Are You the One Who is To Come? (Matthew 11:2-11)

Advent is about looking forward, looking back, and looking now. During our first week, we looked forward to see that Jesus promises to return to evict evil, we looked back before the days of Jesus to see how God instructed his people to act while waiting for jesus, which was to be peacemakers; and we looked to what means now, which was to love God and our neighbors well. This week, we are given another angle for the past, present, and future.

Have you ever felt like you were doing everything right but for some reason felt invisible to God? You look at other people’s lives and it seems like God is mending, working, healing, and helping many others, but you feel overlooked or even deserted. You are out in the wilderness and feel a bit lost, which feels strange because you have been following Jesus or believing in God for some time.  If you resonate with this feeling, you’re in good company. John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, faced such a moment.

John leaps for joy for Jesus, lives in the wilderness to draw people out of the normative daily routines to point them to Jesus, and he even found Jesus to be so important that he set aside his own ministry and sent his disciples to follow Jesus. A whole life and ministry devoted to Jesus. The texts are silent about his joy after the womb. In fact he goes from leaping for joy to landing in jail, awaiting his death sentence, wondering if Jesus is the One who will save and if Jesus is coming.