Sermon for December 7, 2025: Are to Wait for Another? based upon Matthew 11:1-11

Matthew 11:1-11 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.

Messengers from John the Baptist

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his[b] disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

Jesus Praises John the Baptist

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What, then, did you go out to see? Someone[c] dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.  What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
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“Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

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     Though the book of Matthew starts out talking about Joseph’s family, when we fast forward to chapter 3, we’re back to Mary’s family and John, whose parents we met last week. Unlike Luke, we don’t learn anything about John’s birth in Matthew, and his parents aren’t mentioned at all, nor is his familial connection to Jesus. In fact, the first time we hear of him at all is at Jesus’ baptism. He’s fully adult out teaching in the wilderness, saying “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” He is also described as fulfilling a prophecy from Isaiah. He’s the voice crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” It is clear from the moment we see him that he had a very clear sense of mission and was unafraid to tell powerful people what they were doing wrong. Even the king wasn’t beyond his rebuke. John is eventually arrested sometime after baptizing Jesus. His arrest, according to J. Andrew Overman’s notes on Matthew, is the catalyst for Jesus entering into public ministry.

     Our reading for today comes after Jesus has been preaching for a while. John, who appears to have long-ago accepted his role as prophet of the coming messiah and accepted Jesus as being particularly blessed by God, nevertheless sends out emissaries to make sure that Jesus is the one they have been waiting for. John sends his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” John has never appeared to have been one for dithering. Maybe he knew his time was limited. He couldn’t waste what he had left. Or, maybe as Boyung Lee suggests, John needed reassurance that his mission hadn’t been in vain.

     Lee points out that John had once called Jesus “lamb of God.” Why would he need reassurance now? Being imprisoned by a dangerous and powerful man is challenging at best, terrifying and demoralizing at worst, and this was prison constructed with the intent to do harm. There was no lip service to rehabilitation in the Roman era. There was only punishment. And, sometimes that punishment was death. Are we hearing, as Lee suggests, doubt growing within John as he faced frightening consequences to tell hard truths to dangerous men? She says, “This is not doubt born of cynicism. It is the trembling that comes when conviction meets suffering— when the cost of faithfulness has been high, and the fruit appears small. It is what hope sounds like when it’s running thin.” Jesus hears whatever is going on with John through the questions of his emissaries and responds with grace and assurance.

      First, Jesus tells John’s disciples to report on the good works he’s been doing: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” Jesus is bringing the care God promised to the vulnerable, and John should know about it. He also says, “bless is anyone who takes no offense at me. Overman points out in his notes on this section that all of this is a reference to prophecies in the book of Isaiah (Is. 29:18-19, 35:5-6, 42:18, 61:1). Jesus is affirming that he is fulfilling the prophecies. John doesn’t have to wait anymore. This is enough assurance for the emissaries, who take this good news back to John.

     Then Jesus turns around and does something else. After the emissaries have left, Jesus began to affirm to all who would listen John’s own call to be a prophet. This appears to me to be a kind attempt at restoring his reputation. It may also just be Jesus telling the truth. He was good about that. He wasn’t going to let Herod’s accusations of sedition be the last public word on John’s legacy. Jesus said that John was, indeed, the prophet about whom was written, “See, I am sending you my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you (Malachi 3:1 and maybe also Isaiah 40.3).” In fact, he affirmed John to be a prophet without compare in their time.

     Jesus continues this affirmation after our reading, correcting the record for those who might believe that John’s arrest shows that he was untrustworthy. Jesus argued to the contrary: John’s dedication to God’s calling, even at great personal cost, demonstrated integrity and divine inspiration. This week marked the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. I can’t help but see parallels between the story of the boycott and today’s scripture. The catalyst for the boycott was the arrest of experienced civil rights organizer Rosa Parks for not following the racist laws that allowed bus drivers to demand Black people give up seats for white passengers. She was not the only person to have been arrested for this, but she was the person organizers believed could be most successfully defended in a way that could overturn the racist law.

     The strike went on for 381 days, drawing national attention to local leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy Sr., who were involved in the boycott. The boycott was not easy. It required a significant willingness to sacrifice on the part of the boycotters and a significant amount of organizing to get Black people to and from their responsibilities without the public buses. Organizers and allies faced no small risk of violence for speaking the truth of the sinfulness of segregation. But, for them, like John, the risk was worth arrest, because they were called by God to pursue Justice.

     Today’s Advent theme is peace. About four months into the boycott, the day before he was to go to trial for violating Alabama’s anti-boycott law, Dr. King gave a sermon, where, among many things, he spoke of peace as “not merely [the] absence of ... tension, but the presence of justice.” He also said, “If peace means keeping my mouth shut in the midst of injustice and evil, I don't want it.” This feels to me a like a sentiment that both Jesus and John would have shared. Dr. King would lose that trial, though his sentence would be suspended on appeal. He would end up in jail many times though. It is good to remember that being imprisoned doesn’t always mean you did something wrong.

     I pray that you will hear the affirmation you need, like John did, when hope is short and consequences are unjust. I hope that you will have a defender who will tell the truth about who you are and what you do. In challenging season that demand truth telling and justice seeking, I pray that you have peace from Christ reminding you that you are just who you say you are and who God has called you to be. You may not have the same call as John, but, as we learned in Montgomery, regular people can make a path for God’s righteousness to enter the world, too. John didn’t have to wait for another, and neither do we. The one we have been waiting for is here and leading us forward into a future of love and justice.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
J. Andrew Overman's notes on Matthew in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Boyung Lee, "When We are Running Out of Hope, God is at Work," from What Do You Fear? Insisting on Hope This Advent, a devotional from A Sanctified Art: https://sanctifiedart.org/what-do-you-fear-advent-devotional-booklet
An article on the anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott: https://apnews.com/article/montgomery-bus-boycott-anniversary-events-civil-rights-844b1cba2267fd60d30211f596d3edbf
​Dr. King's sermon where he talks about a negative peace vs a justice-filled peace: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/when-peace-becomes-obnoxious
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