Are You the One? (Matthew 11:2-6)
Rev. David French
12/11/22 

Why? Why, when John who as he stood in the Jordan said to Christ, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”; John who saw with his own eyes the dove descend from heaven and remain on Jesus; John who the very next day pointed to Christ as He stood along the rivers edge and proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God;” why do we today hear words of doubt coming from John? If you think about it, maybe it’s not really that hard to understand. It’s easy to imagine it had something to do with the fact that in this lesson we find John not preaching to all of Judea but sitting in the prison of Herod’s palace.

While most of us will never sit in a prison because of our faith, Luther reminds us in his book entitled “The Bondage of the Will” that while we can do works of the law, we can never, because of sin, fulfill the law. Our souls, he writes, are imprisoned by sin, a prison from which no man can escape.

That John had doubt, by the way, is a statement still in dispute among scholars to this very day. Some say he had doubt, some say it was not John but his disciples who had the doubt. But the point of our lesson is not who had doubts, because certainly we know in our hearts that times of doubt or questioning our faith are real, doubt which is like sin is, as Moses reveals, “always crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” So, the focus is not who had doubts, the focus is to answer those doubts, and to do that, John turned to or sent others to Christ.

John’s doubt, like ours, was caused by things he simply didn’t understand. John trusted the Word he had received. He knew the reason he was baptizing in the Jordan was so the Messiah would be revealed. He also knew the Messiah would display both works of grace and judgment. 

The things John was hearing were good, but they may have been only part of what he was expecting. Everything John was hearing about Jesus was of grace and forgiveness, and so it seems he at least was unclear about the judgment part, and so he asked, “Are you the One who was to come or should we expect another?” 

Today we understand through the Scriptures that eternal judgment follows Christ’s second coming, and so we don’t look for another, but the thought that Christ or Christianity is not what some think it should be is nothing new and neither are the reasons. There are those who fail to understand that Christ came not to be served, but to serve. There are those who fail to understand that His serving us is a result of His mercy and not our merits. There are those who fail to understand that Christ serving us does not mean that He gives us whatever we want.

There are those who fail to understand that suffering is a part of the Christian life. There are those who fail to understand that His grace is sufficient. There are those who fail to understand that He continues to serve us through the Means of Grace as He comes to us in His Word and sacraments given for the forgiveness of our sins. 

John sent his disciples to Jesus with his questions, but where can I send you with your questions? Jesus answered their questions by pointing to what He was doing. Where can you go to see what Jesus is doing? The answer, I’m sure you know, is to the same place. As for going to Christ, remember that He came to you in your baptism and promised from that moment to always be with you. As for hearing His words, we turn to the Scriptures where He still speaks. As for seeing His works, look what’s happening all around you. 

Perhaps you think, “But, they literally saw for themselves the blind receiving their sight, the lame walking, those who had leprosy being cured. They could see the deaf were hearing and the dead were being raised, and they heard the Good News being preached to the poor.”

 

In the Greek it’s a common practice, when running a list, to go from least to most important. In our lesson we find at the end of the list, the most in important proof, was “the Good News is preached to the poor.” While the word used here for poor sometimes refers to economic status; far more often than not, it’s used as in the Beatitudes, where it’s translated poor in spirit, or those who know their need for a Savior. This phrase literally says, and those who know their need for a Savior are receiving the gospel, of all the things mentioned blind seeing, dead being raised, and so on, the most important thing is that repentant sinners, the poor in spirit were receiving the gospel, they were believing the Good News that they would be saved by grace through faith in Christ.

Understand that just as the sacrificial system of the Old Testament pointed to the greater sacrifice of Christ, the healings in our lesson today also point to greater healings as well. In Ephesians 1:18 we read, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.” In other words, the blind are still receiving their sight.

In Hebrews 13 those who are in Christ are called to “strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.” In other words, the lame are still being made to walk. And leprosy, while a disease of the skin, was also seen as an indication of sin, of being unclean, but in Acts we read that He purifies not our skin but “He purifies our hearts by faith.”

In Matthew 13 Christ said to the faithful gathered, “But blessed are … your ears because they hear.” In other words, the promise of the Gospel is still opening ears to the voice of our Lord. According to Colossians (2:13a), “When you were dead in your sins …, God made you alive with Christ.” And so the dead continue to be raised. And all of these greater realities continue to rest on the Gospel being preached to the poor. 

But the Gospel for some is a difficult thing, as Christ points out with the words, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” That is, you will be blessed with eternal life if you do not reject the message of salvation that He brings.

You and I, we are blessed. God in His mercy has opened our ears and eyes. He has cleared the path for us to approach Him with confidence. In Christ we have been given eternal life. While living that life, doubt will find it’s way into our minds, and at times our lives look nothing like we think they should. It’s especially at those times that we confidently turn to Christ, standing firm in His Word, for it is there in the pages of the Holy Scriptures that He continues to speak to you and to me the truth that you have been covered with the blood of Christ, and in Him you are forgiven.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.