Matthew 11:2-11 (3rd Sunday of Advent) – December 14, 2025

Introduction

Last week, John the Baptist stood in the wilderness with absolute clarity and conviction.
He knew his job. He knew his identity. He knew his message.

“Prepare the way of the Lord!”
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

John was the voice crying out, the prophet certain of his calling, the one who saw the world in sharp lines: wheat and chaff, axe at the root, fire that purifies.

And now, this week, the same man sits in a prison cell, sending disciples to Jesus with a question that sounds nothing like certainty: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

Something has broken open in John. Something in his expectation of Jesus doesn’t match the reality of Jesus. And Matthew wants us to sit with that.

NARRATIVE CONTEXT

Matthew wants us to feel that tension. What is John doubting? Why isn’t Jesus matching what he feels is the right Messiah action.

John had announced a Messiah who would come with an axe at the root of the trees, a winnowing fork in hand, fire licking at the edges. Judgment. Purification. A holy reckoning. That’s the Messiah John was preparing everyone for. And who shows up instead? Jesus.

Jesus who starts with healing and teaching. He preaches the Sermon on the Mount: turn the other cheek, love your enemies, pray in secret, don’t judge, treat others as you want to be treated. Then he starts cleansing lepers, healing a Roman centurion’s servant, calling a tax collector into his inner circle. The blind see. The lame walk. The dead are raised. The poor hear good news.

John expected a hammer. Jesus arrives with mercy. John expected thunder. Jesus walks in with a whisper that opens doors in a different way. From the confines of Herod’s dungeon, that disconnect must have felt unbearable. John had given everything to prepare for a Messiah of righteous violence, and now the one everyone is following looks nothing like the Messiah he envisioned.

And maybe that’s why John sends the question. It’s not just doubt in the dark night of the soul. It’s the pain of watching someone you lifted up for a job… and realizing they aren’t doing it your way. John had proclaimed judgment; Jesus is enacting restoration. John had called out sin with fire; Jesus is calling sinners to dinner. In Matthew’s Gospel, this isn’t a gentle correction, it’s a collision between human expectations and divine intention.

I want to be clear, this is not how every Gospel portrays John the Baptist, but I do believe that Matthew is lifting him up in this way. I believe we are supposed to feel contrast here. The way we would do things and the way Christ does things.

PREACHING POSSIBILITIES

The Close Tension of Doubt and Certainty

This text has something to say to us when doubt creeps in during our shadows, our locked-up places, our Advents that don’t feel like hope. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to go there, and I think you can if your congregation is struggling right now.

We can lift up John, a man who was convicted like no other in the certainty of the coming Messiah but now is doubting. Even the surest of us doubt, especially in times where we are our lowest. We doubt what we’ve done. We doubt our gifts. We doubt our faith.

And Jesus lifts John up in this moment, “⁹ What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰ This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ ¹¹ “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

This text has something to say about seeing us in our times of brokenness and lifting us up. But, I think there is a convicting point here that has something sharper to say about what we truly want from God.

Because if we’re honest, many of us want the Messiah John imagined. We want someone who will vanquish our enemies or at least humiliate them. We want a God who will bring the hammer down on the people we have decided are the problems. And we live in a time when the language of enemies (“evil,” “traitor,” “those people”) is on the lips of all politicians, pundits, and schoolchildren. We take John’s righteous judgment and ramp it up into a fantasy of divine conquest.

Sometimes we’re not doubting Jesus; we’re disappointed that Jesus doesn’t do it our way.

But look at how Jesus responds. He doesn’t defend himself. He simply says: Look.

Look at what is happening. Look at who is being healed. Look at who is being lifted. Look at the life breaking open in front of you. This is what the kingdom looks like.

It comes not with fire but with freedom.
Not with destruction but with restoration.
Not with the triumph of the righteous over the wicked but with good news for the poor, the broken, the weary, and yes, even for the people we’ve labeled as enemies.

Advent confronts us with the Messiah Jesus actually is, not the one we would build, weaponize, or use to settle scores. This Messiah does not burn the world down; he heals it. That is good news. But it means releasing the Messiah we were hoping for.

John’s question becomes ours: Are you the one… even if you’re not the one I expected?
And Jesus’ answer becomes Advent’s invitation: Watch what the kingdom looks like when mercy leads.