This Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, we will hear from John the Baptist again. Instead of proclaiming at the Jordan River, this time he is inquiring of Jesus from prison. “Are you the one who is to come?” He has heard of Jesus’ deeds, but he wants to be sure. Can you imagine being in John’s position? He’s given his life to preach and prepare the way for this Messiah, but is this Jesus guy really the one? And, from the isolation in prison he experiences the prison of doubt. What must have that been like to not be sure, to question and suffer the anguish that maybe he was all wrong, maybe this was all a cruel joke?

But Jesus, ever merciful and patient, responds in vivid imagery suitable for the Messiah. Jesus doesn’t qualify his own work or ministry with a pedigree, but he echoes the Prophet Isaiah: “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” (Matt 11:4-5).

Jesus says the kingdom has come in me because of these signs of healing. The atmosphere created around Jesus in his faithfulness to the Father, his compassionate healing of the people is one of order, renewal, re-creation, and goodness. This is the same atmosphere that the messianic king would bring in Isaiah’s passage from last Sunday (Isa 11:1-10). And that is the answer he gives John. And that is to be the testimony of our lives as well.

As we experience the ache of Advent, that longing for all things to be made right when they are so wrong, we will inevitably ask similar questions as John the Baptist: is this it? Are you the one, Jesus? Will you really make all things new?
God is big enough, good enough, and kind enough for any and all questions we bring to him. And yet at some point, we are invited to strengthen our anxious hearts and trust that the desert will become a place of springs (Isa 35).

Trusting with you -

Jay+