Text: Matthew 11:2-6

John the Baptist bursts on the Gospel scene, out of the desert, the wilderness, a prophet, like the prophets of old, with a message, like himself, stark, stern and uncompromising; the threat of impending Judgement: the call to radical repentance; and, the promise of a Messiah about to be revealed.
“After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” (Mark 1.7.)

And, according to John the Evangelist, he identifies the Messiah - points him out - John saw Jesus, and said “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1.29ff.)

Matthew takes us to a later time. In chapter 11 John the Baptist is in prison, and is asking questions. He sends his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you he who is to come? Or shall we look for someone else?”

At this point we ourselves should ask some questions. Why the change in John? Why the second thoughts? Why the hesitations? Why the doubts? What has happened to make John ask such a question?

It seems to me obvious enough! John was having a dose of the Ds! He was in Difficulty and he was Down - as we might say, down in the dumps, or down in the mouth - it would have been interesting to see his body language. John was having to deal with Discouragement. And all the Ds were gathering round him: Disillusion, Disappointment, Despondency, Doubt, and so on, D after D, all those experiences we tend to wrap together and call Depression.

And to be fair to John there was every reason for this to be so. Let me spell out three good reasons.

1st

He was shut up: imprisoned, confined, restrained. His movements were restricted, his freedom taken from him. That is bad for anybody, but particularly so for John, the man of the desert, and the wild, wide open spaces; the man used to the vastness of the cloudless desert skies by day and the vast panorama of the stars at night.

2nd

He was shut up unjustly. He was a victim of injustice. It is true that he had had the temerity to oppose the tyrant Herod, but right was on his side. He had spoken God’s truth, a truth widely and generally respected. This was the result; prison! Man of God, prophet though he was, never the less he was human too. And in human terms injustice rankles.

3rd

He was disappointed. He was not seeing, what he expected to see. He had prophesied both Messiah and Judgement, and in lurid ways. “The axe is at the root of the tree… One is coming…he will gather the wheat and burn the chaff in unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3.10ff) It was to be Apocalypse Now! When Pharisees and Sadducees came to him to be baptized, he was less than impressed! He called them a brood of vipers - snakes in the grass - and asked them who had warned them to flee from the wrath to come. (Matthew 3.7.ff) Wrath! The sifting of humanity! Sheep and goats! Judgement! Fire and brimstone! That was his thunderous message. And what was happening? Nothing!

So there we are: three good reasons for Depression and all those dreadful Ds it embraces.
1. Shut up 2. Unjustly 3. Disappointed.

Are you surprised that a man of God should be in such a state? Don’t be! Remember Elijah wanting to die, (1Kings 19.1ff.) and Job cursing the day he was born, (Job 3.1ff.). And be honest have you never been there yourself, Christian believer? Maybe you are there now? Life treats us all the same. Here a prophet of God, later the Son of God Himself, and all through recorded history the saints of God.

We have to wrestle with the Ds. Disappointment, Discouragement, Despondency, Doubt, Depression. And, like the psalmist, try to find an answer: “Why are you cast down O my soul?…Hope in God.” (Psalms 42, 43).

1. For some it is a question of being shut up. Life, circumstances, age, health, hem us in, so that we feel shut up, unable to move, imprisoned. “But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in…” (Shakespeare)

2. For some it is a question of injustice. We cry within “It isn’t fair! Why me?” We feel we have done nothing to deserve what life is doing to us.

3. For others it is a question of disappointment. Remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after Jesus had been crucified. Luke says that they stood still, looking sad, saying “We had hoped…” (Luke 24.13ff). Hope dashed. Dreams shattered. Longings unsatisfied. Great expectations never realised. Ideals tarnished. Prayers unanswered.

There can be no one who can lay hand on heart and say in all honesty “Not me!” This is part of “The heart - ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” (Shakespeare). Believers no less than others.

So let US ask the question:

“Are you he who was to come, or should we look for another?”
We must not be surprised if we do not get a straight answer; John the Baptist didn’t. Our Lord very often answered a question with a question. So here, he says, in effect to John “What do you see?”

What could John see? Well, it was told him that “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” And John is left to ponder the answer.

Jesus had a different view of Messiah to John’s, a view especially found in the prophet Isaiah. Luke tells us that in the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus had taken a text from Isaiah and applied it to himself: “The Spirit of the lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4.16ff. Isaiah 16.1ff)

It was not that Jesus did not teach judgement. He did. But it was judgement to come, judgement not yet. First, mercy. First, suffering. First, the Cross. John the Baptist is left to think on. There is, however a sting in the tail of Jesus’ answer to him, a postscript: “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

So what of us, you and me? We who may be discouraged, doubtful, depressed? Who find life hemming us in? Who feel things aren’t fair? Who live with disappointment? What of us?

May I suggest that our Lord takes John’s question, turns it round and asks us “I have come, are you looking for someone else?”

When we are struggling with life we need to remind ourselves that nothing can alter one fact: Jesus has come, and therefore things can never be the same again.

His Person, personality, character, what he said, did, how he died, give us, as in no other way, a glimpse of the invisible God, sufficient enough for us to know God is, and what God is like and what God has done for us.

There is absolutely no going back on any of that. If I may take a verse of poetry out of context, I would say that what God has done for us in Jesus Christ is just as final as:

“The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a line of it.” (Edward Fitzgerald)

So as the writer to the Hebrews says, “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, LOOKING TO JESUS the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12.1ff)

Remember what we sang this morning:

“The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
He will not, He will not, desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
He’ll never, no never, no never, forsake”.
 

Alan Griggs

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