Matthew 11:2–6

Midweek 3

Theme: Love

²Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples

³and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

⁴And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see:

⁵the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

⁶And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

The word advent means “coming.” We are filled with hope as we look forward to seeing God face-to-face on Judgment Day. As we look ahead we are located on faith, on the objective Christ-centered truths God teaches us in the Bible: faith, hope and love.

Sometimes we feel so behind and so buffeted by tough things in life which we can’t control that we don’t always recognize love when it comes to us. John the Baptist questioned if Jesus was the Messiah. John was in jail so he sent his disciples to ask Jesus. “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus answered, “What do you see and hear?” Then Jesus gave a list of all he had been doing. “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them.” In other words, Jesus says, “If you are wondering if the father has come in me, look and listen to what you see me doing and hear me saying.” On another occasion Jesus was talking to Philip:

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Phillip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

So the Advent challenge for us is to get to that same place, a location where we know we are surrounded by the Father’s love. For us, that’s a place, a location for our souls, where we see evidences that we are surrounded by the Father’s love even in the midst of all the trials that suffocate us in life. The Bible teaches that we are born with sin in our hearts. God also put his Law into our hearts that shows us our guilt. The result of Law and sin in our hearts is that even we Christians are by nature more prone to see the bad and are less inclined to believe that our Father loves us. Through our Advent reflections on God’s word, the Holy Spirit brings us to that place, locating us in the evidences of the Father’s love surrounding us. Tell John what you see and hear: “God is love.”

THE GOD OF LOVE SURROUNDS US WITH HIS LOVE.

—and with more evidence of his love, more things to see and hear, than we children of God can ever comprehend. The blessings of creation and preservation are evidences of the Father’s love for us. The great themes of this season—the incarnation of the Son of God for us sinners and his mission to rescue us from sin, death and the devil—these are the evidences of God’s love for us. The suffering and death of the cross is the evidence of God’s love. The empty tomb is the evidence shown to us. All this Good News is preached to the poor. Faith based on the Word of God; hope, looking ahead to seeing the God of glory face-to-face, our Father’s love surrounding us.

Where do we see the love of God? We see it most in suffering and death. The Apostle Paul in his long-term affliction, we do not know what it was, if it was a physical illness, enemies making his life miserable, a temptation, or what, but in the midst of this affliction Paul prayed over and over that God would deliver him from it. God’s final answer was “No.” Because through this suffering God’s power and grace were made evident. It is in our trials and pain that God’s love is revealed to us. For only when we are in over our heads, when we are suffering more than we can bear, do we see that God is present with us and taking care of us. When life is easy and comfortable we don’t see the need for God. But when we can no longer bear life’s turmoil and pain then we are driven to God for his help and care; just as it is in the suffering and death of Jesus that we see the greatest love of God for us. For scarcely would someone die for a friend, much less for an enemy. But God loved us so much that while we were yet his enemies he died for us in order that we might be reconciled to him and adopted as his own children.

Moses wanted to see the glory of God, but God said, “No. No one can see me and live.” Here’s the final word for our Advent services. “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Faith, hope and love, all from the face of God shown to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.