Waiting for the World to Change

Passage: Matthew 11:1-6

Jesus’ ministry takes off just as John the Baptist’s is coming to an end. John is in prison on account of his public criticism of the king. He had been given the task of preparing his world to welcome the Messiah. It was John’s job to get his people to turn their lives around before the sweeping judgment he was sure would accompany the arrival of God’s anointed. John is intimately familiar with his predecessors, the prophets of Israel. He thinks of Malachi’s words:

See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.

John has been led to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. But Jesus is here, and the world hasn’t changed. John’s still in prison. The remnant of Israel are still under the corrupt rule of a Roman puppet king. God’s people are still living in blindness and sin. So John sends his disciples to Jesus and says, “Are you him? Are you the one we’ve been waiting for? Or do we need to wait for someone else?”

It’s hard to say what Jesus feels when he gets John’s message; hard to say what he feels when he gives this response:

Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.

Jesus says, “Look around you. The Kingdom of God is here. Here are the signs. They may not be what you had in mind, but they’re unmistakable.”

God rarely works the way we think he should. How many people have asked, “If God is who he says he is, why doesn’t he wipe out world hunger? Why doesn’t he stamp out injustice and human suffering? Why does God allow war and natural disaster to persist?” I have never found an answer that satisfies me, let alone God’s many detractors. All I can say is this: God allows injustice to persist; God allows natural disaster and human suffering. Yet God is at work. Look around you. In a week in which natural disaster claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands more, nations united to send aid. Millions set aside their own worries and needs to send money. Be patient, wait, and watch for signs that the Kingdom of God is here, advancing unmistakably, if more slowly than you would like.