Matthew 11:2-5
When John heard in prison
what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one
who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
Jesus replied, "Go back and report to
John what you hear and see: The
blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
Today
is the First Sunday in the Season of Christmas.
Christmas is, after all, a season of 12 days, beginning with December
25.
Of course, if it
was not for the song, “On the 12th Day of Christmas my true love
gave to me….” we not know anything about the 12 day season of
Christmastide. For us, December 25th
is the first and last day of Christmas.
So
for the most part, our Christmas is done.
Some of us have even taken down our trees and decorations.
We
have opened our gifts and thrown away the wrapping paper.
I suppose we all
open gifts differently. Some of you may
open a gift delicately and gently. Me, I
like to rip it open. Save the bows! Bah!
Toss the bows and ribbons away!
Who needs to save the bows and ribbons!
Just let me see what’s inside.
Oh.
It’s
a neck tie!
Just
what I wanted. Thanks.
Have
you ever noticed that when someone opens a present – there are two ways they
can respond. One is to say “Wow! This is great.”
The
other is to look at the gift, and then say what the gift is.
Ah
- It’s a mop.
It’s
underwear.
It’s
a tie. What in the world would I do with a necktie?
Once
in a while, you give a gift and you get the feeling that the person receiving
the gift is not that happy with what was received.
Now
if you think this is new, think again.
Go back to two thousand years and you will find that people were
disappointed with the very first Christmas gift.
The
first Christmas gift was, of course, Jesus Christ. Given by God to the world.
Now
there are some people who will tell you that no one has ever been disappointed
in Jesus Christ, but take a look at the reaction to John the Baptist.
John
the Baptist was at best “concerned” about Jesus being the Christ. And at worst, he was “disappointed” that
Jesus was the Christ.
John
the Baptist had a vested interest in Jesus being a successful Messiah.
John the Baptist was
sent by God to prepare the way for Christ.
John
the Baptist was in the dessert and at the Jordan River,
preaching and baptizing, and telling people to be ready for Christ.
John
the Baptist was the one who baptized Christ in the Jordan.
John
the Baptist watched Jesus begin his career.
He
listened to others report on what Jesus was doing, and what he was saying.
And
now, John is in prison! John has put his
career, his reputation and his very life into Jesus, and Jesus is not what he
expected.
And
John was disappointed in how Jesus was turning out to be the Messiah.
For
John the Baptist, the Messiah was going to judge the good and the evil and throw
the evil into an unquenchable fire.
Instead, Jesus came and said things like, “Blessed are the merciful.”[i]
John
the Baptist liked to point fingers at people and say things like, “You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to run from the
escaping wrath?”[ii] And in contrast, Jesus warned people, “Do not
judge, or you too will be judged.”[iii]
You
see, when John the Baptist was called by God to prepare the way for Jesus to be
the Messiah, he probably got real excited, thinking that God was finally going
to “fix” the world – and “fixing” the world meant bringing judgment against
“those” people.
And
as the popularity of Jesus grew, John the Baptist began to get nervous.
And
maybe disappointed in Jesus.
And
eventually John sent some of his followers to Jesus to ask the bold question,
"Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
In
other words, John doesn’t look at Jesus and say, “Wow, this is great!” Instead John the Baptist looks at Jesus and
says,
“Oh,
he’s a peacemaker.”
“Oh,
it’s someone who will show mercy instead of casting someone in the fires of
hell.”
“Oh,
it’s not someone who will “fix” my enemies by destroying them. It’s someone who tells me to love my enemies,
and to pray for them.”
For John the
Baptist, it is as if it is Christmas Day, and he opens the box and says, “Oh,
it’s a necktie.”
It may well be that
John had just a moment of hope, a moment of temptation, when he sent the
question to Jesus, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect
someone else?"
Maybe John was
hoping that Jesus would say, “Yes, expect someone else.”
But instead, Jesus
gives proof that he is the Messiah, by saying, “The blind receive sight” --
well, John the Baptist never expected the Messiah to do that!
And Jesus says,
“The lame walk.” -- well, John the
Baptist never expected the Messiah to do that!
And Jesus says,
“those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the
good news is preached to the poor!” -- John the Baptist never expected the
Messiah to do that!
What about throwing
all the evil people into that fire?
Not a word.
The greatest gift
of Christmas is Jesus Christ, and there is a danger that we might be
disappointed in that gift.
Disappointed in
Jesus Christ? Us?
Maybe.
When you picked up
the newspapers last week and learned that a gunman had gone into an elementary
school with multiple weapons shooting and killing the children and teachers, were
you disappointed that God and Christ would allow that to happen?
In Syria, the
fighting goes on and on. There is no end
in sight. Are you disappointed that God
and Christ allow war and violence to continue?
The doctor tells
you that you have cancer. Are you
disappointed that God and Christ would let that happen to you?
Someone you love
dies.
You lose your job.
Your kids fail in
school.
Your parents are
mean.
Your spouse cheats
on you.
Are you
disappointed in Christ?
If you have ever
been disappointed in Christ, I can tell you right now what the problem is.
How many of you
here, when you get a new toy for Christmas – maybe a cell phone, or an IPod, or
a PDA, or GPS system, or something… How
many of you – before you turn on the new device and try to operate it -- read
the instructions FIRST. Raise your hands.
How many of you
read the instructions only AFTER you turn on the new device and can’t get it to
work?
If we have ever
been disappointed in Christ, it is because we need to go back and read the
instruction book – the Bible.
Have you ever been
disappointed that God in Christ did not do what YOU wanted him to do?
The Bible never says
that Christ is here to serve you, but rather, we are here to serve Christ.
Time and again, we
see the phrase in Scripture, “Serve the Lord.”
In Psalm 100, we
read, “Serve the Lord with gladness.”
In I Samuel, we
read, “Do not turn away from God, but serve the Lord.”[iv]
In Colossians, we
read, “It is the Lord you are serving.”[v]
You see, in our
contemporary, self-centered, self-seeking culture, we expect to be served. We expect God Almighty to wait on us. We fall into thinking that God’s purpose is to
serve us and to make us happy.
We forget that it
is the other way around.
We are here to
serve God.
We are here to
serve Christ.
We are here to
serve, not to be served.
We expect Jesus to
listen to our prayers and do exactly as we say.
And he doesn’t. And we might
become disappointed. But what He does for
us, is what is best for us, but not necessarily what we WANT.
We want Jesus to
wipe out the evil people around us. But
Jesus does one better - Jesus calls us to love those people and to be at peace
with them.
We want Jesus to
change the world for our liking.
But instead, Jesus
changes US to be at peace with this world.
If we have ever
been disappointed in God or Jesus, it is not because they have failed us. It is because we not understand.
And if we remain
faithful, we will find that Christ is so much better than we ever expected.
