Matthew 11:2-11 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Third Sunday of Advent Sunday, December 14, 2025 “Jesus Is the One”
John the Baptist was asked the question many times. We heard about John last week, dressed in camel’s hair with a leather belt, living out in the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey. His message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.” People crowded around him to see and to hear, and when the Pharisees and Sadducees came out, he said, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” John was a unique, interesting, exciting figure. He was a powerful preacher. So people asked him, “Are you the messiah?” They asked about him, “Is he the messiah?” John had answered that question, too. He said, “someone more powerful is coming.” He said, “I am not worthy to carry his sandals. I am not worthy to untie his sandals.” When Jesus came to be baptized by John, John hesitated. It didn’t make sense. John knew that Jesus ought to have been the one baptizing him. He knew that Jesus was the greater one. And when he obeyed Jesus and baptized him, John witnessed even more evidence of his greatness. He heard a loud voice thunder from heaven about the holy Son of God. He saw a dove descend on him. He saw exactly what God had told him would guarantee that he had seen the Messiah. Understand what this word meant to the people. Messiah was a Hebrew word that came from the word to anoint. The Messiah was the anointed one. Many people were anointed in the history of God’s chosen people. Kings and priests and prophets were all set apart for their office by the pouring out of oil on them. They were anointed. But only one was the Messiah. All who read the Old Testament in faith saw a cord running through all of it. They heard a promise. Someone is coming. God was promising a special, unique figure. He was worth waiting for. His coming would bring amazing things. He would crush the head of the tempting serpent who had set in motion the destruction of all creation. Not every reference spoke about him being anointed, but enough did. Many spoke of him being chosen, selected, called by God to do these great things. The faithful readers of prophecy and promise expected this one to come, and they called him the Messiah. John had heard and answered the question many times. Was he the Messiah? Then suddenly in in Matthew 11, John is not being asked the question. He is the one asking it. The one who had powerfully proclaimed, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” was not powerfully proclaiming. He was curiously questioning. In fact, he wasn’t even able to ask the question. He was sending two of his disciples to ask the question on his behalf. “Jesus, are you the One?” The question doesn’t even use the title Messiah. It doesn’t need to. There were so many ways to refer to him. Are you the Coming One? The words could have referred to anyone who was expected, was traveling from somewhere else, but it was clear and obvious. These weren’t just words about someone coming. These were about the one great figure, promised throughout the Old Testament. The Coming One was the Messiah, and John was asking whether he got it right. He was asking the question that had been asked of him so many times. Why was he asking? Because things weren’t what he expected. There were lots of amazing things that Jesus was doing, but John was stuck in prison. The very message he had been given to prepare people for the Messiah had landed John in this trouble. He had preached against the sin of Herod, the leader in that region. And John knew that he might not get out of prison. He was able to meet with his disciples still, but he was not able to preach as he had been, and he was wondering whether his own execution was imminent. That’s not how the forerunner of the Messiah ought to be treated. That’s not what should happen to a special servant of God. What did John expect? Maybe he wanted to see evidence of the ax chopping down the sinners. Maybe he was expecting Jesus to do more of the rebuking sin and punishing wrong that John had predicted and warned against. Meanwhile, what John heard about was Jesus helping and healing. But John himself was not being helped. Maybe there have been times in your life you’ve felt like John did. The things that you wanted did not come. The things you expected did not happen. What you thought was fair or right didn’t work out. Maybe you even