Daily Pastoral #73

As he nears his death (by beheading, nonetheless), John the Baptizer asks the following from his prison cell…

“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”¹

Scripture doesn’t shy away from honest questions. Here we have John the Baptizer, Jesus’s cousin, who knew Jesus was supposed to be “the ONE” since they were in utero.² This cousin of John’s hasn’t done the deed of overthrowing all of the world’s oppressive forces when he most needs him to. I can see him asking in earnest, “So where’s that military uprising you should be championing right now, cuz?!”

It seems that John, like us, is prone to asking the wrong questions of a messiah like Jesus. Just who do we think this savior is? What kind of kingdom do we think he’s come to usher in?

In Advent, we are given space to ask those honest questions.
For whom and what are we waiting for
in the birth
of this newborn king?

In Comfort + Joy,
Jonas

1. Matthew 11:1-6

2. Luke 1:39-45