Today's lessons, especially the gospel, seem to be full of questions, and doubts and unfulfilled expectations. John questions, "Are you the one to come, or should we look for another? And Jesus asks, "What did you go out in the desert to see?"
John had spent a lot of time preaching in the wilderness. People had flocked out to hear him and to be baptized by him. He filled them with hope, "The kingdom of God is at hand. Prepare the way." And John did - he prepared the way, filled with hope and expectation... "One is coming with power and glory, whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." His vision of power and glory might be the expectation, but the reality was not so vivid, and so he asks Jesus, "Are you the one to come?"
John is saying: “Jesus, if you are the one to come, why am I here in prison. Why haven't you freed me? Where is the power and the glory? Where is the army of believers who will follow you into victory? This can't be the kingdom of God because it doesn't meet my expectations.”
John's expectation does not coincide with the reality. Jesus has gained followers, he has appointed 12 generals, but they are not gathering for war, and they are not building an army and they are not overturning the Romans. What kind of Messiah, was this anyway?
I think we sometimes have the same problem that John has here. Like John the Baptizer, we are often in doubt about Jesus because we do not always see the difference he in making in our lives or in the world around us. We look around and we wonder, "If God is in control, then why are things in such a mess?" We want to say, God if you are really in control - why don't you make it obvious; why is there war, why is there pain and suffering, why is there illness and dis-ease? Why is there such unrest in the world and in our nation?
Sometimes doubt is a good thing, sometimes it keeps us out of trouble by making us think twice before acting. We don't always have the right answer in this life - and believe me that's hard for most ministers. Most of us would love to have all the definitive answers - to be able to reassure and explain what is going on, and what is the best action to take in any given situation. But more often than not, all we really have is more questions.
Several years back there was a TV show called Joan of Arcadia. It had a lot of good things to say, about life, about the nature of God, and about our relationship with God... One episode called, "The book of questions." made the point on several different levels that it was not about the answers, it's about asking the right questions. If you ask the wrong question, then the answer you get probably won't make much sense.
Jesus asks, "what did you go out into the desert to see?" You don't look for learned, sophisticated, cultured people out in the wilderness. The people had unanswered questions so they went into the wilderness to ask the questions that burned in their hearts. The people went out to see a prophet, one they hoped had answers. His answer was that there was another to come - John's claim was from Isaiah, "the voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord'." All four gospels report this. After preaching hope to the masses, now John is in prison and his own hope is wavering - "Could I be wrong? Could I have misunderstood what God was telling me?"
John didn't misunderstand that Jesus was "the one to come." What John misunderstood was what that meant. What it meant to be "Messiah." John may have been called by God, but he was also a product of his time - he thought the Messiah was going to be a military victor - drive out the oppressor - set up the new Israel. John really hasn't asked the right question. The right question for the time was, "What does it mean to be Messiah?" That is the question Jesus answered.
John defined himself in terms of Isaiah, "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness..." So Jesus also defines himself in terms of Isaiah. "Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor hear good news."
One of the worse arguments I had with a really good friend came about because of a different understanding of a single word. We were using the same term, but we had defined it differently. It took a couple of days for us to sort that out. That's the same problem Jesus and John where having. They were both talking about the term "Messiah" - they had just defined it differently. John's expectation, dependent on his definition, was not being met in Jesus. John's expectation included death and destruction to the enemy. Jesus' reality was health and life and hope for all people.
It makes us think about our own expectations of Jesus - of God. What is it we expect from God, from Jesus? Jesus tells us, "Look around you, what do you see? What is the Lord doing in your midst?"
Advent is all about the coming of Christmas - and the story that is told. The story is about a baby, born in a stable in a backwater town in an obscure area of the world. Even here he overturns our expectations. Not a rich, powerful ruler in a palace of gold, but a kind and gentle teacher in a dusty stable along a dusty road.
This beginning alone should give us a clue into the nature of Jesus and thereby into the nature of God. We can't begin to understand God or to know his mind. God is spirit and beyond knowing. That is why the coming of Jesus is so important. It is through Jesus that we begin to get a glimpse into the nature of God. Put in human terms it is an incomplete picture to be sure - but still it is more than we had before. Jesus doesn't come as a victor. Jesus doesn't come as a warrior. He comes as a little baby - to overturn our expectations.
Jesus is about the unmerited love of a God who cares enough about his creation that he enters into it. It is about having a personal relationship with the one who created us. Jesus is also about transformation - transforming ourselves and the world - forming ourselves after Christ and reaching out to the world around us just as Jesus did. Christ did not turn people away - he accepted them wherever they were in their journey - and if they didn't want to follow him, he let them go. You are free to believe what you want to believe.
Our tendency is to ask, "Why is there so much suffering in the world?" Maybe that's not the right question. Maybe we should be asking, "Why is there so much good in the world."
From people who serve in soup kitchens, to a little boy who wanted to give a socks to homeless, to the girls who are auctioning off their hatchimals to raise money for fire victims. There are many people out there emulating Jesus, his compassion out there in the world today. As scary as our news often sounds today, there are those little tidbits of wonder tucked between all the violence and hatred. It is those small things that people do to help others that reflect Jesus in today's world.
Look around at what God is doing in your life, and in the world around you. And if you find that God isn't meeting your expectations, take a look at the questions you are asking. Are you asking the right questions? And are you listening to the answers that God gives?
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