John's Doubts, and Ours, which Jesus Relieves [ Sermon for the 3rd Sunday in Advent

Third Sunday in Advent
December 17^th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
John’s Doubts, and Ours, which Jesus Relieves 
Matthew 11:2-11

    John the Baptizer is rotting in prison, unjustly.  Unsurprisingly, I think, John begins to question reality, to ask why things are as they are, or if things really are as he thought they were.  John’s not in solitary confinement; some of his disciples, his followers, are allowed to come and visit him.  And as John hears in prison about the ministry of Jesus Christ, the One whose way John had prepared, the Baptizer has questions.  He dispatches his disciples to go ask his questions. 

 

     Questioning reality is an age-old phenomenon, although it certainly seems to be a more acute problem today.  Our culture in recent decades has cut itself off from the power that the Word of God has to shape our lives.  So it’s not surprising that our areas of confusion have changed.  Bible-quoting John the Baptizer asked whether Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Messiah, the promised Savior of Israel, or if they should expect someone else?  This is a Biblically informed and profound question.

 The current confusions of our Biblically illiterate society are much more basic.  What is a man?  What is a woman?  What is a family?  A marriage?  Is mankind destroying the creation, and if so, what should we do about it?  Is it evil to be manly?  Are we free citizens, obligated to contribute to the governing of our society?  Or are we more or less helpless subjects of the government?  Are we ultimately dependent on the wisdom of the state, because things are just too complicated for us to understand, let alone be in charge of our own lives?

     You may not be confused about what a woman or a man is, or about the nature of family.  We may even be relatively clear about the nature of good citizenship for people blessed to have been born into a democratic republic, based on the rule of law.  But I doubt any of us are immune to the social pressure to not speak obvious truths, lest someone be offended.  The terrorists’ veto may not affect us much, but the heckler’s veto sure seems to.  Nobody wants to get shouted down.   

      John didn’t worry much about the opinions of others, just the truth of God.  And yet he still expressed doubts.  Perhaps digging into John’s confusion and doubts could be useful for us today, as we seek clarity and a Christian response to the ever increasing confusion of our times. 

     John the Baptizer sends a question to Jesus:  Are you the Christ, or should we look for another?  Given the fact that John’s whole adult life has been dedicated to preparing the way for the Christ, the Savior of Israel, such a question would seem to have been excruciating for John.  Had he wasted his ministry?  Was he mistaken when he pointed to Jesus and declared: “Look!  The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”?   

      I’ve heard three different approaches to explaining John’s question, and his mental and spiritual state.  First, there are the pious defenders of John the Baptist.  John is a good guy, a key player in salvation history, the Forerunner, preparing the way of Jesus.  It seems a bit embarrassing, damaging to John’s reputation, for him to be doubting.  So, some argue John wasn’t really doubting.  He only asked his question to test his disciples, to teach them and point them to Jesus. 

      This is, I suppose, possible.  But this interpretation has always left me flat.  First, as John effectively confesses when he declares his unworthiness to even untie Jesus’ sandal, there is only One sinless man.  John was a sinner.  A prophet, very close to God, yes, a very serious follower of the Lord.  But still a sinner, and so still prone to doubts.  For it is doubting God and His goodness and wisdom that leads us into sin.  Reading into the text to say John didn’t really doubt seems to me a weak interpretation. 

       Second, many say that John’s confusion came from his misunderstanding of Jesus’ mission.  John, according to this school of thought, expected more fire and brimstone from the Christ.  He had proclaimed that the Messiah now in Israel’s midst was going to clear the threshing floor, and burn away all the chaff, which is to say, destroy all the wicked.  John instead hears of Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, and generally preaching good news.   This interpretation of John’s question seems plausible to me.  John, who saw the priests and Pharisees who came to hear him and called them a brood of vipers, a bunch of no-good snakes, seems like the kind of person who is eager to see evil punished. 

   That Jesus had come to destroy the power of evil by submitting to it is hard to fathom.  That His ultimate act of love is to accept against Himself the wrath of God against human sin, this is the great surprise of the Gospels.  That even John struggled to fully grasp with the Way of Jesus doesn’t seem strange to me. 

      We certainly look for an avenging Messiah.  We say we are on the side of God, like John.  We see evil all around us.  We even see sin and evil being praised as good in America today.  People are drawn into all kinds of evil, destructive behavior and thought, and the culture celebrates it.  Shout your abortion.  The weirder your sexual appetite, the better.  Anything Christian is at least foolish and outdated, and at worst bigoted and dangerous.  We see and hear such madness, and we long for a Warrior to come and clean
house. 

      We are not wrong to hate the evil we see.  But, we need to be careful with the attitude that hopes for utter retribution.  We need to be honest and consider just how close to home the punishment would come if our desire for Jesus to “punish evil now” were to be fulfilled.  If we ask Jesus to destroy sinners, right now, what happens to us?  What is going on in our hearts and minds?  Do we really want a Messiah who comes to crush all sinners, and grind them into dust? 

      Finally, not so long ago I heard a third way to understand John’s doubts.  Is it possible that John, sitting in prison, asks his question because he feels left behind, neglected?  He hears of Jesus, healing and feeding and blessing the poor and lowly, throughout Judea and Galilee.  But John sits in prison.  Had he not done all that God had asked him to do?  Had he not eaten locusts, lived in the wilderness, and preached the truth, that God hates sin, but is ready to forgive every sinner who repents, who in sorrow turns away from sin and looks to God for mercy?  If John thinks he had fulfilled his calling as a prophet well, he is in good company, since Jesus says of him that “no one born of woman is greater than John.”  Is it possible that suffering in prison caused John to doubt God’s promises to him?  Did he ask his question because he was doubting that his calling had been real?  Did his suffering make him doubt that Jesus really was his Messiah, the Christ of God, come to redeem him? 

    I don’t know.  John was a sinner, and sinners under duress tend to doubt God’s promises.  I don’t know if this was why John asked his questions.  But I do know that I doubt God’s promises.   When days are difficult, I wonder if this thing I’ve believed and followed is really true.  I have such dark doubts.  What about you? 

      Whatever was the cause of John’s doubts, whatever the cause of our doubts, they all stem from the same error:  A misunderstanding of the nature of things, as God has created and ordained them.  Basic misunderstandings of the order of creation drive much of the insanity of our current culture.  Our advanced scientistic age produces tremendous technological marvels, which we all enjoy.  But along with all the technological progress has come an ideology that requires all who want to play in the big leagues to reject the Authority of God, to reject the Authority of the Bible, to reject any Authority that puts limits on the power of so-called human progress.  And that Authority of course, is Yahweh, the Creator, the true God of Israel, revealed in the man, Jesus Christ. 

 

     The world hits brick walls because it rejects the Order of God’s Creation.  Just ask the many detransitioners who will tell you how foolish they were to believe that girls can become boys and boys can become girls.  Just ask the millions of aging Americans who chose against the traditional family, whose hearts now ache for the children and grandchildren they don’t have.  Certainly, we Christians are not immune.  We confess faith in God on Sunday, but we are tempted to let the world’s godless perspective shape our daily lives.  We confess that the Holy Spirit creates and sustains our faith, and shapes our lives, by His Word.   But do we make reading or hearing God’s Word a significant and regular part of each day?  We say we believe the Church and our family are the most important priorities in our lives, but how often do we spend our time and money on pastimes that leave little for our congregation or our loved ones? 

     Even worse, we tend to forget the Nature of God and His Order of Salvation.  God is just, absolutely committed to right being upheld, and evil being punished, in every instance.  God is also love, absolutely committed to the people He created for His own possession, willing from before the creation to save us from ourselves, no matter how high the cost.  And so the Way of Salvation taught and lived and revealed by Jesus Christ is the only Way. 

   The only way to reconcile God’s Justice and His Love, was for God to take our
injustice, our brokenness, into Himself and atone for it, pay for it, make it right, in Himself.  The wood of Jesus’ Manger always pointed to the wood of His Cross, which always pointed to the wood of His Table, where He serves us with the fruit of His suffering, the blood bought forgiveness of sins, in, with and under the bread and the wine. 

      Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and then the Proclamation and Distribution of the gifts, this is the order, the eternal plan and purpose of God, for your salvation, through Jesus.  The Lord grant us to know and cherish His Authority and Order for Creation and for Salvation, in bad times, and in good times, until Jesus’ final Advent, when He will gather all His people to Himself, forever.          

     I do not claim to know what caused John the Baptizer to ask his question of Jesus.  But Jesus’ answer is as much a blessing for us as it was for John:  “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.” 

     Why would anyone be offended by Jesus?  Well, for the rule makers and rule enforcers, Jesus offends by rejecting man-made hurdles put up to prevent sinners from getting to God.  Indeed, Jesus proclaims that He is God, come to us.  For the scoffers and mockers who like to live as if God didn’t exist, the Holy Spirit taps on the shoulder and declares that God is in control of history, and Jesus is the protagonist.  We can be reconciled to His Truth, or we can keep crashing into unseen brick walls.  For the deceived souls have been taught that to please God we can and must straighten ourselves out, first get right, before we get holy, Jesus offends by plainly saying: you can’t do it, you don’t have it in you. 

      Many take offense at Jesus and His remarkable claims.  Truly, the sinner who remains in each of us is time and again offended by the Savior.  But for all who, despite being offended, give up their pride and confess that we are but grass, destined to burn, Jesus comes with the best of news, with rescue for the lost, sight for the blind, forgiveness for the sinner, family for the lonely, and life for all the dying. 

      God grant us not to be offended by Jesus, nor to question His Way.  Rather, let us find in find in Him our Authority, our New Nature, our forgiveness and joy, and eternal life, which begins today, in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.