Sermon Tone Analysis

We’ve been talking a lot about hopes, expectations, and a longing in our souls for Christ to come.

That’s the force that’s behind the season of Advent.

It’s a season when the hope for Christ’s return, when God makes all things new, Advent is a season when that hope is highlighted in order to draw us again into a deeper desire for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit today.

So we have heard a lot about this hope throughout the past couple weeks, and this morning as we look at this passage in Matthew and this fascinating moment in Christ’s ministry, we’re looking at this hope once more.

So look with me at verse 1.

11 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

So at the center of this passage is this person, John, often called John the Baptist - no relation to the present day denomination which wouldn’t be a thing until some fifteen hundred years later.

So who is this guy?

Well, John the Baptist is a crucially important guy in Jesus’ life.

Their families were quite close with one another, their childhoods are connected with one another, and at some point John becomes this incredibly eccentric person in the vein of the great prophets of the Old Testament, and he feels called by God to go out into the wilderness and serve as a voice calling to the people of Israel to confess and repent of their sins, to be baptized, and to wait for the coming of the Messiah.

John becomes this larger than life figure, and his ministry gains an incredible amount of public attention, and Jesus himself goes out to John and is baptized by him.

So John gets all this attention, and for a number of different reasons he gets on the Herod’s bad side - Herod being the puppet governor set up by the Roman Empire - and he is thrown in prison to rot and die.

Now, prisons in that time period were nothing like American prisons.

You weren’t given food in prison.

You weren’t given anything.

There were no services afforded to prisoners.

This is one of the primary reasons why you see throughout the New Testament this call to go and visit and care for prisoners - because otherwise you would starve and die.

So John is in prison, and he hears about all the things that Jesus is doing and so hearing these amazing reports, John sends some of his disciples, some of his followers to go ask Jesus a question.

Now, given John’s close connection with Jesus and his experiences with Jesus - being at his baptism and seeing the heavens open up and the voice of the Father speaking and the Spirit descending - given all that, why on earth does John ask this? “Are you sure you’re the Christ, the Messiah?

Are you sure you’re the one we’ve all been hoping for, or should we be expecting someone else?” Of all the people to ask this question, the last person we’d expect would be John.

All that he had seen and heard and experienced.

This was one of the closest people to Jesus.

This is the one who uttered that famous line, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

What has happened here?

John

John has heard the reports of what Jesus is doing, and upon hearing these reports of the kinds of things Jesus is doing as he’s traveling from city to city, because of these reports John starts questioning whether Jesus is really the Messiah.

Did you catch that?

John hears word about the deeds of the Christ, and it doesn’t convince him that Jesus is the Messiah, instead it causes him to question and wonder.

Why?

Last week in our gospel reading in Matthew chapter 3, we heard John preaching to all of the folks who came out into the wilderness to be baptized, and what was he saying?

Chapter 3 verse 9 he says,

9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

[We’re Israelites.

We’re good.

We’re on great terms with God just on the fact of our birth.]

10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming

Remember John’s question now, “Are you the one who is to come?”

Here in the wilderness, he’s saying that the one is coming, he’s announcing the arrival of the Messiah.

but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

So this is an intense guy with a very intense message.

And it feels especially out of place in our world today, but in John’s day this was not out of the norm.

John sees himself in line with the great prophets of the Old Testament and he sees his calling as one who, like them, would announce the coming of this great day when God would act in history to reclaim the world he had made, to bring his Kingdom, to send the Messiah who would set up this kingdom that would be known for peace and justice and righteousness, and God would bring flourishing and salvation, but the Messiah would also bring justice and because of that he’d bring a refining judgment on the people of God, to purify them of unrighteousness.

So John’s announcing that this Messiah is coming right after me, he’s coming and it’s going to be awesome but it’s going to be intense, you better be ready for it, because this guy is bringing the fire!

And then in chapter 4, John baptizes Jesus, the heavens open up, the Spirit descends, the voice calls out from heaven, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

And John witnesses all of this, and he knows that this is the guy.

This is the one who’s bringing the fire!

And then Jesus leaves, and starts doing his thing.

And John hears what Jesus is doing out in the cities of Israel, and he starts questioning if this is really the guy.

Because what do we see Jesus doing?

He’s healing people.

Left and right he’s healing people.

What did John think he was going to do? Bring the fire.

And John is rotting in prison, and he hears what Jesus is doing, and it doesn’t make any sense to him.

That’s what’s going on with John’s question here.

Now look at what Jesus says in response, verse 4:

4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

How is this a response to John?

Well, Jesus is giving a summary of what he’s been up to.

He details six things hear: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor receive good news.

If you go back through the past five chapters you’ll see each of these being done by Jesus.

This is what he’s been up to.

Presumably, John knows all this, because he’s heard reports of what Jesus has been up to.

But these aren’t just what Jesus has been up to.

Jesus is also quoting phrases from four different passages from the prophet Isaiah: , , , and 61.

And all of these passages are talking about that great day when the Messiah comes, the kingdom comes, God’s salvation and refining judgment come.

All of them talk about the day that John was proclaiming out in the wilderness.

So what is Jesus saying to John? He’s saying, “You weren’t wrong John.

Look at what I’m doing - the kingdom is here.

I am the one who is bringing all of this into reality.

But it doesn’t look like what you thought it would look like.”

And look at what he says at the end, “and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

John told everyone that the Messiah was going to bring the fire of God’s justice.

Jesus comes, and he brings healing.

John is in prison, and what is the Messiah doing?

He’s having dinner parties with tax collectors and sinners.

Where’s the kingdom?

Where’s the fire?

And Jesus says, “John, the kingdom is here, but it looks different than what you thought.

And blessed are the ones who can see past their expectations of they thought would happen, and can see what is actually going on.”

Now, I don’t think Jesus is rebuking don’t think he’s angry with think Jesus clearly sees that there is a disconnect in Johns mind.

I think we can be very sympathetic with John.

He’s in prison, most likely knows he’s not getting out, and he was once this larger than life figure in close connection with Jesus, he set the stage for Jesus’ public ministry, and he told all these people what Jesus was going to do, and then comes to find that Jesus is not doing those things, and also he’s in prison.

John’s world is rocked.

He’s in a crisis moment.

John had a story in his head about how things were going to go and about what Jesus was going to do in the world and in his life, and it’s clearly not coming true.

John is going through something that all of us either have gone through in the past, are going through presently, or will go through one day.

Now here’s an important question - and think on this through the lens of John’s perspective.

Is John’s hope and trust in Jesus?

It’s a difficult question, isn’t it?

On the one hand, John would not be asking this question if he wasn’t hoping in Jesus in some way.

He’s confused and questioning because he had been hoping in Jesus; so certainly on the one hand, yes John’s hope is in Jesus.

But in another sense, I think we can say no.

John’s hope is not in Jesus, but he is just now discovering that.

John is discovering that he has been placing his trust in a story that he had in his head about who Jesus was and what Jesus would do, and now that Jesus is not what he expected, his world is falling apart because is hope has failed him.