Jesu Juva
“Ageless Advent Questions: Are You the One?”
Text: Matthew 11:2-11; Amos 8:9-14
Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
That is our first Ageless Advent Question. Ageless, for it must be answered by every person. No matter when they lived, or where. Is Jesus the one? Is Jesus my Saviour? Is Jesus really God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, or not? Is Jesus the one I should believe in and entrust my eternal fate to? Or not? Or shall I look for another?
John the Baptist asked the question, but he asked it for us all. That we may hear Jesus’ answer. And His answer is important, because He doesn’t talk about John and what is going on in his life. That’s how many people judge Jesus - by how my life is going.
So if I call myself a Christian and things are going well, if I am succeeding, if I am getting ahead, then yes! Jesus must be the one. But if not, if I am suffering, if I am not getting what I want or as much as others, then I’ll have to look for another. A god who will come through for me.
Well, John was in prison. He got there by doing his job. He told the king that the Sixth Commandment applied to him, even if no one else would say so. But if you’re going to speak like that - as the Church must always speak, to the sin and rebellion in the world - then don’t expect to be thanked or praised or lavished with gifts. Quite the opposite. You will suffer, be called names, and the pressure will be applied to get you to change. And if you don’t . . . well, the royal sword took care of that with John.
So what is going on in your life is not an accurate gauge. For what good is a god who is only a god of good times, when you really don’t need Him anyway? Shouldn’t God be the one you can count on when your life is in the dumpster, when the world is dumping its garbage on you, when sadness and tears are plentiful, when everything else in this world is letting you down? One who is with you even then? That’s a God you need. For if you think you’re going to be the first person in the history of the world nothing bad will ever happen to . . .
So Jesus answers John not by pointing to John’s life, but by pointing to His own. And specifically, what the prophets said. What God said through the prophets. What the prophet Isaiah had said some 700 years before this, what would happen when the Messiah came. That’s exactly what was happening. Creation was being restored. The effects of sin were being reversed. Not to everyone, everywhere. That is what will happen on the Last Day, when all sin, all death, all evil, all suffering, and all tears are ended, and even death, the devil, and hell are cast away. But it was beginning. The signs were happening. The Messiah had begun His work and His reign. Not according to how we think He should, but according to the Word of God. For that is the truth that all truth is measured against. Not our hearts, not our minds, not our wishes and desires, not what we want to be true. Only the infallible, inerrant Word of God.
Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
Some just ignore the question and go about their lives. But that, too, is an answer. A “no” to Jesus. It is looking for life in another - some thing or some one else. And as Old Testament Israel found out, every other thing and every other one will let you down. When, as we heard from the prophet Amos, God turns feasting into mourning, songs into lamentations, luxury into sackcloth, and beauty into baldness, no other god will be able to stop it. They all will fail, for there is no other. God causes these things to turn us back to Him, to Jesus; to look to Him for help in time of need. To repent of our false gods - every thing and every one we still today look to for help and what we need - and instead rely on Him alone.
And He is the one you can rely on, for He didn’t remain aloof from all this, from our troubles and trials, from us - it was all poured out on Him, on the cross. On that day when God did (as Amos said) make the sun go down at noon and darkened the earth in broad daylight, when His Son hung there with all the sin and rebellion of the world laid on Him. And then not a sign, but the fulfillment, when this dead one was raised to life again. And so there is one who can help us, even through death. There is one - the one who came - and there is no other. And this resurrected one is coming again, when all will be fulfilled.
So we have the answer, and proclaim it to the world. As the Church has been proclaiming it for some 20 centuries now. The message is the same, for the Saviour is the same, and the question is the same. Not all will listen, but some will. And by that Word, and the Spirit that works through it, they will say yes. That baby in the manger, that man in the Jordan, that man on the cross, that man laid dead in the tomb but then risen from the dead, is not just a man, but the Coming One, the Son of God. Who came for me. The trustworthy one who fulfilled His Word. And so we put our trust in Him. For my life now, and my life forever.
Even if my life now is not exactly as I thought or planned or wanted. Even if a dundgeon or prison is in my future. Even if a royal sword comes down upon my neck. Even if the world says He and His Word and ways are backwards and wrong - that a Messiah would not hang out with sinners and low lifes; that a Messiah would not come from Nazareth; that a Messiah would do, well, more kingly things! And today, too, there are many who think they know better what God should do and say, better what is right and wrong, and think us fools.
But as Jesus asked the crowds that day: What did you expect? What did you go out into the wilderness to see? Someone whose opinion changes with the wind? Someone who looks good? Someone who says what you want him to say? Or a prophet? Someone with a message from God? Someone who will tell you what you need to hear and know. Yes, that’s John - then, and still for us today. Asking the question we all need to ask, that we hear the answer we all need to hear. That yes, Jesus is the one. The one and only. Not the only one who can give us nice things, but the only one who can give us what we need: forgiveness for our sins, and life from the dead. For this He was born. For this He died. And for this He is coming again.
For the one who was to come in John’s day, in the midst of his trouble, is the one who is coming again in our day, in the midst of ours. Do not be offended by Him, His words, or His ways, for He was not offended by you, but came to make you His own. His child. With a glorious future.
Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
Ever since Adam and Eve people have been looking for another. Stop. Repent. There is no other. He has come and is here for you. Find your rest in Him.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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