Matthew 11 v 2-11, Isaiah 35 v 1-10, James 5 v 7-10
Open the eyes of my heart Lord Jesus to the wonder of your love and good purposes for me. Amen
Have you ever experienced a crisis of faith; a time when you’ve doubted the goodness of God? Perhaps some tragedy, suffering or painful experience has left you wondering whether there is a God who cares. At times like this God can seem very distant. Fear can take hold and paralyse our faith in the God of the Bible and his good promises.
There are often times when I feel discouraged and down. Days where the enemy is especially good at putting doubts and discouragements into my mind.
Wrestling with fear and doubt is not a new thing and certainly not unique to us. Down the centuries many heroes of the faith have faced and wrestled with fears and doubts. There are many examples in the bible of people like Abraham & Sarah, Elijah, Gideon, Peter and of course Thomas or doubting Thomas as we like to call him, who have doubted in God’s good word to them.
The wonderful thing is that our God doesn’t cast us aside when we wrestle with doubts and fears. He doesn’t give up on us when we question his ways. It is precisely in these moments when God draws alongside us and brings us assurance through his unchanging word.
In our gospel reading we meet John the Baptist, stuck in prison, wrestling with doubts about whether Jesus was in fact the Messiah. Sat in a dark dungeon he’s wondering whether he’d got it all wrong. Had he made a mistake? Was Jesus really worth it?
We’ll find out in a bit. But first, what do we know about John the Baptist?
Well, he was Jesus’ cousin and God’s messenger, sent to prepare the people of Israel for the arrival of the Messiah.
Essentially, he was a prophet sent by God to proclaim a message of repentance. A bit like Elijah.
John was a man of the desert; wore camels clothing and ate wild honey and locusts. He preached about God’s coming King by the river Jordan. Many came to listen to his message, repented and were baptised by him. John was not afraid to speak God’s message.
But his prophetic career ended in disaster when he rebuked King Herod Antipas of Galilee for taking his sister-in-law Herodias as his wife. Publicly, John told Herod what he’d done was wrong and unlawful. Herod was not having any of it. No one spoke to the ruler like that! You can imagine his anger. He threw John into a dungeon in a fortress in the mountains near the Dead Sea.
While imprisoned, John hears from his disciples about what Jesus has been doing. Wrestling with his doubts and fears, he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, “are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else?” In other words, are you the Messiah or not?
It’s a perfectly reasonable question, given the circumstances John finds himself in. Its not difficult to sympathise with him as he suffered in prison. He was a man of the desert who was used to wide open spaces; now he’s confined in a cell. He was an active man with a divine mandate to preach about the coming Messiah; yet he is silenced.
He had announced judgement, and yet that judgment is slow in coming. Perhaps he thought the Messiah would come in great triumph and wipe away the wicked and establish his just kingdom. And here he is, stuck in a dungeon on the orders of Herod, fearful of the future; doubtful of God’s word.
John had been so sure that Jesus was the One who was to come, but now that certainty is a bit wobbly.
What is God up to? What’s the Messiah doing? Why have things turned out the way they have? Why am I stuck in prison? Did I get it all wrong? Will I get out alive?
It’s not difficult to imagine these thoughts going through John’s mind.
John is someone we can relate to in our own walk with Jesus. Why? Because times of trial and testing will come – whatever form or shape that might take. As we seek to follow Christ and live according to his word and ways, we will inevitably face opposition and suffering whatever that might look like.
Jesus never promised his disciples a trouble-free life. Quite the opposite. We are told to expect times of trial and hardship; persecution even.
So, what are we to do when we’re having a crisis of faith and doubts take hold?
Let’s see what John did and how Jesus reassured him.
Firstly, its ok to wrestle with doubt and fear. It’s a very human response in times of pain and suffering. It does not mean God abandons us or is displeased with us. We see this in John the Baptist’s life.
Here is a godly man whose obedience to God’s word and work lands him in prison for calling out Herod’s wrong doing. Now he’s wondering what’ll become of him and whether it was all worth it.
But notice he has not abandoned faith in God. His disciples bring him news of all that Jesus is doing. And in his wrestling and doubts, he sends them to Jesus seeking assurance. And that is the best thing John could have done.
It is also exactly what we need to do when we wrestle with doubts and fears as Jesus’ followers. We need to go back to Jesus, the Source. We need to take hold of his promises in Scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to bring assurance to our hearts and minds as we meditate on them.
Listen to how Jesus answers John’s question –
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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” (v4-5).
Jesus’ reply is full of tenderness as he tactfully reminds John of the Old Testament prophesies about the works of the Messiah. In other words, go and tell John what is happening – what you are hearing and seeing for yourselves.
Jesus pointed John to God’s good promises in the Old Testament and how those were being fulfilled in his time. Verse 4 and 5 in our reading from Isaiah speak of a time when the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk and the mute shout for joy. And there are many other prophesies about the Messiah and his works. John would have known these.
And so, Jesus is reminding him to listen and hear what the Messiah is doing in Galilee to reassure John that he is the One who was to come.
The things that Jesus did in Galilee he still does today. Jesus is still opening the eyes of those who are spiritually blind. We still hear of miracles where people receive their sight. Jesus is still rescuing people from sin and all its nasty effects. He is the one who stills the chaos of our lives.
He is the one who delivers us from darkness to light, who sets captives free and breaks the chains that shackle the poor and vulnerable. Around the world his kingdom is still breaking in as more and more people hear the gospel and turn to Christ. Of course, its not prime-time news on BBC or Sky or social media. But it is happening.
There is a cost to following Jesus. Our brothers and sisters around the world know this all too well. We may very well face threats, public ridicule, even rejection by loved ones. There might be times when we doubt our salvation, the forgiveness of sins or God’s work in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones. At times like these we need to remind ourselves of God’s good promises in Scripture and ask the Holy Spirit to reassure our troubled hearts.
The season of Advent reminds us that God keeps his promises. Jesus came as the light of the world to lift us out of the pit of doubt and despair. He came as our rescuer; our saviour, to set us free from sin and death and to give us new life.
Don’t let your doubts and fears turn you away from Jesus. Turn to him like John did. Bring your questions to him and listen once again to his wonderful promises in Scripture and see the evidence of their fulfilment in and through Christ Jesus, our Immanuel.
Amen.