Are You the One? Advent 3

 

Before she was your favorite judge on American Idol, she was a cheerleader for the LA Lakers, and she had some #1 hits in the ‘80s. Let see if you remember this one by Paula Abdul from 1988, it starts with “He’s a cold hearted snake / Look into his eyes / uh-oh / he’s been telling lies.”

So why do we start with that song? If you remember last week, we read about John the Baptist calling the people a “brood of snakes.” (That’s a bunch of baby snakes.) It’s not good to call someone a snake. It’s an insult.

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And right before Jesus hits the scene, the Baptist is getting people ready for the coming of the Messiah. And the Baptist called them snakes, hypocrites. You know, those people who talk a good game but live another way. Kind of like those people who believe in budgets and being responsible with finances but massively over-spend during this season.

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John the Baptist begins his ministry by calling people out. Last week, you heard him telling us to repent. So, let me ask you: Did it work? Did you un-snake yourself? Did you achieve 100% integration so who you are on the inside matches who you are on the outside? Has anyone succeeded?

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John the Baptist has been this super-prophet out in the wilderness. He’s been this all-in, souled-out, super-religious guy who hated sin, injustice, hypocrisy, and snakes.

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The Baptist was always telling people to straighten up and live right. He warned people that the Messiah was coming and that he was going to get rid of all the snakes.

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To make a long story short, the Baptist said some critical things about the governor and a scandal he was involved in. The governor didn’t like that and threw the Baptist in prison. As we pick up the story, the Baptist is in prison and he has been getting updates about Jesus’ ministry. When he hears what Jesus is doing, the Baptist isn’t excited; it causes him to have a crisis of faith. He starts a long-distance conversation with Jesus asking him, “Are you really the one I thought you were?”

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We’re eleven chapters into Matthew, so remember John the Baptist baptized Jesus. He saw the dove come down from heaven. He heard the voice of God saying, “This is my dearly loved Son . . .” But now, as he hears about what Jesus is doing, he asks, “Are you the one who is coming?”

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Stop and think for a moment. What caused John the Baptist to have this crisis of faith? Jesus wasn’t a snake killer. In fact, Jesus seemed to like snakes. Oh, I’m not talking about the animal. I mean the people who cheat, lie, betray—you know sinners and hypocrites.

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It looked like Jesus started out well. He called some people to follow him. They were rough around the edges, but good hearted. He gave a tremendous opening speech to launch his ministry. But soon after that, there are some weird things. A Roman officer—someone who has sworn allegiance to Rome and has to praise and worship the emperor, Caesar—comes up to Jesus and asks, “Will you heal one of my servants?” Jesus says yes to the snake, and praises the Roman officer’s faith.

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Then Jesus finds another snake, a tax collector. This was a good Jewish guy who decided to abandon his people and collect their money to pay to the oppressive Roman government, the bad guys, and to make a pretty penny for himself while doing this. Jesus sees Matthew and invites him to follow.

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Then there are more snakes. Because the first thing Matthew does is invite Jesus to his house, where he throws a party. The Bible says there were “many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners” at that party. A bunch of snakes!

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John the Baptist’s friends go to him all confused. “Maybe Jesus wants to get close to them before he judges them?” Then they ask Jesus a question, “Why do we fast but your disciples don’t?” So that lets you know Jesus and his friends are enjoying the cheese dip and befriending people at the party.

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So what’s going on?

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John the Baptist thought Jesus was here to drive out all the snakes. But, it turns out, Jesus likes those people. He wants to hang out with them. His ministry is for the hypocrites and sinners and broken and suffering and blind and lame. His ministry is for all the cast-off people. Jesus comes to us to offer healing, mercy, forgiveness—and, believe it or not, he recruits us to be on his team and to assist in his ministry.

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This is good news because many of us face a huge gap between who we are and who we want to be. 

There’s a gap between how we actually live and how we want to live. There’s a gap between the things we do and the things we want to do.

Let me tell you one of the crazy things about those of us who are Millenials. We have this completely illogical belief that if we get the right notebook, planner, journal, agenda, then we’ll be able to get our lives together. So every January we try out a slew of different things. These Field Notes in a traveler’s notebook. A disc-bound system so we can easily move things around. A smart, reusable one that has a QR code to send our notes to the cloud. But you know what? It doesn’t matter which notebook I get, I’m still me.

Maybe you don’t have a thing for notebooks. What about the garage? You want to clean out the garage, but you say, “I’m going to get to it when the weather is warmer.” Then when it’s warmer, you say, “I’ll get to it when it cools off.” 

And on and on it goes. There’s a gap between who we are and who we want to be.

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John the Baptist came and he preached, “Stop being a snake.” But telling a snake to not be a snake doesn’t really work. Even if a snake sheds it’s skin, it’s still a snake.

So we need something else. What we need is something closer to what happens when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. There needs to be a total transformation. Something that causes a change from the inside out. This is what Jesus is talking about when he says Kingdom of Heaven.

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Jesus says John the Baptist’s way was a great way. There’s been no one better than the Baptist among those who are trying in their own human way.

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Jesus says, “In the kingdom of heaven, John the Baptist is lower than the least person.” So that means the most backslidden Methodist, the least in the kingdom of heaven, is better than John the Baptist.

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Because the Kingdom of Heaven is a place where you don’t get in because you’re good. You get in because you’re loved. Then, once you’re in, God begins to do his work in you—to change you from the inside out.

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What Jesus offers is an invitation to come as you are and to let God do the work of transforming you.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the Netflix show The Crown. Well, my favorite scene in the series happened in season 3. It’s the episode about Prince Philip and the moon landing. The reason it’s my favorite scene is because it shows what’s it like to go from a John the Baptist try-harder-to-make-yourself-better model to something more meaningful.

Prince Philip is having a midlife crisis and he believes he will get through it with action and grit and determination to start something new—something he will make happen. He’s watching the astronauts getting ready to land on the moon. He’s excited. He thinks that’s the ideal model of life—to grab the world and make things happen and to win. Meanwhile, his wife, the Queen of England, had called a new preacher to the family chapel. That preacher has an idea to start a support group for preachers who are in a mid-life crisis. So Philip goes to check out the first meeting. He sees these men are all seated in a circle. He walks in and calls these men pathetic losers who just need to try harder. Then he leaves.

I won’t spoil it for you, but he comes to realize he was profoundly wrong. He goes back to those pathetic preachers sitting in a circle and he sits with them and he says the most important word for anyone who wants to be in the kingdom of heaven, “Help.”

And that’s the difference. John the Baptist’s way is just try harder to make yourself better. It may work for a little while. But you’ll eventually run out of steam.

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The posture of someone in the kingdom of heaven is “Help.” It’s about relying on someone other than yourself. It’s trusting God will do what needs to be done inside you. That’s why the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.

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Because they have learned that it’s not about what you do, but what has been done for you. What has been done for you? Jesus has come. He has died for your sins. He has extended grace and mercy for you. He has done all that is needed for you to be saved. And that is the greatest news of all.