Transcript

Matthew 11:1-5 · NOBA @ Noon

Canon Justin Murff: The Gospel of Matthew chapter eleven verse one through five. When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? And Jesus answered them, 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, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. The Gospel of the Lord. John the Baptist, the fiery prophet who had fearlessly proclaimed the coming Messiah, now sits in Herod's prison. The one who had Declare Jesus to be the Lamb of God, sends his disciples with a question. It's not meant to be rude. It's just honest. Are you the one who is to come? Or shall we look for another? This question has troubled readers for centuries. Didn't John already know who Jesus was after all? He baptized Jesus. He saw the Spirit descend like a dove. He heard the Father's booming voice. How could he now be so uncertain? The answer lies in the gap between expectation and reality. John had announced coming judgment, the axe at the root of the tree, the winnowing fork ready to separate the wheat from the chaff. He expected the Messiah to bring decisive, immediate purging of evil. Instead, Jesus was healing and teaching and showing mercy to sinners and crucially. Leaving John de Rot in prison. Surely this wasn't what John had expected. Prison has a way of stripping away all certainty. In the darkness of Herod's dungeon, John needed reassurance that his life's work hadn't been misguided or in vain. His question wasn't faithless, it was human. Jesus' response is masterful. He doesn't rebuke John or offer a philosophical argument, he simply points to the evidence. Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. This catalogue of miracles isn't random. No, Jesus is actually quoting Isaiah thirty five and sixty one, these two messianic prophecies describing what the age of salvation would look like. He's essentially telling John, look at what's happening. Match it with Scripture and draw your own conclusion. Notably absent from Jesus' list is any reference to the prisoners being freed. No, John would remain in Herod's dungeon until his beheading. The kingdom had arrived, but not in the way John had expected. Judgment was indeed coming, but it was delayed. Mercy had the priority for now. John had to adjust his expectations to match God's actual timetable. As followers of Christ, we're called to have faith even through the most difficult of circumstances. John the Baptist, the greatest of the prophets in four hundred years, struggled with doubt in his darkest hour. Jesus didn't condemn him for it, but he gave him what he needed to believe. So how does this passage really speak to us today? Well, first it normalizes honest doubt amongst genuine believers. Look, if John the Baptist could question whether Jesus was really the Messiah, we shouldn't be surprised when uncertainty visits us. Second, Jesus models how to respond to doubt. He doesn't lecture or condemn, rather, he points to evidence and he invites examination. When we doubt, is Jesus really Lord, think back and recount all the times that He's shown up in your life, in the life of your families, those answered prayers, those miracles, those moments where The only logical, reasonable answer is I don't know, but God showed up. Third, we learn that God's timing and his methods often differ from our own expectations. John expected immediate judgment, but God was offering a season of mercy. Finally, the evidence for Jesus remains compelling. The blind see, the lame walk, the poor hear good news. In other words, lives are changed. People walk in one way, they encounter Jesus, and they leave different and forever changed. And even today, these changed lives continue to testify to the reality of Jesus working in our lives and in the lives of people around us today. Maybe you're sitting in your own kind of prison, a dark season where God seems absent. Do you know you can bring those honest questions to Jesus anytime? Let's look for evidence of his work, even if it doesn't match what you expect. Jesus is always there.