Yes, Jesus is the One who was and is to come

Sermon for Advent 3

1 Corinthians 4:1-5  +  Matthew 11:2-10

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist asked the question for the ages. He asked Jesus, Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another? Jesus answered the question in two different ways, both of them crying out with a resounding, “Yes I am!” Yes, Jesus is the One who was, and is, to come. And if that’s true, and if we believe it, then it will change how we view…everything, including our troubles, including our suffering as we wait for Jesus to be revealed at His second advent.

As we’re told in the Gospel, John didn’t come and ask Jesus his question in person. He couldn’t. He was locked up in King Herod’s prison. In the course of his preaching, he had publicly denounced the king for committing adultery, so the king had put him in jail. And there he sat. There he would keep sitting, until Herod eventually chopped off his head. John didn’t know, at the time of our Gospel, exactly how it would turn out for him. But it looked pretty bad. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus the most important question of all: Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another? “Did I get it right, Jesus, or did I make a mistake? Are You the One I said You were, before they threw me in prison, when I preached about You and turned most of my disciples over to You? Are You the One whose winnowing fan is in His hand, and who will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire? That’s what I told people, Jesus. I have always believed in You, that You are the One who was to come. But most of what I preached about You, I haven’t seen fulfilled yet. So please, give me some assurance. Was I right? Or was I wrong? Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another?”

Jesus could have just said, “Yes, I am.” But instead, He told John’s disciples, Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. In order to strengthen John’s faith, and ours, Jesus points John to His public works, works which John’s disciples could witness for themselves, incredible, miraculous works of healing, works of great kindness, always done in mercy, always done for free. He also points John to His public preaching, to His Gospel, the good news of God’s love and forgiveness for those who came to Jesus in humble repentance.

What’s more, both Jesus’ works and Jesus’ Gospel were foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures, which cannot lie. He was doing all the things that the Scriptures had foretold of the One who was to come.

Well, some of the things. Because the Old Testament Scriptures, and John the Baptist himself, had also foretold that the One who was to come would come with justice for the people of God and destruction for His enemies. The Scriptures had foretold that the One who was to come would come in judgment, would redeem God’s people from every evil and would lead them safely into new heavens and a new earth. The Scriptures had foretold that the Christ, the One who was to come, would bring great glory to His Church. Those things Jesus had not yet done, because those things are connected with His second coming, at the end of the age, not His first. As we discussed two weeks ago, the distinction between the Christ’s first and second advents was not made clear in the Old Testament. For that matter, Jesus hadn’t yet accomplished everything He would accomplish during His first advent, like offering His life on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, which John the Baptist had preached about, but which he hadn’t yet seen.

But that’s OK. John didn’t need to see everything in order to know who Jesus was. He only needed to hear about the many things Jesus was doing and preaching and teaching, in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. That was enough for John. It’s enough for you and me to know with the certainty of faith that Jesus is the One who was, and is, to come.

Jesus had one final word for John: Blessed is he who does not stumble over me. Many in Israel did stumble over Jesus. In fact, that’s recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures, too, where God says. Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. Many stumbled over Jesus’ teaching of free forgiveness to the penitent. Many stumbled over His claim to be the Son of God. Still others stumbled over His humility and His disinterest in politics and political solutions. They wanted the Christ to take over the government and free Israel from Roman oppression and make life on earth better for the people of God. And when He didn’t do that during His first Advent, they stumbled. John himself was on the verge of stumbling for the same reason. But Jesus calls him back and bids him to trust, to believe that Jesus was the One who was and is to come, and that He would eventually do all the things that were foretold about Him, but each thing in its own time.

After sending John’s disciples away with that answer, Jesus goes on in our Gospel to address the crowds who had heard this exchange. And to them He gave yet another proof that, yes, Jesus is the One who was and is to come. For that proof, Jesus turned to the Old Testament Scriptures, and to John the Baptist himself.

Jesus began to say to the crowds concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? No, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothes are in kings’ palaces. No, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’”

Everyone who heard John preach knew that he was a prophet. He lived in the desert, alone. Matthew tells us that John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Certainly not someone who was in it for the money, or to have a life of ease or comfort, certainly not someone who minced words or was afraid to speak the hard truth that the people needed to hear. Israel hadn’t seen a prophet like John for hundreds of years. In fact, Jesus explains to the crowds that the world had never seen a prophet like John. Because he was more than just a prophet. He was THE prophet whose coming was prophesied by the prophet Malachi: Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. John was “My messenger,” God’s special messenger who would be sent “before Your face,” to “prepare Your way before You.” Who is the “you” and “your”? Whose way is John preparing? Well, go back and read Malachi’s whole prophecy, and you’ll see: The messenger would prepare the way for the Lord God Himself, who would come, in person, to the land of Israel, to the temple in Jerusalem. So, if John was the messenger, then the One whose way he was preparing had to be Christ, the Lord. This was another way for Jesus to answer the question, Are You the One who is to come? “Yes, I am! Because the Scriptures point to John as the promised messenger, who pointed to Me, the coming Lord.”

If only John the Baptist could have seen the rest of what Jesus would do during His first Advent, how He would suffer, and die, and rise from the dead, how He would build His worldwide Church through countless New Testament ministers, who, like John, are ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, as we heard in today’s epistle! If only John could have seen the full impact of his own ministry, including the martyr’s death he eventually suffered, as, to this very day, we Christians rely on John’s preaching—and even on John’s question from prison—to guide us each year during the Advent season, to point us urgently to Jesus as the One who was and is to come! What a blessing John has been to every Christian for the last 2,000 years! But he couldn’t see that, couldn’t see the big picture. All he could see at the moment were the bars of his prison cell.

Most ministers can’t see the full impact of their ministries, and God hasn’t chosen to give any of us a detailed explanation of everything He is doing, and why, or of His plans for the future, or how we fit into them. We’re often left seeing a picture that looks like prison bars, that appears dismal, or confusing, at best. “How can I possibly harmonize what I’m going through right now with the good plan God says He has for me? How can this possibly turn out for good?” It’s easy to lose hope in such times, to lose sight of Jesus, when all we can see are the prison bars—our problems, or the problems of our families, or of our church, or of our world.

But today’s Gospel is like a light shining into our dark prison cell. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean Jesus isn’t out there doing everything He promised to do. He is! And just because you don’t know how your present difficulties can work out for your good doesn’t mean God will fail to accomplish it. He won’t! And just because you don’t know when He’ll come again doesn’t mean He won’t come. He will! In the Gospel, the Holy Spirit points you to the works of Jesus that you do know, to His works revealed in Holy Scripture, and to the preaching of Jesus, which you know as well, not only from the Gospels, but also from the preaching He still does through the mouths of His New Testament ministers.

Yes, Jesus is the One who was and is to come. That means you’ve been right to trust Him up till now. Don’t abandon ship before you reach the heavenly shores! Trust Him in times of joy and certainty. Trust Him even more in times of sorrow and doubt. Soon, soon He’ll come and show you the big picture, and how your life fit into it perfectly. Just as the words of Malachi were fulfilled in Jesus’ first advent, so they will soon be fulfilled a second time: And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.