Evangelical Baptist Church

When John stood in Herod’s jail and had some time on his hands, he began to second-guess things. So he sent a couple of his followers to ask the man Jesus from Nazareth: “Are you the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

This question helps us see that the daily activities of Jesus surprised even the purest of hearts and stoutest of souls, those who had been keenly aware of His greatness. But why exactly were people surprised?

There is probably a complex answer to this question, but I’m going to hone in on one side of it: People were surprised at Jesus’ attention to detail. Following I will quote from three Old Testament prophecies that are at least partially fulfilled in the word and ministry of Jesus. I will show that the way in which these prophecies are fulfilled is surprising because of their small beginnings, their lack of pomp, and their mundaneness (I think that’s a word).

1. Ezekiel 36, 37 – Thus says the Lord GOD…I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…And I will put my Spirit within you…And I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live.

Nicodemus, a ruler in the sophisticated political/religious Jewish governance, comes to Jesus at night and acknowledges that God must be sponsoring him. (Where else could he get this kind of power?) But behind this acknowledgement was an unspoken question: Is this the end of the age? (Meaning) Will all the hopes we’ve been taught to hope come into being? (Meaning) Is it time for Israel to trounce all her enemies and her Messiah to become the world’s ruler?

Jesus replies to these unspoken questions and says, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The ruler is not surprised that Jesus here brings up the “kingdom of God,” – that’s where he was going with his initial question. But “born again” throws him for a loop. As does (and here is my point) Jesus’ emphasis on “one.”

Jesus’ response to Nicodemus harkens back to Ezekiel 36 and 37, where clean water is sprinkled on the house of Israel and they are washed from their uncleanness, a renewed spirit is given to them, and thus new life is breathed into them. Nicodemus imagined this as a national event; Jesus demurs, “Unless one is born again…”

2. Isaiah 11 - The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him– the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD– and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears

A woman comes away from a conversation with Jesus most impressed that “[He] told me all I ever did.” She is surprised that the “spirit of wisdom and understanding” given to the Messiah could be useful for more than crafting public policy, but also for piecing through a single tawdry life.

3. Isaiah 49 - This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, 9 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. 10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.

Again, the OT foretold that the reign of the Messiah would be a time when the natural world is restored. Many OT prophets imagined this restoration as a river coursing its way through a desert and then…the desert greens! Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ (Now this he said about the Spirit).” In other words, Jesus says the prophesied restoration of all things begins in the secret place of a person’s heart, as he recognizes his soul thirstiness and comes to Jesus for drink.

John the Baptist (returning to our first paragraph) stumbled at the process. He thought of the restoration in general and cosmic terms, but Jesus set himself to the restorative task one blind eye at a time. John was surprised that there was a small beginning. Seen from this perspective the miracles of Jesus were many times surprisingly anticlimactic.

John was waiting for the Messiah to exert his righteous power in a spectacular display, but Jesus was subduing one life at a time.

Is there a lesson here for us? Probably. A hankering for the spectacular and grandiose is not a first century Temple Judaism problem; it is a human problem; as is being captivated by generalities and broad slogans; as is choosing the abstract concept over the concrete reality.

For example, how many times did Jesus remind us of our duty to love humanity? The answer is, surprisingly, zero. Instead you are to love your neighbor as yourself. You see the difference, right? How many times have you been offended at a warm and fuzzy concept? But how many times have you been irritated by your neighbor?

It is dismayingly easy to discuss the homeless problem (concept) and ignore the needs of the financially pinched and cramped within the assembly (reality). We can strain at wide-spread injustice (concept) and live comfortably with a thousand little lies (reality). We can design global initiatives for the sake of Jesus, but never begin on our street… Ok, you get the picture.

Dwell with humility. Think small, think persons. As my colleague Bill Edmondson reminds me, “They’re people, not contacts.” Have a bent toward action and away from talking. Constantly remind yourself that plans are only that. Begin.