simply giving in to it. There are some people who despise you for no other reason than you believe in Jesus. John sits in prison, and you bear your cross as well.
But Jesus didn’t tell you life would be any different than that. He said in Matthew 16, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mt. 16:24). This is why the Church, the Sacraments, the Christian life all seem so offensive and scandalous: they’re intimately connected with “the scandal of the cross,” as Paul calls it in Galatians 5. The cross is Jesus at his lowest, dying and keeping company between two thieves. This is the Savior? This is the one who is to come?
Yes. And could he have come any differently? What if he had preferred life over death, and glory over suffering, and healthy, honorable company instead of a bunch of sick sinners? What if Jesus had concerned himself with looking the part? Then he wouldn’t have come, and we wouldn’t be saved. But being the Savior of mankind necessarily meant coming down from on high and making himself lowly, and so He foretold in Isaiah 7, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). Being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world meant taking on the flesh and bearing the sins of those dear sheep whom he came to seek and to save, which is what He foretold in Isaiah 53, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:4-5). To have him differently would be to lack him entirely.
Therefore, we should not take offense at Jesus for any reason. He has fulfilled the expectations that He taught us in His Word, and He has not disappointed us in the least. The world may take offense at Jesus and walk away, as it did in John 6 when Jesus taught that He is the bread that comes down from heaven, and many even of His own disciples turned back from following Him. But when Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn. 6:67-68). What we have with Jesus is better than anything we’ll find anywhere else, and while He may defy human expectation, He also far exceeds all human expectation.
Consider salvation. Human nature might expect a king on a horse with a sword and a lance, at the head of a mighty army, riding fearlessly into battle. But anyone could think of that. If we want to talk about Jesus being common, that would have been common. But “Your King is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey,” there’s something out of the ordinary. Saving with strength and a sword? Our flesh can keep it’s poor expectations. But saving with weakness? Giving life by dying? Conquering by suffering? Here’s the great and glorious. Here’s the expectation that Jesus has given to us, and it is magnificent.
Or consider the Church. A bunch of rich, healthy people with perfect lives? A bunch of your kind of people and not that kind of people? Jesus has done far better than that. He has brought together different people into one body. He has given us our unity not in preference or personality or skill, but in a common confession of faith. Jesus takes people who by the world’s judgment should get along like oil and water and be at each other’s throats constantly, and He brings them together to the altar and sets them down next to each other and gives them both His own body and blood, and the wolf and the lamb feed together in peace.
Or consider the forgiveness of sins. “Your sins will be forgiven if you climb to the top of Mount Everest.” “Your iniquities will be covered if you swim across the Pacific Ocean.” “Your transgressions will be removed if you do this great and impressive thing”… blah, blah, blah. That requires no imagination, nor anything truly impressive. But do you want to know what is extraordinary? Your sins are washed away with water in the baptismal font. You walk no farther than this altar to receive atonement. A fellow human being pronounces the Absolution, and it is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us himself.
Or consider the Christian life. “The good life is an easy life.” “You can only be happy if there’s no suffering.” How limited! How narrow-minded! How plain! Do you want a better life than that? Then how about the life of Christ? Being content while having little, and being no happier when there is much. Having hope in the midst of death. Laughing at tribulation, without concern whether the tribulation is removed or not. Remaining unshaken in the midst of suffering. These are the things that Christ teaches you to expect, and he forms you in them by His Word.
Compare all these things with our human expectations, and we see which life is truly the good life, and which means of receiving forgiveness are the better means, and which kind of Savior is the true Savior. We can cast aside all human expectations and regard them as rubbish, for Jesus has given us something far better.
This Sunday Jesus sets straight our expectations and confirms them. This Sunday is called gaudete, the Latin word for “rejoice,” which comes from the Introit: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!… The Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4:4-5). “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Rejoice! Jesus is the One who is to come, and you need not look for another, thanks be to God. Amen.