(A sermon from the Gospel according to Matthew, preached December 13, 2009.)
Matthew 11:2 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?” 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.”
11:7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
11:11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.[i]
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Don’t confuse your personal agenda with God’s. Often our prayers focus on our health (“please, no sickness, Lord”), our occupations (“a peaceful job, Lord, that’s what I need, and good compensation wouldn’t hurt”), and all our relationships humming right along (“let them be orderly and satisfying, Lord, without any hiccups or hitches”). Personal comfort is our agenda, and we wouldn’t mind if God made it his agenda, too.
Now I am not for a moment suggesting that our health, work and relationships aren’t important. Certainly, they are, and should be regular matters of prayer before our heavenly Father. But when most of our prayers are requests for our personal comfort, we have put front and center an objective that is not an ultimate, even penultimate, concern of God.
We don’t have to read too long in the Bible before we discover that God has other priorities for his people. Take Philippians 3:10, for example. There the apostle says that he wants to know Christ (amen!), and the power of his resurrection (amen!), and that he might “share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (uh oh). Not that we didn’t have warning that Paul’s thoughts were tracking in this direction, for Philippians 1:29 reads: “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” Faith as a gift of God – no Presbyterian has any problem with that. Suffering as a divine gift . . . well, that’s a message we’re less than eager to hear.
In this morning’s text, we find John experiencing the cost of discipleship. Here’s his situation: You remember Herod the Great, vain and violent, a megalomaniac who, by arrangement with the Romans, ruled as king in Palestine from 37 to 4 B.C. You know him best as the mass murderer of Bethlehem, the tyrant who, in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the Christ child, ordered the execution of the village’s boys age two and under.
This Herod had a son. We know him as Herod Antipas, and let’s just say the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Herod was ruler of Galilee and Perea. Married, he fell in love with his half-brother Philip’s wife, Herodias. Herodias dumped Philip and Herod Antipas dumped his wife, and the two divorcees married each other. Truly, a match made in hell, and John the Baptist was unsparing in his denunciation of Herod and Herodias’s adultery (Matthew 14:4). His faithfulness to biblical morality landed him in prison. He would not leave alive.
Jesus’ assessment of John is found in verse 11: “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” So, John was a great man, perhaps the greatest man who ever lived. But we mustn’t forget where his greatness came from. His greatness did not come from his personality – or from his commendable courage – or from his formidable public speaking abilities. Instead, his greatness consisted of this: his divine calling and the God-given grace to remain true to it.
What was John’s calling? He was the forerunner of the Christ, sent to prepare his way. Several centuries earlier, the prophet Malachi spoke of John’s ministry,[ii] and in verse 10 Jesus quotes him: “This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’” And so, John bore witness to the Christ, preparing his way, proclaiming his message of righteousness and judgment and repentance and forgiveness of sins. John was faithful to his calling.
But what had his faithfulness won for him? A year in prison, and I suspect Herod’s prison at the fortress of Machareus lacked the benefits of the American penal system; regular visits, three square meals a day, access to a fitness center, and cable television were not the lot of this prisoner’s life.
A year is a long-time to be locked up, and ample time for John to reflect and wonder if all his labors were for nothing. Doubt’s dark shadow crept over him.
Now let’s be clear here: roots sunk deeply in the soil of unbelief do not nourish John’s doubt. James warns about this kind of doubt: “the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6-8). This unstable man has a split personality – one moment he trusts God’s goodness, the next he doesn’t. He can’t make up his mind.
John’s doubt is of a different kind all together. He has testified that Jesus is the Christ. And was not one of the works of the Christ to overthrow the oppressor? Yet, Rome remains in Palestine, and John in prison. John has faithfully denounced Herod and Herodias’s affair. But Jesus hasn’t said a word about, and, if he’s really the Christ, why hasn’t he come to John’s aid?
We mustn’t sentimentalize persecution or ignore its demoralizing effect. It takes a toll on people, pushing people to the breaking point – or beyond. Yes, the faith of God’s people is often strengthened in times of testing, but the price is high. Our hearts must go out to those who suffer like John.
John’s doubt prompted him to send a delegation of his disciples to Jesus, and asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). John is confident that God will send the Messiah. His uncertainty is whether that Messiah is Jesus. Has he been mistaken?
Look at how Jesus handles John’s inquiry. He replies, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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.” (Matthew 11:4-5) Jesus does not cite these great works just because they are miraculous. Working miracles is not in itself proof that he is Messiah; after all, others performed mighty miracles. But because each of these actions – giving sight to the blind, mobility to the lame, healing to the leper, hearing to the deaf, life to the dead, and the gospel to the poor – were actions that Isaiah the prophet attributed to the coming Messiah.[iii] It’s as if Jesus is saying, “John, you know your Bible, you know what it says about me. Have faith.”
What trips John up is the fact that while Jesus does many works that the scriptures foretold the Christ would do, he is not doing one of his most important works – executing judgment on the enemies of God and his people. That’s John’s broad concern. And, of course, a more immediate and personal concern: Jesus has not lifted a finger to alleviate John’s suffering.
Doesn’t John set for us a wonderful example of dealing with honest doubt? He takes them to the Lord. We can let doubt fester, or we can own up to it, and talk about it openly and respectfully with our fellow servants in the Lord. Doubt left lurking in the heart and never talked about is spiritually crippling. We have much to learn from John’s honest confrontation of doubt.
In his suffering, John must exercise faith. He has sufficient evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. He must believe. He must take Jesus at his word: “blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Matthew 11:6). John must persevere, and given his position in a prison fortress, death looming, this is no small feat.
John must have faith in God’s word. So must we. But on this side of the cross, we are in a much better position to understand God’s agenda than John. John was thrilled by Jesus’ saving work, but at the same time perplexed by his refusal to execute final judgment. John was perplexed but we shouldn’t be perplexed nearly so much, for we know that there are two appearances of the Old Testament’s promised Messiah, a truth much more apparent in our day than John’s.
At his first advent, the Messiah came to die for the sins of his people, to offer himself as an atoning sacrifice to turn away God’s wrath. Only at his second advent does he come to bring final judgment upon evildoers. So, Christ’s second coming is “delayed” until all for whom Christ died are brought to faith. We live in an era of grace. Here’s how Peter sums it up: “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” But that day of grace will not last forever. Peter continues, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:9-10).
John’s great duty and privilege was to be the last of the Old Testament prophets. All spoke of Christ and his coming. John’s honor was to be closest to the event he prophesied, and to have his ministry spoken of by the prophets. But with honor of testifying to a suffering Messiah came the responsibility of suffering for the Messiah.
Jesus loves John, and will not permit his suffering to be in vain. He will not let anyone look on John’s suffering, and draw the conclusion that John is a failure. He will not permit them to equate imprisonment with a lack of God’s blessing. So Jesus asks the crowd who witnessed his reply to John’s disciples: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” (Matthew 11:7) No one went to the remote banks of the Jordan to hear John preach because they thought him a spineless wimp. Jesus continues, “What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.” (Matthew 11:8) No one went to hear John because he was a whimpering sycophant, groveling at the feet of the king, saying whatever the king wanted to hear. No, they went to hear a man of boldness and courage and honor. More than that, they came to hear a prophet.
But not even the title prophet does justice to John. Jesus asks, “What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’” (Matthew 11:9-10) Like all God’s prophets, John spoke the very word of God, and testified to the coming Christ. Unlike the other prophets, John himself was the subject of prophesy, his own ministry foretold by Malachi, through whom the Lord said: “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.” John was more than a prophet.
John has not suffered in vain. He suffered because he was a faithful witness to the truth, and faithfully delivered God’s message of repentance. His suffering has not gone unnoticed by Jesus. Jesus knows, and he commends John to the crowds.
You may be tempted in your suffering to conclude that your faith is in vain. More than one Christian has told me that his suffering has caused him to conclude that he is “outside” the will of God.
Listen carefully: You’re not in a prison cell like John, but you feel that because he has not released you from your place of suffering that he is displeased with you. Nothing could be further from the truth. God takes his best servants, like John, and calls upon them to witness to the truth of the gospel in the most trying places. Are you suffering? God has called you to make your place of suffering an arena in which you testify to his grace. Don’t be ashamed. Don’t believe the Lord has neglected you. He says to you, “blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
John the Baptist was a great man. He should have a place in your spiritual Hall of Fame. But in one sense you are even greater. That’s Jesus affirmation in verse 11: “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” That can’t mean that you’ve achieved more than he did, or that your courage exceeds his, or that your mission is more important than his was. What it does mean is that your privileges are greater, far greater, than his. John could only testify to the coming one. He could only point to the Messiah’s coming kingdom.
But you have the privilege of knowing the crucified, risen and ascended Christ, of communing with him in prayer, of knowing the full story of his dying love for sinners, and of experiencing his resurrection power. John could not know Christ in the same way.
John could look to a coming kingdom. You’re in the kingdom, and the least member of the kingdom of God experiences more of God’s grace than John could ever have imagined.
God’s agenda, which takes precedence over the comfort of his servant, is the message of repentance and grace proclaimed to a hostile and fiercely resistant world. John was a faithful messenger, and he suffered for his loyalty to God and his Christ.
God’s agenda is not our personal comfort, but that the message of his love for sinners be proclaimed to every person. Often he places us, his servants, in difficult places, some even more difficult than John’s. So our suffering should never bring us shame. We should never conclude that God has neglected or forgotten us. Though he may seem distant to us, his Fatherly grip of grace never releases us. We are messengers of his grace. May our ears ever be open to the words of our Savior: “blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” With another of God’s suffering servants may we affirm: “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.”
[i] All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[iii] See Isaiah 26:18-19; 29:18-19, 35:5-6, 53:4, and 61:1.
