The Lutheran Hour
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"What Are You Expecting?"
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Text: Matthew 11
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Reading Matthew 11:2 from a Braille Bible: “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask Him, ‘Are You the One who was to come or should we expect someone else?’ Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured. The deaf hear, the dead are raised and the Good News is preached to the poor.'”
It seems like an unusual reading for just a little bit more than a week before Christmas. Usually one thinks prior to Christmas you would have stories of Mary and Joseph traveling down, preparations for the birth of Christ; but here we have John the Baptizer and Jesus, a full grown man, and words about great miracles of the coming Messiah. I guess that’s really the tie-in to Christmas. The Messiah is coming. Christmas, whether it be now or next year, is about Christ coming, the first time as well as the second time.
This reading also gives us a reason why I was probably asked to come and speak today and share God’s Word, because of the miracles mentioned. In particular, the blind receiving sight. I lost my sight when I was 11 years old and have been blind for over 30 years. I’ve learned a lot about God and what He has to say to us and to hurting people. But more about that a little bit later.
Christmas is a season of expectation. If you have children or know of children nearby, they’re expecting great things this Christmas — Barbies or stuffed animals. If they’re teenagers, they’re probably expecting CDs or video games. Adults? It’s interesting. The older an adult gets, it seems the less and less they expect and it’s either because we already got all the stuff we want or the stuff we would like is out of reach so we just don’t expect it. But also some would say, “Expect at Christmas? I’ve given up expecting, especially from God and from churches because I’ve been disappointed so many times.” They point to the hurt and pain in the world and ask, “What good has happened from that first Christmas or any Christmas since then? Why should we expect this Christmas to give us anything different?”
Look at the last four months, let alone the last four years around the world — all the sadness. Then look at this text — at John. Look at the disappointment he had. He came first preaching about Jesus as the One, the Savior, saying “He is the Lamb,” baptized Him, sent disciples after Him and what does he get for announcing this is the king to come? He gets thrown into prison — a dark, damp, gloomy place where he becomes very depressed. So he asks a few of the followers he had left, Go and ask Him, go and ask if He is the One or should we be expecting another?”
Have you ever been disappointed? Expected something and not gotten it? Let down with your expectations? I know I have. The one that still sticks with me is when I lost my sight when I was 11 years old. Some Christian friends said, “Hey, why don’t you come to church with us? We’ll pray that God will give you back your sight.” And hearing Bible stories, I knew Jesus gave back sight, so I went, expecting, hoping, wishing and waiting. One week went by. A second week went by as we prayed and nothing happened. Finally those Christians said, “Well, maybe you have some sin in your life that’s stopping God’s power from coming. Maybe God is punishing you because you’ve done something wrong.” Well, I was shattered in many different ways. First, because of the disappointment I had, but also with what these Christians were saying. God punishing me? No. I had been around long enough in churches to know that type of language was wrong. I had been to enough Christmas services. I knew this baby born in Bethlehem was the same person, the Messiah, the Christ who was crucified on the cross to take our sins away. He took that punishment. I knew God wasn’t punishing me spiritually for some sin. That’s why Jesus died. You know the same thing is true about each one of you, too. The things you may be going through aren’t a direct punishment by God. Now sometimes we live with the consequences of some bad choices we make. But from God’s point of view, He forgives us. That’s why Jesus came. He came fully expecting to die for us. He came expecting to have all the sins of the world placed upon His shoulders. That’s exactly what happened when He died.
We can expect something far different from God. When I went away from those other Christians, I had to scratch my head and think, “Well, what does God have in mind?” I don’t know if I thought of this story in particular about John the Baptizer. But I did what John did. I went back to Jesus and said, “What’s going on?” And, yes, I yelled at God a little bit, but I figured, He’s big enough. He can take it. He’s God. Didn’t He invite us to pray? So I did.
It took me many years to understand that sometimes we expect the wrong things. God at Christmas time, both that first one and the one coming up in a few days, has a gift He gives to each of us; to you and me. But the question is, “Is it on our radar screen? Is it in our expectations?” Rather than changing the gift, maybe we need to change our expectations. Because if God gave us everything we expected, after a while would we even need Him? Absolutely not. He’d be like that jolly old guy we call St. Nicholas, who gives us everything we want. He would be our puppet. But that’s not God — especially not a loving God.
I’ve two little young girls at home, and last year at Christmas I gave them a lot of toys — Barbies and clothes. I gave what they were expecting to get, but sometimes I tried to surprise them. I remember last Christmas giving a toy to my younger daughter, Margaret. She looked at it, puzzled, and set it aside. She kept going back to it. The more she played with it and looked at it, the more she got excited about it. But it took her time. She’d set it down and go to the toy she was expecting — the Barbie –but she always came back to that one toy. I really wonder if sometimes that’s what we need to do, also. God says, “Come, expect and ask.” But let’s be willing also to look at the gift He gives us. And what is that gift He gives us at Christmas time? Well, first and foremost is that relationship with Him. We can talk to Him like a loving father, a good friend, and we can scream and yell when our expectations aren’t met.
Secondly, He gives us better expectations. He gives us the way to understand what He really is giving us. I mentioned that when I lost my sight, and then asked for my sight back, I was disappointed. It took me a long time, about 11 to 12 years, to understand what God was really giving and how He was using me. I’d asked Him for sight. Well, He didn’t give me physical sight, but He helped me use my hands, my ears, my memories to be able to deal with and overcome my handicap. Now I’m a stronger person for it. He’s opened up many doors to me that I would never had gotten through If I had sight — doors to share with people, to help people, to serve people, especially blind people.
One of the things we’re doing in blind missions now is trying to help people realize what Jesus was saying here in this text. He is the Messiah, the promised One, and we’re preaching that Good News to them. No, we don’t promise physical sight, but we give them something far better: A spiritual sight, faith in their Savior Jesus so they can see that He walks with them every day. We help them in our outreach centers to not only know Jesus but come into a fellowship relationship with other Christians so they can be supported, so they have people to turn to when they need help. You know, that’s really what God wants to give to you and me — a community of believers for support and help, and a different perspective on our world so that when things aren’t changed from our expectations, we can change the expectations. With faith, we walk together with Jesus into that new world which He then provides.
One thought before we move on — expectations. Everyone kind of looks to Christmas, and peace on earth, and expects evil to go away. Wouldn’t that be nice? It would be nice, and it will happen, but Jesus didn’t do it the first time He came because if He was to take evil away, God would have put an end to the world right after the first sin. Because evil cuts through the heart of every single individual, it’s not something He can take a few evil people and quarantine them in one spot to leave us free. Evil is part of each one of us. We call that sin. So instead of coming to do away with evil, Jesus came to bring a fresh beginning.
That beginning is the relationship with our God. When He comes the second time — and, yes, we can expect Him to come again — that’s when evil will be done away with. All other tragedies and hardships that go on will be done away with, and things will be made new.
That’s what some of the other readings for today speak about, as in Isaiah, or in other readings that speak about the new Heaven. When Jesus comes again the tears will be wiped away and we’ll have rest and peace and joy, no more sadness and sorrow. But until then, we celebrate each day.
We celebrate Christmas. We celebrate the fact that God came into our world to start a relationship with us through His Son Jesus and what He did on the cross. By leaving the tomb empty, our expectations don’t have to be empty. We can expect God to be with us and walk with us and help us each and every day through the ups and downs. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for December 16. 2001
ANNOUNCER: We’re here in the studio with Pastor Dave Andrus. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor Andrus, you spoke about your experiences with the church. I’d like to hear a little bit about the work you’re doing now in order to make the blind person’s contact with the church a little better than you had. First, what is your title or position with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod?
ANDRUS: My title is Mission Facilitator for New Blind Missions. Some people call me the Director of Blind Missions or Counselor. It’s changed over the years. Essentially my work, though, is to help share Jesus with the blind and visually impaired, not just in our denomination but with anyone who is blind and visually impaired, because most have no connection with a church at all.
ANNOUNCER: Now you said “New Blind Missions.” Does that mean you are opening new outreach centers?
ANDRUS: Yes. We have found in the past couple of years that over 95 percent of blind people are not connected with a church. So what the outreach centers are and what we are developing on a regular basis is a caring community. Usually it takes place on a Saturday night or a Tuesday night depending on that community, where a blind leader we’ve found gives some training and helps to invite other blind people to come. It’s advertised as a free meal to the blind, and we’ll talk about God and spiritual stuff. We come at it very soft at first simply because most blind people have had such bad experiences. When they realize these people care, are not going to hit them over the head or say God is angry at them, but God actually cares, they become more interested. Within these communities, we then work at helping meet basic human needs, help with learning how to read Braille or use a computer, as many visually impaired people don’t know how to do either of those things. Whatever other needs they may have, we try to help them. In this way, we show God loves them as well as tell them God loves them.
ANNOUNCER: How many of these centers are currently in operation?
ANDRUS: We have 12 right now, scattered all over the United States, and we’re working with over 30 more sites during this next year.
ANNOUNCER: Who runs these centers?
ANDRUS: It really is a combination of the church, sighted volunteers, that blind leader, and then Blind Missions. It’s a cooperative effort.
ANNOUNCER: As you meet people at these outreach centers, do you find their previous experience of the church has been different from the one you had?
ANDRUS: No, it’s almost identical to the “t”. And that’s why most blind people just “cop out” and stay away from a church environment. They say, “Christianity is for the sighted, not for me.” Yet, they still have the burning in their heart for God.
ANNOUNCER: Pastor Andrus, is this a problem of relationships or of doctrine?
ANDRUS: It is really a mix of both. Doctrine can enter in as people try to force God upon people to heal them or give them sight. If not, then they question, “Well, what’s wrong with you?” But it is also a relationship issue where they either are over-protective or try to do too much for a person or do the wrong things. We work with both sides to help them realize that God accepts these people as they are. By and large, blind people are accepting. This is the way life is right now. “Can’t you accept me this way?” they ask. Then we try to help the sighted people understand what that means, and how to act. Usually, it’s just be a friend and accept them; talk with them as you would anybody else.
ANNOUNCER: We’ve been talking with Pastor David Andrus, Director of Blind Missions for The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. If you are interested in learning more about this ministry or perhaps helping out in some way, you can reach Pastor Andrus by calling us at our toll-free number 1-800-876-9880.