Hope for Tomorrow — July 14, 2024
July 14, 2024
Matthew 11:1-6
Hope for Tomorrow
Dr. Craig Goff
The first phrase of our text today from Matthew 11 is found almost 500 times in the Bible. In the New Revised Standard Version which we just heard read, the phrase is translated simply, “Now when Jesus had finished.” Other versions of the Bible, like the King James Version, translate that phrase, “And it came to pass.” There are times when I just love the poetry of the King James Version.
“And it came to pass,” just has a nice ring to it.
Here is a true story, by which I mean this is something that actually happened to me. Recently, Stephanie and I were down at the beach over the 4th of July holiday. It was really crowded, as you can imagine, and as Stephanie and I were making our way down to the water, we passed an attractive young woman who was playing a game with someone else. She was wearing a bikini. As we passed by her and I was about three of four feet away from her, I noticed she had a tattoo with something written going across her side. I was curious, naturally enough, and thought I would read what it said. To set the context, I was already working on this sermon, so I was surprised by what I read on that woman’s side, it said, “This too shall pass.” Essentially, the same phrase as in this text. When I read those words, the Lord spoke to me. I won’t tell you what the Lord said, but I did find it interesting that you can come up with sermon illustrations just about anywhere….
So the phrase, “and it came to pass” is found throughout the Bible and in a lot of other places.
Here is the first verse again, with that phrase from the King James Version:
And it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding
his disciples he departed thence to teach and preach in their cities.
So the thing that has “come to pass” in this setting, is Jesus teaching his disciples. He has commanded his disciples to teach and preach the good news and then goes out himself to proclaim his message in the cities of that region. Of course, the disciples go with him and so there is still some on the job type training taking place which is so important in any discipline.
However, his good friend and cousin would not be part of that entourage and mission at least in part because he was in jail. As you know, Jesus’ cousin and good friend had spoken out against the unlawful marriage of Herod and Herodias, landing him in jail and in a heap of trouble.
As he spent time in jail, presumably in Herod’s prison, awaiting his punishment which as we know was pretty gruesome, he began to hear stories about Jesus’ teaching and ministry. When he tried to square what he was hearing about what Jesus was teaching and with what Jesus was doing with what he expected Jesus as the awaited Messiah to be doing and teaching, it was just not adding up.
He was disappointed. He was beyond disappointed. Jesus was not measuring up to what he thought the Messiah would do.
If you look at the preaching of John the Baptist, it is pretty clear he was heavy on judgement. He was in prison for his outspoken words against Herod and Herodias. John thought Jesus would also preach those kinds of words of judgement, only up a notch.
Earlier in his Gospel, Matthew describes John’s descriptions of Jesus coming into the world and his expectations of Jesus’ ministry:
Matthew 3:11-12
I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
In other words, John expected Jesus as the Messiah to clean house, to preach doom and set all of Israel on fire, someone who would make a Baptist preacher look like a Unitarian.
John was not alone in expecting Jesus to do those kinds of things. Ezekiel 5:4 talks about “a fire that will come out against all the house of Israel.”
You can find plenty of very judgement heavy scripture if you look very hard. John was looking. The prophet Jeremiah says, “If any nation will not listen, then I will completely uproot it and destroy it, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 12:17)
John was looking, but he didn’t see any fire and he didn’t hear any uprooting going on. He sent his disciples out with that agonizing inquiry, “are you the one who is to come or have I made a mistake?”
Jesus gives John a little mini-lesson in hermeneutics, in Biblical interpretation. In essence he says, “There is more than one way to interpret Scripture. There is more than one way to interpret the prophecy of the Old Testament.”
George MacDonald, the world famous Christian minister and author has said:
“Sad, indeed, would the whole matter be if the Bible had told us everything God meant for us to believe. But herein is the Bible greatly wronged. It nowhere lays claim to be regarded as the Word, the Way, the Truth. The Bible leads us to Jesus, the inexhaustible, the ever-unfolding Revelation of God. It is Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, not the Bible, save as leading to Him.”
Remember what Jesus told the Pharisees. “You diligently search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. The Scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me that you might have life.”
Jesus told the disciples of his cousin to tell him, that what God was doing through him was fulfilling the deepest promises of the prophets.
“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 and blessed are those who take no offense at me.”
Unfortunately we don’t know how John responded to those words.
In the musical Annie, from which Reba sang the song Tomorrow so beautifully from this morning, Annie found herself living in a world where things weren’t always the way she would have liked for them to be, just like John the Baptist found that things don’t always happen as he would have expected. Yet, Annie held to the belief that things would be better and held to the belief that a better day was coming and of course a better day did come for her and the other children in her orphanage although not exactly like she would have expected.
I wish we knew how John received the message Jesus sent to him, but we don’t know. We do know that Jesus didn’t meet his initial expectations. Jesus just wasn’t vengeful enough for him.
We could be critical of John just like we could be critical of other people who wish Jesus was more wrathful and judgmental and less compassionate and merciful; but it might be more helpful if we think about how to deal with our own disappointment when Jesus doesn’t meet our expectations.
I would venture to say anyone whose faith in Jesus means anything to them at all has probably struggled with who Jesus is and what if means to follow Jesus. If John the Baptist, who announced the coming of Jesus as the Messiah to begin with had some doubts and struggled with his faith, we probably will too.
So how do we deal with our doubts or our disappointment? One thing we can do is as this text suggests, is to step back and take a look at what Jesus has done and is doing in our lives and in the world.
I know when I forget to do that, when I lose sight of what Jesus is doing and focus on things going on and going wrong with the world and with the church and with myself my hope for tomorrow gets really, really small. I just about lose all hope I have for tomorrow.
But when I step back and look at what Jesus has done and is doing in the world and in the church and in my life I know there is hope for tomorrow.
Go and tell John, go and tell your neighbors, go and tell your friends, go and tell your family, the things Jesus is doing and longs to do. Go tell everybody there is hope for tomorrow.