[AI translation] The typical figure of the Advent season, John the Baptist, is again before us in the Word read. But this time he does not stand before us as the embodiment of a happy Advent expectation, but on the contrary: as one in whom all Advent hopes are shattered, as one who is disappointed in what he had so happily believed in before. And the man who has been disappointed so much is so hard to believe afterwards! Brothers and sisters, this disappointed Advent man, this John the Baptist with his shattered hope, seems to me much closer to the man of our time, to ourselves, than the prophet who was happy and strong in his faith. For this generation of today is also a painfully disappointed generation. It is tired of being disappointed in its hopes. It has failed in so many things that it believed to be beautiful, good, true, that it no longer dares to stake its life on anything, dares not believe, dares not hope, for fear of being disappointed.Disbelief is the defence of many against disappointment. So it is with Christianity in modern man. He has been disappointed in the faith of his ancestors, in the religion of his fathers, in what he believed to be beautiful, good and true. He no longer dares to stake his life on anything. The typical question of a man of shaken faith was formulated by John the Baptist when he sent to Jesus with this question. What is it that shakes even a believer? For this man spoken of here in the Word was a man of true faith. A true believer! Not so long ago, he mobilised everyone with such enthusiasm, with such irresistible force: make ready the way of the Lord! He preached with great power that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. And at the same time, with such infinite humility, he testified that Christ must grow, and he himself must fall. And with such overflowing joy and reverence he pointed to the figure of Jesus on the bank of the Jordan: 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. What has he done? There were two reasons. One was that his life's journey had turned into a very dark and hopeless one. King Herod, the tyrannical tyrant from the East, wanted to put him down because he was very harsh in pronouncing God's judgment on the sins of the royal court. So John suffers innocently. He is in prison. A terrible door has closed behind him. Nihil has come upon his soul. In this darkness, in this loneliness doomed to inaction, is it any wonder that even he is slowly sinking down into the mire of despondency? Let him who is of stronger faith than he, in similar circumstances, cast a stone. The disciples also cried out in the dark, stormy sea. The darkness that sometimes comes upon a man's life, the shadows that lurk in our path, the events that happen against us: oh, how they can tear our faith! The worries, the anxieties, the fears that cloud over us, oh, how they can hide from us the face of God the Father! The pains and afflictions that knock us on the head, O but they can paralyze our prayer for a time! This is one of the reasons for our shaking in faith: the worrying, painful, incomprehensible development of life's circumstances.
Closely related to this is the other reason: misunderstanding of the mission of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist had a different vision and expectation of the Messiah's work, and that is why Jesus disappointed him. He thought that God's messenger, the Saviour, would bring great judgment on sin. He was looking for a cleansing storm that would sweep away the wickedness of men and overthrow all their strength. And since he himself had been imprisoned, he longed all the more for the outbreak of that redeeming storm. And behold, of all that John the Baptist had so longed for, Jesus accomplished nothing. Supposedly, the Messiah had come, the one he and all the people had been waiting for, and he stood idly by, watching, watching, watching as an important person like himself, the forerunner of the Messiah, languished in prison, the victim of tyrannical violence. The Messiah came and essentially nothing happened! No punishment for evil, no triumph for good, Herod continues to sit quietly on the throne of his sins, and John the Baptist continues to suffer hopelessly underground. So what does Jesus do? Who is this Jesus then? "Is it you who are to come, or shall we wait for another?"
Do you know this nagging, agonizing question of doubt, of disappointment? Even the strongest faith falters when it is confronted with the overflowing tide of sin, of evil, of sickness, and is itself swept away like a flood, and in vain cries out, gasps for help, only to sink deeper and deeper into it! The power of sin, the power of sickness, is sometimes so terribly powerful that the believer is left wondering what Jesus' triumphant declaration means: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me! We see so little of His power and glory! Is it true that all things are put under His feet? Sometimes, even believers are at a loss to understand what the Lord wants from them, and they plead in vain, but they do not get what they ask for. There are sometimes such incomprehensible things that John the Baptist is beheaded, even though Jesus is walking around. Lazarus dies, even though the brothers prayed for Jesus. The sick man is not healed, even though many have prayed for him... Jesus remains a silent spectator of all this suffering... What is the point of all this? Is everything we believe true? Something of this kind of agonizing dismay is expressed by this question: are you the one who is to come, or are we waiting for another? Can you help us, Jesus, or should we look elsewhere?
All disappointments, all disappointments of faith, are in fact the result of God not doing what man asks and expects of him, of God not living up to man's imagination, his expectations and hopes. And how well he does it, man may only find out later, in hindsight. Let me tell you a little story about this. I read somewhere that a God-denying man arrogantly argued against the existence of God in front of many people like this: 'If there is a God, I challenge Him to kill me in 5 minutes, I will drop dead in front of you! He took out his watch and after the allotted time had elapsed, he triumphantly pointed it out to the people. "Sir, have you a child?" was the answer. 'And if one of the children were to put a knife in your hand and stab his child to death, would you do it?'No,' said the man, 'I love him much more than I could do such a thing!' Well, that is exactly the same reason why God did not kill you: he loves you much more than that. So the fact that God did not accept the challenge does not mean that He does not exist, it does not mean that He is helplessly passive, but that He loves you infinitely. Because not to retaliate against evil, but to tolerate, to wait; not to avenge, but to forgive; not to hate, but to love - this is not a passive way of looking at things, but an active, very active participation in the things of the world.
Just a tiny taste of this story of why God doesn't do things the way many believers and non-believers would like to see him do them, the way we would expect him to do them. So Christ is not a helpless bystander to this world, to sin, to trouble, to sickness, to history, even if he does not act with the demonstrative power that many would like. And besides, to abolish all authority, to bring all enemies to their knees, to judge the world as judge of the world, he will come to this earth after this. The kingdom of God will be realized in all its power and glory after that. He will not fail in this work, nor in this action, but now is not the time, now is the time to gather, to call, to prepare his brothers and sisters for the coming kingdom of God, now is the time to realize the kingdom of God quietly, from within, in human hearts and lives. "And Jesus answered and said to them: 'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: that the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he that shall not be offended in me." (Lk 7,22-23)
Look: even if not in the way you imagine - you John the Baptist - Jesus is at work all the time, and his deeds bring untold blessings. He has not suddenly changed the face of the world, but how many thousands and millions of people and families bless Him for having renewed their lives! Even if His work is quiet and gentle, it is still a work of extraordinary divine power! Today, the power of His death and resurrection does not yet reach everywhere, but wherever it can reach, life is already different. Wherever Jesus goes, a man's life, his thoughts, his actions are quietly but visibly changed, and the world around him is slowly changed too! If your faith in Jesus has been shaken, look at people who have been cleansed from their sins by faith in Him - there are some! Who have been comforted in their grief or other sorrows through a relationship with Him, who have been renewed in love and goodness. Such people are a reassuring sign for the weak in faith, a sign that Jesus is alive, at work, coming, drawing near, bringing the fullness of the kingdom of God.
If there are no such encouraging signs in your environment, then become one yourself. Our faith in Jesus is always shaken when our own lives do not sufficiently demonstrate His power. If you yourself experience that you were blind and now see, were dead and now live, were leprous and now are clean, were poor and now a word of Christ fills the anxious emptiness of your heart so that you are enviably rich from Him and through Him - then no. Then askest thou not what can this world expect from Jesus? Can he still help us, or shall we expect someone else? It is not in the life of the world that I need to see first of all the power of Christ, the impact of his work, but in my own. Today I see and experience the redemptive power of Jesus in the forgiveness of my sins of repentance, and of yours. He forgives me in such a way that sin loses its power over me, that I am set free, that I am given new life, that I can love even my enemies, that I can rejoice even in sorrow, that I can look forward with hope even to a hopeless tomorrow, that I will live even through death! The Jesus who is so powerful that He can forgive my sins, that He can take my life in His hands, that Jesus is the true Saviour, I need no other! I am waiting for Him. The forgiveness of sins that I have personally experienced, the kingdom of God that I have lived in my own life, is the sign of His divine power in me, and it encourages me, strengthens me to believe even more boldly, and inspires me to continue to pray in the world: your kingdom come, Lord!
John the Baptist's doubts were unfounded, Jesus was indeed the Messiah he had been waiting for! And even if He did not escape from the clutches of Herod, by the standards of eternity, no injustice would be done to Him, except that He had already accomplished His task, and now all that remained of that task was to glorify God by His suffering and martyrdom. Part of life on earth is misery on earth. But Jesus remains the same loving friend in this as in the good days. It is written in the Word of God, "We must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations" (cf. Acts 14:22b). So this tribulation, this storm, is as much a part of the journey as the sunshine. If someone is on his way home from a long journey and finds himself in a blizzard, he will not doubt that he has a home, a warm room, a rest, a loving heart. On the contrary, the more persevering and hopeful he will be, the more he will continue his journey home!
Oh, the shadows that cast themselves on the roads of our lives are not meant to shake our faith, but to make us cling even more tightly to that dear, invisible reality, who speaks to us through this biblical story: "Blessed is the one who does not stumble in me".
Amen
Date: 1 December 1957 (Advent).
Lesson
Ézs 55,1-13