Richard Davenport
December 15, 2024 – 3rd Sunday in Advent
Luke 7:18-28
I don’t know about you, but doubt is something I wish I could do away with. I wish there were things in life I didn’t have to wonder about or second guess. It would be nice to just know some things with 100% certainty. No questions, no guesswork, no wondering, you just knew you could count on something.
I like to try out new hot salsas when I go to the store. At Walmart they have a decent section of salsas. It’s fun to pick up a couple when you’re there. You look at the label. You look at the ingredients. Some labels are more exciting than others. Some ingredients lists have lots of hot peppers. Some only have a few. Until you pick one up and take it home to try it though, you’ll never really know if it’s any good. The snazzy labels won’t guarantee anything, since some of the bland looking ones are actually pretty tasty. Having lots of hot peppers listed in the ingredients doesn’t mean the salsa will be hot or that it will taste good. Some combinations of ingredients just don’t do it for me. But you can’t tell from the outside.
On a more serious note though, who doesn’t have these kinds of doubts? For many in their 20’s, these questions become very important. A young lady has been dating a nice young man for a while now. They have a lot in common, sharing some hobbies and interests. They seem to have the same kinds of priorities in life. They look like they are headed in the same direction. The relationship gets pretty serious and soon she’s starting to think to herself, “What about this guy? Could this really be it? I can see us having a future. Ten years down the line we’re happily married with a couple of kids. He’s got a good job and we have a nice house. The kids go to a good school where they can be active in music, art, sports, whatever they want.” There’s the idyllic picture in her mind of what life could be like. But then her mind keeps going, “Sometimes when people really bother him he can be pretty rude, even get kind of angry. What if I end up being that person? Could he get angry at me, really angry? I don’t know. I don’t think he’d ever get violent, but I don’t know. How well do I really know him?”
Making a commitment for life is a huge step and one not to be taken lightly. The high divorce rate in this country is due in part to how doubt worm their way into the relationship and tear down the trust that is supposed to be the foundation of the relationship. “He’s always going on these extended business trips. Could he be having an affair?” “She keeps talking to this strange guy on the phone. She’s always laughing when they’re talking. Are they seeing each other right under my nose?” They both could be completely innocent, but once the doubts set in it doesn’t matter. The doubts start to look for any excuse to find fault. It’s almost like once we start to doubt we want to be proven right. Even if the outcome would be sad, we want to feel justified in bringing out our accusations. If you never find proof, those doubts rarely just fade away. They wait for the right opportunity to pop up again.
The end of a marriage. Maybe there was justification, maybe not. Either way, the doubts did their work. The young lady considering the man she might marry wonders whether it’s worth all the trouble. It could all just end in disaster, because even if you were dating for years, even if everything pointed to a beautiful and happy relationship that was everything she hoped it could be, you could never say with complete certainty you’d know how the marriage would go. It could all end up in heartache, seething anger, grief, and disgust. Why risk all that when it can go so very, very wrong?
John the Baptist is asking himself some of these very same questions. It certainly looks like he made a mistake. Jesus was supposed to be the savior. Jesus was supposed to come and make things right again. John had even proclaimed Jesus to be the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, a testament to his power and authority. John did what he was supposed to do. He was the one preparing the way for the messiah, and look where it got him. He taught the people. He confronted those who were set in their sinful ways, even those in authority who others might be afraid to deal with. He brought comfort through the assurance of forgiveness. He helped people move away from their incomplete understanding of the cleanliness that came through washing and toward what God intended for baptism to signify. He was one of few first-hand witnesses to the work of the Triune God at Jesus baptism.
John had a lot going on that made a difference in the extension of God’s kingdom. Few people, especially in those days, could say they’ve done more. It’s certainly looks like God approves of the work he’s done and has been very actively using him. At least until now. Now he has doubts. It’s perfectly understandable why he’d have doubts. He did what he was supposed to do and now he’s suffering for it. Sitting in jail, his freedom is gone. He can’t even do the good and helpful things he had been doing before.
If Jesus truly is the messiah, why is John in prison? This isn’t what’s supposed to happen to God’s people. It’s rather like finding out you married the wrong guy. You’re already committed and now you’re stuck. You’re having doubts about everything that’s happened and you aren’t sure you like where you ended up. The future isn’t looking so good. The doubts are telling you the only options open to you may be either a bleak future right where you are, or to cut and run and try to make the best of what’s happened. Neither of these is a very good option, but what other choice is there?
The real problem here is that the doubts have come up at all. This is John the Baptist. He’s heard the testimony about Jesus from the Father himself. He saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus. He knew this was the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice that would take away our sins.
Nevertheless, the doubts set in. The doubts creep into our minds and drive us to fear. We leave our marriage behind. We leave our kids or parents behind. We leave all of the blessings God gives us behind. We leave God himself behind. Better to sever the tie than to be hurt by it. The risk is too great. I don’t want to be hurt. I don’t want to be let down. I don’t want to look like a fool for trusting. Better to get out before things all fall apart and I find I’ve wasted my life chasing something that was never going to work.
John is wrestling with the questions we’ve all faced. Our sinful selves can’t bear to put our trust in something else. Our own security must be number one. If you don’t give yourself to someone, you can never be hurt by them. You don’t have to worry about investing yourself emotionally in someone who will just stomp on your feelings and leave you behind. He feels he made a mistake. He wonders if he needs to just accept the disappointment and move beyond it.
Jesus’s response might not have been what John expected. If I were John in that situation, I might have expected him tell me he was going to fix the problem. Either that or make a bunch of lame promises he wasn’t going to keep. I’d learn what sort of person Jesus was either way. He gets me out or he doesn’t. He’s a man worth following or he isn’t. At least I’d have my answer. If it wasn’t that, then I’d expect some similarly lame apologies for how he didn’t intend for me to end up like this and he wished things had turned out differently.
Jesus doesn’t do anything that. Instead, he reminds John of why he’s here. Did Jesus come to make life easier? Did Jesus descend to earth to spread some good cheer and get you to feel better about yourself and your life? Jesus doesn’t do any of that for John. Instead, he points to a prophecy given long ago that describes the work of the messiah. He will make the deaf hear, the blind see, and the lame walk. He will make clean those who are unclean. He will give life to the dead. He will proclaim the good news to those society has rejected. He reminds John why he put his trust in Jesus to begin with. None of these things have ceased to be true. In fact, even more people are putting their trust in him because they see him doing the same things.
If your trust in Christ is based on how things look right this moment, then Jesus directs your attention to the Old Testament. What did he promise? John announces him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus has done that. His death on the cross took away the stain of sin. Jesus promised to bring new life. His resurrection does that. He is the fulfillment of every promise God has ever given about him.
Putting your trust in Jesus is never a mistake. Anything else in life may fail you, but he will never abuse the trust you put in him. He will never go back on his word. He does help us here and now, but he makes no promises about our lives here. His focus is on the world to come. His death and resurrection are the guarantee of his promise that you will be a part of that world and will live in his glory there.
We don’t know what went through John’s mind after hearing this. Scripture doesn’t tell us more about John until he is executed. We do know quite a bit more about Jesus. He knows precisely what to say to people, and John is no exception. We know John met an unfortunate end, but he also met that end in the full assurance of God’s grace and the promise of eternal life.
Jesus doesn’t say people in this life won’t fail us. Rather, sin tells us they will. But Jesus defeats sin and it is powerless against him. He is the only one in all creation who we can be sure will never fail us. His promise to us includes forgiveness, forgiveness for doubts, forgiveness for timidity in the face of difficult times, forgiveness for thinking we can and should cut ourselves off from the world to avoid being hurt. Come to him and ask him for strength and forgiveness and trust his words when he tells you your sins are forgiven.
While we face let down and betrayal in our relationships here, we must remember doubts may be nothing more than the temptation to take the easy way out and avoid hurt. Christ forgives us to heal over the hurt we cause him, and tells us to share that forgiveness with others, to put the hurt behind us, to reconcile and find peace again. We pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” knowing that he has promised to do so. We forgive as he forgives. Just as we ask for strength to live through the hurts of this life in the expectation of the life to come, we ask him for strength to put the hurts in our relationships behind us, so we able to look forward to peace beyond the moment as a small sample of the peace that awaits us in the life to come.