Come, Thou Unexpected Jesus

I wonder how many of you have had the experience of meeting a celebrity. We took a trip to Tennessee when I was 7 and happened to bump in to Dolly Parton at a gas station. And one thing I remember is how long it took my mom to believe it was actually her. She kept saying “Could that be her? No, it couldn’t be.” Because meeting someone famous in real life is nothing like you think. They are not who we expect them to be. We don’t expect them to be a person who actually just drives up to a convenience store to buy gum like the rest of us.

The internet is full of stories of people who met celebrities and didn’t realize until much later who it actually was, because they were so different from what they expected. In fact, I remember one actor sharing how hard he tried to convince someone that it was actually him, and they didn’t believe him. He was so different from what they thought he’d be, and those expectations were stronger than the testimony of the real person standing right in front of them.

Now these stories can be funny, or interesting, but at the end of the day famous people are just people. None of these stories can hold a candle to the experience of John the Baptist. John had literally spent his entire life getting ready for an encounter with Jesus. His birth and purpose in life were foretold by an angel before he was even conceived. As the messenger sent ahead of the Messiah, his 30-some years were completely devoted to the moment where he would introduce Jesus to the people who had been waiting for him for centuries.

Tension built as his ministry began. The stakes were raised as he lambasted the rulers and urged people to be baptized for the repentance of sins. And then one day it happened. “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29). Jesus convinces John to baptize him, John sees the heavens open and the Spirit descend on Jesus and hears the Father’s voice from heaven rejoicing in His Son. John rejoices as people begin to follow Jesus and confidently proclaims that “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

But as time goes on, John’s certainty begins to waver. Jesus is not who John expected him to be. And John starts to question whether he’d been wrong about everything. What he does with his questions, and how Jesus responds to those questions, is what we get to explore in our passage today.

1. Recap & Review (v. 1) 

But before we go any further it would be helpful to remember where we’ve been. Matthew 1-7, which we preached through four years ago, introduced Jesus as the king, the long-awaited Messiah and son of David who comes to redeem His people from exile. We met John in those chapters, we watched Jesus’ ministry begin, and we heard His great sermon on the mount. In 2022 we came back to the next major section of Matthew, chapters 8-10, which described the spread of the kingdom. We saw the authority of Jesus demonstrated over sickness and evil spirts and storms. And in chapter 10 Jesus called twelve apostles to Himself and prepared them for their first ministry exposure.

He told them that He’d give them power over death and sickness and demons. And they would also be beaten, delivered over to the authorities, and rejected by their families. “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake” he said in 10:22. But He promised them that God was watching over them, and no real eternal harm would come to them, and that even as they chose to love Jesus more than their own families, they would receive great reward.

And verse 1 of our chapter today is the transition from that section of Matthew into the next. “When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples” uses Matthew’s signature phrase for wrapping up each of the five major teaching sections in this book. Jesus went on to teach and preach in their cities, and thus begins this third major section of Matthew that goes up until almost the end of chapter 13.

And the themes of this new section are very related to the things Jesus said in chapter 10. There, Jesus spoke about opposition to his message, and chapters 11-12 show us opposition mounting all around him. Chapter 10 talked about division with families, and chapter 12 shows us this happening even within Jesus’ own family. We’ll even discover that the parables in chapter 13 were not cute teaching tools but were actually acts of judgement upon a people who had largely decided not to believe in Jesus the Messiah.

And so that’s why we’ve called this series “The Kingdom in Contrast.” Matthew 11-13 shows us the kingdom of Jesus in contrast to the unbelief of people, the blindness of the religious leaders, and the patterns of the world. And today, in particular, we see the kingdom in contrast to people’s expectations, especially the expectations of John the Baptist.

2. The Questioning Messenger (vv. 2-3)

Matthew hasn’t said much about John since chapter 3, when he baptized Jesus. We heard briefly in chapter 4 that John had been arrested (Matt 4:12), and apparently he was never released, because here in verse 2 Matthew writes, “Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ.”

The backstory doesn’t get told until chapter 14, but the short version is that John’s hard line on sin and repentance put him at odds with Herod, a known adulterer, who there him in prison to shut him up. John did what he had been sent to do, and here he sits in prison.

John, who could point to a verse in the Bible—Isaiah 40:3—and say “That’s me! I’m the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the Lord!” The Lord who was supposed to come and show his glory to all flesh, judging the wicked, rewarding His servants, tending his flock like a shepherd (Isaiah 40:3, 10-11). The Messiah who was supposed to proclaim liberty to the captives (Isa 61:1). The Messiah who would judge the wicked, burning up the unrepentant chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:1).

And yet, months later, maybe over a year, Herod continues in his wickedness. The chaff is not being burned up. John missed out on Jesus’ teaching about expecting persecution. All he knows is that the Messiah is supposed to proclaim liberty to the captives, and that’s not happening to him. Jesus is doing great deeds for other people, but not for John. John doesn’t even get to see them—only hear the reports that his disciples bring him through the bars of his cell.

To say that this is not what John had in mind would be a major understatement. I doubt there could be a greater gap between what John expected and what John experienced. And so strong are John’s expectations that he begins, apparently, to question his experiences. John, who leaped as a fetus at the sound of Mary’s voice, began to ask questions like, “What if I was wrong? I heard the voice from heaven. I saw the dove. But if He’s really he Messiah, why am I sitting here in prison? Why hasn’t he started his judgement yet? Maybe I missed something. Maybe I was wrong.”

And you can see how John’s questions about the Messiah could lead to big questions about himself. His whole life had been about preparing the way for the Messiah. And if He was wrong about Jesus, then John was a complete failure. His life had been a waste, a colossal flop from which there is no recovery. It’s not hard to imagine John, with all those hours of time on his hands, sinking deep into the depths of doubt and fear. Wondering if his whole life had been for nothing. Questioning his own sanity.

But he keeps hearing about the things this man is doing. He keeps hearing about miracles, signs, crowds, things that can’t be explained any other way. And so he sends some of his disciples to ask the question recorded in verse 3: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

We want to notice a few things about this question. First, notice that John puts it to Jesus. He has some level of trust in Christ to speak honestly to this question. Given what he’s seen and heard, John has some measure of faith in the reliability of this man. He takes his doubts right to the source of his doubts.

Second, John has not given up hope that there is “one to come.” The promised Messiah. John has not abandoned his hope that there is a Messiah who is coming. Maybe he was wrong about Jesus, but maybe Jesus knows something he doesn’t know about the real Messiah who is still on the way.

So he asks Jesus, in essence, “Are you it, or should we keep on waiting, keep on looking?”

And the third thing we want to notice about this question is that there is no answer that will not disappoint in some regard. If Jesus says, “look for another,” then John needs to figure out how he could have been so wrong, and who Jesus actually is, and how to salvage his life and mission after three decades of investment into what looks like nothing. But if Jesus says, “I’m it,” then John needs to somehow figure out how His expectations could have misfired so badly.

There’s no easy answers here. But John asks the question anyways. “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

3. The Answering Messiah (vv. 4-6)

And in verse 4 we move from the questioning messenger to the answering Messiah. We’re not told much about the exchange between Jesus and John’s disciples—how they approached Jesus, whether they felt nervous or defensive or upset at this man who stole the spotlight from their teacher John while ignoring him in jail.

But they ask Jesus the question, and in verse 4 Jesus answers them with a command. “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” And then he lists six things. The sense we get is that these six things were happening all around them at that moment. As they approached Jesus, as they waited to talk to him, this evidence of Jesus’ identity was unfolding all around them. They heard and they saw blind people receiving their sight. They witnessed lame people starting to talk, lepers being cleansed from their disease. Deaf people hearing for the first time in their life. They either saw, or heard witness of, dead people being raised to life, and the poor having the gospel—good news—being preached to them.

And this was all eyewitness evidence that, indeed, Jesus was the Messiah. He was the one who is to come. Jesus is in essence saying, “If you want to know who I am, let my actions speak for themselves.” (See John 5:36, 14:11.)

But what’s important to recognize is that this evidence for Jesus’ identity didn’t just come in a vacuum. He’s not just saying, “isn’t this amazing! I must be someone special!” No, these signs that they hear and see were all predicted by the prophet Isaiah as being markers of the Messianic era.

Isaiah 26:19 promised that “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.” Later on that chapter says that “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 29:18–19).

Isaiah 35 promises that when God comes to save His people, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Isaiah 35:5–6). Isaiah 42:7 speaks about opening the eyes of the blind. And Jesus’ words about preaching good news to the poor come right from Isaiah 61:1 where the Messiah says that “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.”

You see why verse 2 contains the phrase, “deeds of the Christ.” The things Jesus were doing were the deeds Isaiah prophesied would be done by the Christ. The Messiah. According to Matthew, it’s obvious who Jesus is. According to Jesus, it should be obvious as well. As they watch Jesus, John’s disciples are seeing the glories of the Messianic age that Isaiah described with their own eyes.

But not all of it.

See, I didn’t read all of those verses in their fullness. John no doubt would have been familiar with Isaiah 42:6-7 which, in its entirety, reads “‘I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness’” (Isaiah 42:6–7).

And Isaiah 61:1-2 reads, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1–2).

You see it, don’t you? Some of the things Isaiah prophesied are happening. But not all. The eyes of the blind are opened, but John has not yet been brought out of prison. The poor have good news preached to them, but John the captive awaits his prison to be opened. He awaits vengeance on the wicked oppressors like Herod. He’s still waiting for comfort for his mourning.

Not everything Isaiah prophesied is unfolding at the same speed and on the same timetable. The Messiah is not fulfilling these prophecies in the way that people would have expected him to.

And so Jesus concludes his message to John with verse 6, and a statement of blessing. A beatitude, in the same form as the beatitudes in chapter 5. “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me’” (Matthew 11:6). Blessed, happy, is the one who is not offended by Jesus.

Which means, it’s possible to be offended by Jesus. It’s possible to be so tripped up by how different He is that you turn away from him. It’s possible to be so bothered that He’s not doing the things you want Him to do that you reject him entirely.

But even this should not have been a surprise. Back in Isaiah 8:14, the Lord promised that he would be both a sanctuary and a “stone of offence” to the people of Jerusalem. And Both Paul and Peter connected these words with the Messiah (Romans 9:33, 1 Peter 2:7–8). Some people will find safety and salvation in the Messiah, and others will be offended by Him, tripped up by Him, and fall to their own destruction.

Isaiah’s words are a reminder that its was always going to be this way. The Messiah was always going to challenge expectations. He was always going to be different than people expected. People were always going to trip over him.

And so Jesus proclaims, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Blessed is the one who isn’t tripped up by Jesus, but instead finds salvation in Him.

Which means that John, even though he sits in a prison cell, can be truly blessed. Just like the poor in spirit and the meek and persecuted, those who do not trip over Jesus are truly blessed, even if their life is hard now, because the kingdom belongs to them. The story isn’t over, and the reward will be great. “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

4. What This Meant for John

So what is John supposed to do with this? When his disciples relay this message from Jesus to himself, what are the implications he’s supposed to draw from these words of Jesus?

For starters, John should understand that yes, Jesus is the Christ. His deeds demonstrate that He is the Messiah. He is fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecies. The kingdom of God is at hand.

And yet, John is also supposed to understand that the kingdom has not come in exactly the same way he was expecting it to come. Not all of Isaiah’s prophecies are being fulfilled at the same time at the same pace. The kingdom is already here, and the kingdom is not yet here.

This is not what anybody expected. When Isaiah said “good news to the poor and liberty to the captives,” they naturally expected that to happen all at once. They expected the glory of the kingdom to push out the sufferings of this present age all at once. They didn’t realize that the kingdom was going to come in stages. That there would be this time of already-but-not-yet.

Kids, you’ve probably heard your parents explain, “When you grow up, you’ll be able to drive a car, get a job, and move out on your own.” And by now most of you realize that there won’t be one magical day when, all at once, you get your driver’s license, buy a car, get hired for your dream job, and move into your own place.

And those of you who are in your teenage years know that it’s not so straightforward. Being an adult doesn’t happen all at once, like flipping a switch. It’s more like a dimmer that get’s turned on slowly. There is a period of “already-but-not-yet.” You might have a job, maybe a learner’s license, but you’re still living at home, and in your more honest moments you might admit that you don’t feel quite ready to be all out on your own. You are growing up, but you are not yet grown up.

John was learning that the kingdom of God is a little bit like that. Like Jesus is going to explain in chapter 13, the kingdom doesn’t come all at once. It comes like a mustard seed or like yeast—small and almost invisible at first, and slowly growing until it can’t be missed.

So understand, John, that the kingdom is here, even if it’s also not yet here. The lame walk—but not all of them. Not the lame man outside the temple whom Jesus would have walked by multiple times before the apostles healed him in Acts 3. The blind see, but not all of them. And certainly not Herod and the Pharisees. The dead are raised, but only three of them. The poor have good news preached to them, and some captives still wait for their freedom.

And so as John learns about the nature of the kingdom, he’s learning to trust in the real Jesus instead of his expectations of what Jesus should be like. He’s learning that Jesus’ success doesn’t guarantee his own personal success. His failure to live to see 40 doesn’t mean Jesus has failed to build his church. At this stage of already-but-not-yet, kingdom glory and kingdom suffering walk hand in hand as the Shepherd gathers His sheep to Himself.

So John, you waited your whole life for the Messiah to arrive, and he’s here, and yet you’re still waiting. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with the Messiah not being what you expected? Are you okay that He has a different timeline than you?

You’re going to lose your head in Herod’s dungeon, and He’s going to lose His life on a Roman cross. Will you be offended by this, or will you believe that the day of Judgement is still coming, and glory will be yours? “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). Blessed are those who are not offended by me.

5. What This Means for Us

So that’s some of what all of this means for John. But what about us? What does today’s passage mean for us? I want to encourage us to think in two directions: challenge for unbiblical expectations, and comfort for struggling doubters.

1) Challenging Our Unbiblical Expectations

The first is the challenge for unbiblical expectations. We saw in this passage how Jesus challenges expectations, even the expectations of those who should have been the most ready to receive him. In Jesus day, everybody wanted the Messiah to come as long as the Messiah was who they wanted him to be. As long as he didn’t challenge their traditions. As long as he didn’t threaten their power structures. As long as he fit what they expected and felt comfortable with.

Could that ever happen to us? Do you think it’s possible for people like you and me to have expectations for Jesus that aren’t accurate? To talk about Jesus, but what we’re actually talking about is who we want Jesus to be? Do you think it’s possible for us to get tripped up by Jesus when He doesn’t turn out to be what we thought He would be?

I’ve been a pastor, and even just a Christian, long enough to know that the answer is “yes.” Everybody loves Jesus until they meet the real Jesus in the pages of Scripture and he turns out to be different than what they expect and he starts stepping on their toes. And so it’s worth asking, are we okay with Jesus stepping on our toes? Are we okay with him being the king, and his claims of absolute authority over our lives? Are we okay with his stark words about sin and judgement, when that means you need to give up something you’ve gotten used to? Do we accept his warnings about persecution, even when that means losing some of your friends? Do we hear his demand that you love him far above your family and your life, even when that applies to your own family, not just someone else’s? Do we obey His instructions for how the church is supposed to operate, even when that means we—and just someone else—are the ones being being asked to humbly respond to someone showing us our sin? Are we okay with his example of attentive love towards others, when that requires us to love the very real people in our lives? Do we hear his call to take up our crosses and follow, allowing him to mess up our routines and comfortable life?

When Jesus challenges your expectations, who will win—the real Jesus, revealed in the word of God, or some other version, made by people, whom we’re more comfortable with?

Where do you need to hear the challenge of “blessed is the one who is not offended by me”?

2) Comforting for Struggling Doubters

The second direction we want to go here is to think about comfort for struggling doubters. See, we can look at John and be surprised at his questions. But on the other hand, we can sympathize with his doubts. Isaiah 61 verse 2 comes right after verse 1. John had to surrender his expectations to the Lord, but he wasn’t totally crazy for having these expectations in the first place.

Not to mention the hard spot John was in. You stick any of us in prison for a few months, hearing news about all of the great things that Jesus is doing for everybody else, and any of us will start to ask some big questions.

John doubted. You and I will have doubts. Why are good things happening to everybody else, but not me? Why did they get healed, but not me? Why does their family look perfect, but not mine? How could my hero turn out to be a fake? How could God allow so much suffering into a world that he loves?

Today’s passage shows us that, if we ask deep questions and wrestle with painful doubts, we’re in good company. But today’s passage also shows us not to stay there. John did the right thing by bringing his doubts to Jesus. He took his questions right to the source.

How many fearful doubters turn in on themselves, keeping their questions inside, letting them consume them? How many deconstructors have spent hours feeding their doubts listening to skeptics but have never reached out to seek real answers to their questions from those who might be able to actually help them?

John takes his questions right to Jesus. And Jesus does not throw John away for asking the question. He doesn’t say, “How could he even ask that? Of anyone alive, he should know better!” Jesus patiently, lovingly, receives the question and responds.

And yet, even knowing how much John was suffering, Jesus does not shy away from gently challenging John’s expectations.

Could it be that behind some of our painful doubts arise from unbiblical expectations that we need Jesus to lovingly challenge? Why do we expect God to keep our lives suffering-free? Why should our lives be easier than Jesus’ was? Why do we expect God to make the world a better place on our timeline? Why would we not take seriously Jesus' warning about wolves in sheep's clothing, and set our hopes on human heroes instead of Christ?

Read John chapter 10, read the rest of Scripture, and let Jesus reset your expectations on what this life should really be like for us.

And when this happens, it won’t turn you into a hardened cynic that just expects everything to go bad. Expect suffering, and expect Jesus to be with you in your suffering. Expect to be sorrowful and always rejoicing (2 Corinthians 6:10). Expect to be afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, not not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struct down but not destroyed. Expect to always carry in your body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in your bodies (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). Expect to groan inwardly as you wait, and expect the Spirit to help you in your weakness (Romans 8:23,26). Expect to be more than a conquerer through Him who loves you (Romans 8:37). Expect that either death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord (Romans 8:39).

Will you take your questions to Jesus this morning? Will you take your fears to Jesus? Will you hear His response to you, in the bread and in the cup? He suffered, and so will we. He laid down His life for us, and calls us to do the same for one another. But suffering is not the end. He will drink this cup anew with us in His father’s kingdom. We proclaim His death until He comes. The bread and the cup are tokens not just of His suffering, but of His promise that we do not wait in vain. Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. He is our hope in life and death. Blessed is the one who is not offended by Him.