Advent Three 1998

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Sunday December 13, 1998
Matthew 11:2-11

Focus Text: "When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?' " [11:2-3]

THE ARRIVAL
Transformation: "Now This Is Good News"

"They'll be expecting you," the association minister said to me after giving directions to Good Hope Church. He was sending me to a small congregation in rural Missouri that needed a supply preacher. It is nice when people are waiting for you. Nice to be expected and receive a warm welcome.

I had some difficulty finding my way over the back roads and was relieved to finally see a sign, "Good Hope Church" in front of a small white frame church. Arriving five minutes before the service, I entered the little sanctuary where people were listening to an organ prelude. No one seemed to be expecting me and in fact no one even extended a greeting. A man across the aisle gave a barely perceptible nod. After a few moments, I thought I should introduce myself to someone and tapped the young man who was sitting in front of me on the shoulder and whispered, "Hi. My name is John Jewell and I am preaching this morning." He responded, "Nice to meet you Mister Jewell, but I am the new pastor here and I thought I was preaching!"

I was shocked even though his words weren't exactly, "He came to his own and his own received him not." I was five miles from "the other" Good Hope Church -- the one I should have arrived at at 10:00 a.m. I got there just as the people were leaving. This was the church that had been expecting me, but they had grown weary of waiting. As I pulled up a man said to me, "Are you the one who's supposed to preach?" It felt so much better to arrive at a place where people were waiting for me.

***

For the Jewish people of Jesus time, there was a tremendous longing for the arrival of Messiah. Messiah would be the king of the Jews, a political-military leader like King David who would crush Rome, defeat all enemies of God's people and usher in a golden age of peace and prosperity. Even the Samaritans looked for his coming. Messiah would know all things and make all things okay.

I do not recall the title of the movie, but do remember very clearly a scene from the movie. It is a bus in New York City. A poor Jewish mother sits with her young son. From the dress it is clear that they are strict, orthodox Jews. As they ride along, the newly widowed mother is consoling her son who grieves the loss of his father. "It will be okay," the mother says wrapping her arm around the boy.

Looking up at her with tears in his deep, dark eyes, he asks,"When Messiah comes?"

"Yes," she replies, "When Messiah comes."

What a wonderful day it will be when Messiah arrives! John the Baptist, who now sat in prison, had stirred up all of Jerusalem with his preaching. "Repent! The Kingdom of heaven has come near!" In other words, "Messiah is coming! Indeed, he is almost at the door!"

Then Jesus came and John was sure God's great intervention into the affairs of this world had begun! He hesitated to baptize Jesus saying, "I should be baptized by you." The Gospel of John tells us that John said of Jesus, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (1:29) Here he was -- finally! Messiah! The One who would crush Rome and restore Jerusalem as the place to which all people on earth would look. God would reign in the midst of the nation of Israel. Righteousness, truth, justice and mercy would hold sway in every heart.

A year or so goes by. Crowds are following Jesus. His ministry is growing like wildfire. Yet -- Rome is still in charge, corruption still infects the religious officials and Messiah has not smashed the enemies of God. John sits in a cold, dark dungeon and wonders, "Has the Christ come or not?" He sent his disciples to Jesus to ask a question. It is a crucial question -- then and now.

"Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

John wanted to know. Indeed -- do we not all want to know? Has Messiah arrived? And if Messiah has arrived -- why aren't things different?"

1. Has Messiah Arrived?

There are all kinds of ways to relate to John the Baptist's question, "Are you the one who is to come?" Football fans ask, "Are you the Vince Lombardi who is to come... or are you the John Elway who is to come?" The English may ask, "Are you the Winston Churchill who is to come?" Young brides and grooms ask, "Are you the one who will make all my dreams come true?"

The question that lies behind all this is, "Who or what can I count on?" When the coach I can count on comes along, our team will win. When the leader we can count on comes, our cause will prosper. When the man or woman I can count on comes along, my life will be fulfilled.

John does not have much time left. He hasn't a clue as to when the sword will fall. His question to Jesus is not a frivolous one. This isn't a casual theological discussion. It is life and death to him! "Are you the one??" John's very being is wrapped up in this question. Has Messiah arrived -- or is there more waiting to endure?

Jesus does not answer with a "yes" or "no." Instead he sends them back to John with, "Go tell John what you hear and see." The evidence for Messiah is not in words, but in works! When Messiah comes there is healing, new life and hopeful good news.

It is appropriate to ask John's question once again during this Advent season from the prisons of contemporary living. "Jesus, son of Mary -- child of the manger -- Are you the one?" And our hearts long for more than just the recitation of our belief in the words of the creed, "...and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord..." In the deepest recesses of our living and the prisons of our souls we want the works of Christ, the freedom, healing and hope that are marks of Messiah's coming."

[Do the following slowly -- allow time for this to "sink in"]
I strongly encourage you to do an exercise somewhere in this advent season. Imagine yourself alone before the manger looking into the face of the Christ child. Then ask John's question. "Are you the one?" Be still within. Meditate on the question and in silence wait to see what emerges. What feelings arise? What do you experience? --- Once you have been able to get still within and let your spirit engage the question, now add two words to the question. "Are you the one who will _____________ ?"

What comes when you allow the words to come? For some it will be, "Are you the one who will bring meaning to my life." Others might sense something like, "Are you the one who will mend this broken heart?" The answers will be as diverse as the people who ask it, but I promise you a rich spiritual experience if you will do this faithfully. You may find yourself drawn to this exercise more than once. Take time! Make time! Your greatest Christmas gift just might be in this. The content of your reflections will tell you where the work of Christ is most pertinent for your life right now.

Has Messiah arrived? Here's something to ponder. It does not matter if Messiah has arrived at all if Messiah hasn't arrived for you!

2. If Messiah Has Arrived, Why Aren't Things Different?

For John the Baptist, Jesus was the un-expected expected one. John expected the coming of Messiah and the coming of God's kingdom to come like one great lightning strike. Messiah would come as the powerful word of God and make all things right with his "Let there be...."

You and I experience something like John's desire whenever we lift our prayers in a time of urgent personal need and sincerely wish God would act immediately to right the wrong, or heal the disease or reverse the tragedy.

It doesn't work that way. Messiah comes as a vulnerable, dependent baby. He grows day by day, experience by experience and the kingdom of God begins with baby steps. It is no accident that the fruit of the spirit includes "patience".

Yet, the coming of the kingdom with its absolute transformation of life and living is as sure as the coming of Messiah. Christ indeed has come and brings the work of the kingdom to all who have longed for his arrival. As you embrace this holy child, your journey has begun. The distance may seem difficult, but the destination is sure. The struggle may grow strong from time to time, but the strength of Christ sustains us.

Yes! Christ has come and that means the kingdom is coming -- and this is Good News!

A few years ago, a young lad at one of our Christmas Eve candle light services burst out with the "Good News". Immediately after the benediction, this four year old broke out at the top of his lungs with,"Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Jesus is born! Jesus is born! Let's get going!" His embarrassed parents explained to me that they had had difficulty telling the lad that he could not open his gifts until after the church service because, "That's how we celebrate that Jesus was born. Then we can open our gifts."

May God grant us such a spirit of joy!

Notes On The Text

v.2 The fact of John’s imprisonment is mentioned in Matt.4:12, while the circumstances are explained in 14:3-5. John apparently had been in prison during much of Jesus’ Galilean ministry – perhaps a year or so. Jesus had come healing and teaching -- but the Kingdom had not come, Rome had not been crushed and the judgment of God had not been executed upon the wickedness of humanity. John must wonder about the "ax which had already been laid at the root of the tree." Thus the question that follows in verse 3. (Wm. Barclay wants to get John [or Matthew as the case may be] off the hook by saying it was perhaps the disciples of John who wondered if Jesus was for real. John sends them with something like, "Well, if you doubt who he is -- go and see for yourself and your questions will be answered."

The construction in v.2 "ta erga tou Christou" = "the works of Christ" is an interesting composition in light of Matthew's avoidance of the term "Christos" - "Messiah" to this point in his narrative. The "Confession" of Peter does not come until later. Why does Matthew use the term "Christ" here? Our proposition is that Matthew uses this incident as a bridge between the expectations of a "Warrior-King" Messiah and the "Crucified One" who is nevertheless "King of the Jews" (Mt. 27:37). "The works" of Christ are indeed the works of the "one who is to come". (See Isaiah 29:18, 61:1-3, Luke 4:18) The works (erga) of Christ are the evidentiary witness to Christ (John 14:11-12)

v.3 "Ho Erchomenos" = "the coming one" -- instead of "the one who is to come". "The coming one" is likely a designation of Messiah taken from passages like Psalm 118:26 or Isa. 59:20.

vv.4-5 The Baptist's question is (unlike Barclay) an honest disappointment in the delay of God's judgment on evil. Jesus' (Matthew's) answer is woven from Isaiah's vision of a Messiah who would advance the Kingdom of God with the "work" of the kingdom. (See: Isa. 35:5-6; 61:1 -- allusions to "works" of Messiah -- fulfillment of the role of "Christos") Thus "go and tell John..." the Kingdom is indeed at hand" -- perhaps not exactly as John thought, nevertheless it is here. This points to the "unexpected - expected one".

vv.7-9 Essentially, "Why did you to out into the desert to hear John? To hear a wishy washy speaker -- or someone who enjoyed a comfortable life? Of course not -- you came to hear someone who spoke on God's behalf! And John more than filled the bill !"

v.11 John was a spokesman for God -- a genuine prophet after a silence of 400 years... Yet, one who participate in the "kingdom" ushered in by the life, death, resurrection and reign of Jesus Christ is blessed with fulfillment John could only point to.

Alternate Sermon

Isaiah 35:1-10 ~ Desert Flower: Joy In The Desert

PERHAPS YOU HAVE SEEN the standard movie scene where a man is crawling along the desert floor inches from death’s door. His lips are swollen and cracked—tongue parched and dry dust clinging to a perspiring brow. In the distance, one can faintly hear the melody, "Cool, clear water" and even the thought of water—the remembrance of a frosty glass of ice water brings mental anguish. Then the fleeting embers of hope are fanned by the image of an oasis just ahead—only to be crushed as the mirage disappears and despair comes crashing in!

You’ve seen it! You went for a glass of water shortly after!

THERE IS AN EMOTIONAL and spiritual equivalent to the desert.

Only it is your heart that is cracked, your soul parched and dry and your dreams shattered. It is the dark night of the soul when it seems as though daybreak will never come.

I remember a man whose life and dreams had been dashed to bits. He had lost family and job and wandered around in a desert of pain. "Will it ever stop hurting?" He asked.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of America’s most admired authors in the 1920’s, found himself on the backside of a devastating spiritual desert. By 1936, at the age of 39, his life had been through an emotional shredder. In a remarkable series of articles in Esquire Magazine, he said he realized that his life had been mortgaged to the hilt in a physical and spiritual sense. Poignantly, he described his destitution saying, "In a real dark night of the soul, it is always 3 O’clock in the morning—day after day." (Esq. 2/82 "Cracking Up" - p.78)

The image of the desert - the wilderness - is a powerful spiritual force in the biblical drama.

Moses and God’s people - 40 years wandering
John the Baptist comes as a "voice in the wilderness
Jesus struggled in the wilderness - tempted 40 days

The desert is barren, lifeless, unknown and dangerous. Some of you may recall that almost 20 years ago, Bishop James Pike died in the Judean Wilderness on a trip to study the life of Jesus.

It is just as dangerous to encounter the treachery of a spiritual wilderness. It is a symbol of hopelessness.

Today our wilderness comes as anxiety, insecurity and fear. Sometimes it is family or health or just plain staring life in the face and coming up wondering if anything makes sense.

ON THE SURFACE - it might seem as though the most blessed and full life of all would be that life which is unscarred by heartbreak and untouched by the wilderness.

Our own culture props up the destructive illusion that pain and personal trial are to be avoided at all costs and that immediate relief is necessary when life brings difficulty.

Whether it be the double dry, two olive martini, the $100.00 an hour psychiatrist’s vallium connection, or the $50.00 nickel bag—we have developed denial and anesthetic for all who would join the crusade to do away with life’s trials at all costs. Personal difficulty is often interpreted as a "Divine snub" as we murmur—"How could God let this happen to me?"

This is, by the way, nothing new. Though there may be valuable learning in the desert, and though suffering can bring redemption, no one would go to the desert willingly.

Let’s join the people of Israel. Through the power of God and the leadership of Moses, they have been freed from slavery in Egypt and are on their way to the Promised Land. However, they must first go through the wilderness—and they don’t like it!

Listen to the dialogue from Exodus 17:1-4:

Exodus 17:1-4 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. {2} So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?" {3} But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" {4} Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."

"Hey... what’s all this trouble?" they want to know. They had expected to go directly from Egyptian slavery to "Milk and Honey"—they did not expect a 40 year "lay-over" in the wilderness.

But, here’s a crucial clue about hope and healing:

There is no way to get to the promised land apart from the desert journey!

The beauty of Bethlehem had to be born in the crisis of Calvary.
The joy of Easter had to undergo the pain of death.
The pearl is born of an oyster’s wound.
And a diamond of a lump of carbon’s crushing!

THERE IS A CRITICAL CHOICE which confronts us in the wilderness times of our life. We can refuse to give up and boldly activate our faith to choose hope --- or we can retreat into ourselves and become paralyzed in a dungeon of despair.

It is in the wilderness or desert times that we test the genuineness of our faith. Genuine faith does not simply believe IN God... it also BELIEVES God! That is to say, I may believe in God, but it takes faith a step further when I can say I believe God when He says, "I will never leave you or forsake you!"

In our scripture this morning, it is that genuine faith resident in the spirit of the prophet Isaiah which cries out in the midst of Israel’s desert experience...

Isaiah 35:1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus…"

THE MOST TENDER AND BEAUTIFUL FLOWER in all of creation is the Desert Flower. The Desert Flower is not a physical flower, but a spiritual treasure. It is the treasure David spoke of when he wrote, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil—for Thou art with me."

Do you see...? When you come to those desert times in the midnight hour of your own soul, there is a precious rose! It is Christ Himself who is with you. He is engaged in that three o’clock in the morning struggle with you as He works to light the fires of hope within you. He lives within those who love Him to help them not only believe IN God, but to BELIEVE God that... "the desert will rejoice and blossom like the crocus!"

I want to leave you with a message from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is a message you should memorize and plant deep within your spirit where it can become a seed that will germinate and grow into a desert rose.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Paul doesn’t say that all things are good, but he does say that God can work for good in anything. It is a principle of spiritual growth that we are many times brought closer to God in times of struggle than we are by long days of prosperity. Sorrows can be God’s winds... sometimes strong, sometimes contrary, but they may drive you into the safe harbor of His love.

What a wonderful time of year it is to open our hearts more fully to the one who came to a manger so long ago. Perhaps in the barren sands of your toughest times and broken dreams, He will yet bloom as the Desert Flower!

Worship Helps

Call To Worship (Based on Psalm 146)
Leader: Joy comes to those who hope in God.
People: For the Lord is a Keeper of promises.
Leader: Our God is a God of healing and help and hope!
People: The Lord will reign forever,
Leader: Our God will keep faith with all generations.
People: Let us praise the Lord both now and forevermore!

Prayer of Dedication
The days draw ever closer to the celebration of your birth, O Lord. We have been gifted beyond all hope or expectation. Our hearts are full of your love. O bless these poor gifts Lord Jesus and build us up in your holy love. Amen.

Benediction
Beloved of the Lord, go from this place with hope in your hearts, strength in your soul and patience in your spirit 'till the glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!