What Kind of Messiah Will Jesus Be?

Rev. George Miller
Jan 13, 2019
Matthew 3:1-17

The Christmas season is over. Advent is done.

The manger is back to feeding animals. The Shepherds are back in their fields. The Persian Magi have returned home.

The cries of Mary’s baby boy are now replaced with the voice of a full grown man.

The question the Gospel of Matthew now places us before us is “What kind of Messiah will Emmanuel be?”

In chapter 3 it seems like we are going to get some answers via John, a prophet in camel hair outside the city limits, pumping up the crowd for what’s to come.

He’s this amazing hype man who’s baptizing folks and saying things like-

“Oh, just you wait, just you wait. You think I’m intense. You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

“This guy has a pitch fork in his hand and is about to lay down some holy wrath!”

“There’s an ax that’s good and ready to chop down some trees!”

“He’s gonna gather all you pitiful fools and it’s going to be Burn! Baby burn!”

Try to think about what the people back then pictured when they imagined the guy John was telling them about.

Perhaps they had an image of someone like Zeus with perfect, long flowing hair and lightning bolts in his hand.

Or maybe they thought of someone like Thor with biceps out to here and a hammer in his fist.

Or maybe they thought of someone like Poseidon with pecs out to there, riding in on a shark with a super sharp trident.

That would be intense. This big, buff, alpha god-like guy who is super angry and with a word could burn all the unrighteous down to the ground.

John promised an ax by the trees that was going to be swung Paul Bunyan style….

…and instead, the man who emerges is this…guy…from Galilee.

He has no ax. He has no trident. He has no lightning bolts.

He doesn’t seem super angry. He’s not lighting matches and flicking them at folk.

Where’s the wrath? Where’s the fire? Where’s the wow-factor?

Instead of a WWE Wrestler or a Roman King or a Greek God, we have someone who appears to be a man…just a man.

A rather humble man who comes before John and indicates he wants to be baptized, like all the ordinary folk.

John is surprised, John is taken aback.

Perhaps he got it all wrong? Perhaps he was hyping the wrong guy?

What kind of Messiah is this?

What kind of Messiah would seek to be dunked in the same water as all the repenting, unrighteous, sinful people of Judea?

What kind of Messiah will Jesus be?

Even when the heavens open, the Spirit of God descends, and a voice calls him “My Son, the Beloved,” we are still left to wonder- what kind of Messiah will Jesus be?

And Matthew begins the process of giving us the answer, although it may not be the answer we or pop culture would expect.

Because in chapter 4, right after Jesus is baptized, and the Spirit soars down, and a heavenly voice speaks, what do you suppose Jesus does?

Does he allow it to all go to his head?

Does he head to Miami to party with Pitbull at the Mardi Gras?

Does he lease a limo so he can go see the Superbowl in VIP box seats?

Does he sit with Lady Gaga at the Golden Globes and sip champagne with Bradley Cooper?

Does he feast on unlimited crab legs at Red Lobster?

No, he does something so unusual, so bizarre, so surprising-

He goes into total seclusion, by himself, in the wilderness for 40 days in which he experiences hunger, he experiences temptation, and he experiences what it’s like to be totally and utterly alone.

What kind of supposed Son-of-God would do something like that?

If he wanted to be alone he could have gone to Chateau Élan and ordered room service.

And then when he returns from his wilderness experience, he doesn’t throw lightning bolts, or swing a hammer, or chop down a single tree.

He goes for a walk along the shore. He starts building a small team of common, hard-working, every day guys.

And he starts teaching. He starts telling people about the good news of God.

He goes about offering free health care to all by curing diseases, casting out demons, making the sick well.

And by the beginning of chapter 5, Jesus sits down amongst the people on a mountaintop, he looks out amongst their faces, and he calls them “Blessed.”

When we stop to really think about it, it is all so very odd.

Less than 2 months before John is making a big scene about this guy who is going to chop down and burn up, who is all winnowing fork and fire.

And instead what we encounter is a Savior who sits amongst the people, who works in a team, who heals, who teaches, who chooses to live amongst us.

When you actually pause to think about it, it is rather odd.

That the person John worked so hard to prepare us for, is a person who experienced a time of testing when anyone else would’ve been celebrating;

who was building people up when he could have been cutting them all down;

who decided to teach and heal when he could have been only about judgment and punishment.

Was John the Baptist completely wrong?

Is there more to Jesus than what the 1st five chapters of Matthew say?

Does it matter? And why?

Because as we continue the process of learning about God and the Holy Scriptures, and learning about Jesus, we take a step forward.

A step forward into this narrative in which:
the God who created,
who put the rainbow in the sky,
who parted the Red Sea,
who spoke from Mt. Zion,

would choose to come to earth,
chose to be incarnate,
chose to be made known through the life of one man,
and this is how God goes about doing it.

After all the chances the people had, all the times God remembered them, all the times God chose to forgive them,

after all their centuries of self-created war, strife, injustice, breaking of the commandments,

God would chose to step out of the air-conditioned coolness of eternity and step into the heat of the wilderness,

and into the heart of history,

without an ax to grind, or a lightning bolt to throw, or a pitchfork to winnow with.

How utterly amazing that God, through Jesus, would come to the Jordan and step into the same water as us, choosing to identify with our human plight and our very human need to be washed of our sins.

How astounding that Jesus’ 1st public appearance wasn’t to make folk quake in their sandals or bow down in reverent fear,

but for it to be known “This is my son, the Beloved with whom I am well pleased.”

What kind of Messiah will Jesus be? What will he do? Where will he go?

At what lengths will he gather us in, offer us life, and show that we are truly blessed?

Slowly this season we will get to find out. Hopefully this season, we will be truly surprised.

Amen and amen.