I Never Expected That

Matthew 11:2-11

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and; said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and; tell John what you hear and; see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and; the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and; more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written,

`See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ 

Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

Expect the unexpected. . . 

Google that and you’ll get over 700,000 hits.

hmmmm

Like this quote from Oscar Wilde: “To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” How marvelously modern of you Oscar. It also seems a tad - I don’t know - ironic? gnostic? arrogant?

Whatever. 

This story of John the Baptist and his question for Jesus - is perhaps most of all - sort of sad. At least, I gained that sense reading the reflections of Russell Rathbun on thehadestquestion.org. Of course, that might have been just me. . . 

The question of expectations comes to mind with John this week, and I wonder how to get at this.

I think of two illustrations:

First: Years ago, I read a wacky story in the Minneapolis paper. Apparently, somewhere in rural Minnesota, a guy was sitting in his living room, when a car crashed into his house and came to rest a few feet away. The brief story had a marvelous picture of the car sticking out of the house. What I remember is the quote from the man - where he said - essentially - “Its hard to believe this happened HERE. You expect something like this to happen in the Cities, but not here.”

That kind of made me nervous, sitting in my living room in the Cities. . . 

Expectations

Second: My mom would set her expectations for family Christmas gatherings so high - that she couldn’t help but be disappointed. I have been known to suggest that she did this on purpose. (I’m better now.) 

This is an intriguing reality, that, to one extent or another is repeated in many many households each year. Christmas expectations not being met. Disappointment where the greatest joy should be found. . .

Maybe John’s expectations of the Christ - and the sadness of his question - speak to a universal experience. Maybe this is a question each of us must ask at some point. “Are you the one, or are we to wait for another?” Notice, he doesn’t say “should we LOOK for another?” He knows there’s no other out there. He asks if we should WAIT for another. 
I think of a strangely marvelous quote from Walker Percy: 

Walker Percy, around 1991 or so: in an interview shortly before he died, mentioned that he was a Catholic who worshiped regularly, read the bible and studied theologians. 

The interviewer, surprised at this, asked "How is such belief possible in this day and age?"

"What else is there?" Percy responded. The interviewer responded by listing all sorts of alternatives, such as atheism, humanism, agnosticism, materialism, Marxism, astrology, theosophy, metaphysics and on and on. 

Percy simply replied, "That is what I mean. What else is there?"- in Martin Marty’s Context (and quoted in my unpublished tome “10 Seconds with God: A reader for folks with a short attention span (and some of their friends))

Jesus may not meet expectations, but we also know there’s nothing else out there.

That can be a sad commentary, I guess, if we must somehow “lower” our expectations. But perhaps Matthew tells us this story so that we might face our own unmet expectations, and find that Jesus invites us to look, not at what Jesus is not doing, but to look at what Jesus is doing.

I’m not sure what that means, but Pay No Toll said something like that in a sermon a few years ago and I liked it. . .

Well - I expect that the Good News lies in here somewhere, and that we are getting to the part of the December rush that folks are quite ready to hear it. Good News that must be spoken in the face of the sad news of our realities. 

In this Officially Merry Month of the Officially Optimistic Society - perhaps the Good News can best be heard when we admit to, and face our disappointment. 

Seeing that the disappointment Jesus causes leads to the cross. A fitting end for such a disappointing Messiah, we might well, also see that while the disappointment is quite shocking in its depth, it is not the end of the story.