Sunday, December 15, 2019. Rev. Dr. Scott Ramsey, preaching.Scripture Readings: Isaiah 35:1-10; Matthew 11:2-11

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SERMON TEXT

Just as we are

waiting during Advent for the Messiah to come to us, in the pages of Scripture

John the Baptist and others were also waiting for the Messiah to come, and they

appear to have had certain expectations of what that would be like.  Our passage from Matthew begins with John the

Baptist – last week we encountered him out in the Judean wilderness – only now

he has been arrested and put in prison. 

Last week, in Matthew 3, John preached about the need for repentance,

about the coming One who would set things right, who would establish God’s

kingdom of righteousness.  John spoke of

how the coming One, the Messiah, would establish this kingdom with fire and

with a winnowing fork, separating out the good wheat, who would be cherished

and kept, from the wicked chaff, who would be burned with unquenchable fire.

We can’t be sure exactly what John had in mind, but it seems possible, maybe even likely, that John expected the Messiah to clean house.  To go through the streets of Galilee and Jerusalem with a sword in hand, using whatever means necessary to establish the kingdom of God and to overturn the kingdom of Caesar.  He would restore the kingdom to Israel, bringing judgment upon the enemies of God, and doing so with righteousness.

Then Jesus came.  And he began to engage in his ministry. He spoke the Beatitudes to the disciples and the crowds.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn.”  He spoke of turning the other cheek to challenge your aggressor, rather than lashing out violently at them.  He spoke of loving your enemies.  He healed lepers, who were deemed unclean by the good religious people.  He healed people who were possessed by demons.  He ate dinner with a lot of tax collectors and sinners, people who were outside the “system,” and about as far from being thought of as “righteous” as you could get.

It’s perhaps no wonder that in Matthew 11, John appears a little puzzled, and sends a message to Jesus asking him, “Um, are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?”  Jesus’ work did not look quite like the sort of Messiah that John was expecting.  John may have been among those who wanted victory now, and it seemed that Jesus was willing to work much more slowly.

According to Matthew, Jesus and John started out on the same page.  In 3:2, John begins his ministry by saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  In 4:17, Jesus began his ministry by saying – wait for it – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  Word for word.

Both men proclaimed a kingdom characterized by righteousness.  The distinction appears to have been in how the righteous kingdom would be established.  John may have been among those who expected God to impose the kingdom of heaven upon the world, whereas Jesus came to give birth to the kingdom of heaven from within.  John wanted the Messiah to crush the wicked, whereas Jesus came to heal and redeem the wicked.  John expected the day of the Lord to arrive swiftly and decisively and obviously.  Jesus brought the kingdom patiently and slowly.

One of the hard teachings about this passage, and others like it, is that God can sometimes disappoint us.  We may have very clear ideas about what we want God to do, when we want God to do it, and how we want God to act. “God, give me a sign, and I’ll start acting differently.”  “God, if you’ll help me pass this test, I promise I’ll start doing what you want.”  “God, please, just give me a good parking spot at Tyson’s this afternoon.”  And those are just the blatant ones.  Most of the time, we know that these are somewhat silly.

But there are other prayers that are not so silly.  “God, make my family member’s pain go away.” “God, help my loved one recover from their ad