"When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?' "

         The last we heard from the disciples of John the Baptist, they were concerned about the lack of fasting on the part of Jesus' disciples. Now they return with a question from John: "Are you the one?" It is not a hostile question, but shows he is uncertain. In Jesus' answer, he says "Blessed is anyone who does not stumble, or fall away, on account of me."

         John seems to be puzzled, unsure about Jesus. This is not unbelief, but a need for more information, for more experience of God in his life, for greater clarity. From prison he hears what Jesus has been doing, and that falls short of his expectations. Matthew does not tell us just what falls short. But, Donald Carson writes, "The one who would come in blessing and judgment had brought healing to many but judgment to none – not even to those who had unlawfully confined the Baptist to a cruel prison." John, from Herod's dungeon, felt confused; he was stumbling on account of Jesus, who was not meeting his great expectations.

         Today we consider what it is that causes us to stumble. Why do we lose confidence in Jesus? What is it about Jesus that causes us to wonder? What is it in our great expectations for life that Jesus fails to meet? What is it about Jesus that seems to be hidden and needs to be seen or experienced by us? What needs to change in our hearts so that we can return to faith in Jesus who is the Christ?

         Jesus answers John's question by describing what is happening to people who have come to him with their needs, their brokenness, and their sin. He does not say, "This is what I have been doing: giving the blind sight, cleansing lepers, raising the dead." Rather, he says people are experiencing healing and forgiveness and life. Jesus does the work of the Kingdom in humility. His identity is hidden. Jesus' answer points to Isaiah's description of the deliverance and salvation of God breaking into history. His answer is not given as irrefutable proof of who he was, but rather as evidence placed in the context of Scripture, which leads us to faith. The identity of Jesus is always grasped by faith.

         So the true identity of Jesus as the Messiah was hidden to John by his expectations. He had to find the Messiah in the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus. He had to see Jesus by faith. He had to learn to look at his deeds and listen to his words, so that he could believe. Matthew does not tell us whether John accepted the answer Jesus gave. But in chapter 14, we read that after John was beheaded by Herod, his disciples buried his body and then immediately went to tell Jesus. That gives us a clue as to whom John had come to trust.

         Jesus goes on to give a warning to others who stumble and fall away into unbelief. In verses 16-19 he speaks of "this generation," people who make judgments based on superficial observations. They put a label on John, "he has a demon," just because he lived in the wilderness, which is where demon-possessed people could be found. They put a label on Jesus, a glutton and drunkard, because he was a friend of tax collectors and sinners. They could not see Christ because of the company he kept. They rushed to judgment without truly looking at Jesus, without considering what he was doing, without faith.

         Our generation is sadly much the same. We so easily make judgments without reflection, without prayer, without looking closely, without faith. We are an unreflective generation, so much in a hurry that our opinions are formed on the basis of surface appearance. The thinking of our world and the pace of our lives causes us to stumble, to become uncertain of Jesus. We cannot truly follow one we do not know.

         Where will we find Christ in our lives? Where is salvation to be experienced? Last Sunday we heard testimonies of our Confirmation students, who said they had to get away for a week, they had to get to camp, and even to Island camp, before they could think and pray and look deeply enough to truly find Christ and salvation in him. We need to look beneath the surface of life to find Christ. We need to move away from our expectations of what life owes us, our notions of what we "deserve" as the good people. We need to learn to listen to the words of Jesus, to meditate upon his deeds, to embrace the cross. That is where we find, not the Christ of our surface desires, but the true Messiah, the love of God, the transforming power of grace.

         Last week a number of us from church took turns at the Jewel store on York House Road in Waukegan, holding a milk jug at the entrance to raise money for the food bank we support. It was an interesting experience. It seemed to me that the percentage of people who gave something in every obvious group I could think of was about the same. That is, about the same percentage of men and women, of white, black and Hispanic people made a contribution. There may have been a higher percentage of older people than younger people who gave something. I was actually surprised by the generosity and the willingness of people to give. But what stood out was the number of people, many of whom were older, who either said something, or clearly went out of their way to give with an evident concern for those who would be helped by the food bank. My sense is that many of them had been recipients, or had family who were, or had some close connection with a food pantry, maybe even as volunteers. Their giving came not out of a surface awareness or even desire to get rid of the change in their pocket, but out of an experience, a personal connection to the need in the community.

         So we need to look to Jesus, not in a surface way, a hurried way, but with a deeper, more reflective heart. Who is it exactly that Jesus heals or forgives or saves? Do I have a personal connection with any of those people? Am I one of them? For when we find Jesus the Messiah in the Scripture, we discover that his healing love or forgiving grace does not come to us because we are good or deserving, but rather we meet Jesus precisely as people met him in the Gospels, when they were over-burdened, or broken, or sick or poor. If we want to find Jesus who is the Christ we look to the rejected, the isolated, the compromised, the lost, and that is where he is at work. But those who feel they are deserving or who are searching to find someone to meet their great expectations are likely to stumble. When we live too long on that side of our souls we grow critical, perfectionist, demanding. We never seem to get what we feel we deserve. We stumble, we fall away, and we grow cold in spirit.

         John stumbles and asks Jesus, "Are you the one?" The answer he receives is "yes." He seems to accept it, to renew his faith, even in prison.

         The answer is also "yes" to us; when we stumble, when we lose sight, when we feel confused. "Yes," he is the One. Yes, He is the Christ. Yes, He is the Savior. If you look deeply into his words and deeds, if you come to Jesus by faith, he will save you, find you, heal you.

         Amen.