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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            A lot can happen in a year or two. In a year or two, where will you be? Maybe you’ll still be here studying. Maybe you’ll be in a different place, at a different job. Maybe you will have a diagnosis that you didn’t see coming. Maybe you’ll meet the person you’ll marry. Think about where you were a year or two ago. Maybe you weren’t married, but you are now. Or you weren’t expecting a child, but you are now. Maybe you were still in high school, or living somewhere else. A lot can change in a year or two.

            A lot has changed for John in the year or two since we were in chapter 3. There, John was out in the wilderness, by the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance and pointing to the one who would come after him. Now, a year or two later, we’re in Matthew 11, and John is in Herod’s prison. There, John has heard about the “works of the Christ.” Matthew wants there to be no doubt who Jesus is: He is the Christ, the anointed one, whom God has sent into the world. John has heard about what Jesus is doing, and he sends two messengers, probably two of his disciples, to Jesus, to say to Him: Are You the coming one, or should we wait for another? John has no doubt that the Messiah is coming. He has no doubt that God is going to keep His promises. But maybe he is beginning to wonder if Jesus is the one through whom God will do that.

            There has always been a question about why John sends these messengers, about why he asks this. All the Church Fathers seemed to assume that since John had been sent to prepare the way for Jesus, then he couldn’t really be asking this question for himself. Instead, he must be sending the messengers so that they can hear and believe. And maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s like in the Gospel of John where John points out Jesus and says, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! And he says to his disciples, He must increase; I must decrease. Maybe John is, in fact, sending these messengers not for John’s sake, but for theirs. I can see it. On the other hand, a lot can happen in a year or two. Is it possible that John was waiting for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and fire, of the axe of judgment laid to the root of the trees, of the clearing of the threshing floor and the burning of the chaff, and—maybe—is wondering where all that is? Is all the stuff that John said true of Jesus? Or is there someone else whom God is going to send? Isaiah 61 says that when the Messiah brings the kingdom of God, the captives will be released and the prisoners’ chains will be opened. But John’s still in prison. Things haven’t been put right. The wicked still rule. Herod is going to have the will of his brother’s wife carried out. Judgment has not been rendered. Who knows? A lot can change in a year or two.

            Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive back their sight; the lame walk around; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not scandalized, offended, who does not stumble and fall on account of Me. There may be no importance to the fact that “hear” comes before “see,” and yet, there were lots of people who saw what Jesus did. There were people who saw Lazarus alive after he died, or who saw a man who was born blind seeing. They saw what Jesus did, but they did not believe it. Faith, Paul says, come from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ. Not just the word about Christ, but the word of Christ, the word from Christ. And when you hear and believe, you begin to see things differently, to see everything differently.

That’s the word that Jesus gives those messengers to take back to John, whether John was genuinely asking, or he was asking for them, the word was for John, and for them, and for you. This Jesus, who appeared in the world, did these signs that demonstrated that He was God in the flesh, who had authority over sin, sickness, death, and the devil. He did these signs so that people would believe that He was the one whom God had sent, for them and for the whole world. And blessed is the one who is not scandalized by Him. I don’t know whether those words were meant for John or for his messengers, but I do know people stumble and fall away from Jesus because He doesn’t appear in the way they want Him to appear, or do the things they want Him to do, or at the times they want Him to do it. If John expected fire and judgment and salvation and the end of the Roman empire, and his prison doors opened, it is not out of the question that he might begin to wonder why it had not all happened yet. Was Jesus the coming one, or not?

            But whether John wondered that, people today certainly do. They see that things seem to go on pretty much as they always did, that Jesus hasn’t appeared yet, and His followers don’t seem to live up to what He said. They don’t see “peace on earth” or lions and bears and serpents living harmoniously with oxen, sheep, and little children. Is He the one who was promised, or is there someone else for whom we should wait? Or maybe there’s no one at all, and we’re on our own. People are scandalized, offended, and they stumble and fall away from Jesus because of the way and the time and the means by which He does stuff. But He was the one who was promised, the one whom God sent, the one who showed by His words and signs that He was remaking creation. He is still that one: the one who appeared, and just a year or two later, would be suffering and He would be executed, as John was. But He was raised from the dead, so that everyone would know that what He said was true, and what He did was the sign of it.

            And you who have heard, to whom the Holy Spirit has given faith, you see things differently. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now you know that whatever happens in a year or two changes nothing about God’s promises. What you see is not more real than what you have heard. Wherever you are in a year or two, whatever happens to you: whether you have great joy, or great sorrow; whether you are in the place you want to be, or not. You belong to the Lord. He has claimed you for His own. He has put His holy name on you, and His works continue: He still speaks, He still acts, He still creates faith, He still forgives sinners. He still feeds you with the true food and true drink, which last into eternity. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whether you live, or whether you die, you are the Lord’s.

            In 1943, there was another imprisoned and condemned man, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He, like John, was not going to get out of prison, and in a year or two he would be executed. In a letter, he wrote that Advent was a lot like his prison cell: you waited and watched and hoped, you did this or that—negligible things, things of no consequence. The door was locked, and could only be opened from the outside. We are in that long Advent, still chained to this suffering, dying body. But the one in whom you hope, for whom you wait, is coming. And He is going to bring this Advent life and this Advent world to their end. He’s going to open the door, and set you free. And then everything Jesus did for those few whom He fed, whom He healed, whom He raised—it will all be done for you, and what was begun back then will be finished—whether it is in a year or two, or ten years, or tomorrow. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear, and believe, and see all things differently.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

— Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 12/12/25