Moments Of Doubt

Matthew 11:2-11

As we finish the 3rd week of Advent, our Gospel reading from the Lectionary takes us again to the life of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the one who was to prepare the way for His coming.  Most of us are familiar with John’s ministry of baptism and fiery preaching of repentance. Today’s passage takes us to another chapter in John the Baptist’s life, shortly before his death.

As our passage opens John had been put in prison by King Herod Antipas.  This King Herod was one of several sons of King Herod the Great, the monarch who had met the Magi and ordered the killing of the baby boys in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth.  Herod Antipas ruled the areas of Galilee and Perea, the area on the eastern side of the Jordan River. Herod had divorced his wife Phasaelis and then took Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, to be his own wife.  John the Baptist had spoken out and preached against this sin, angering both Herod and his new wife, and causing the king to arrest and imprison him. That is where we find John the Baptist as our passage today begins.

John the Baptist had spent his whole life following and serving the Lord, and the last several years in the ministry of preaching and baptising people who had come to the Lord in repentance.  Now he was sitting in a prison, possibly a dark, damp place, probably chained to the wall. John was human, and he was becoming depressed and discouraged. He knew that he could be executed at any moment, even without any sort of a trial.  He started to have doubts. John had felt the Holy Spirit lead him to point to Jesus as the promised Messiah. If Jesus was the Messiah, and since John had faithfully followed God all his life, how could this have happened to him? He wondered if he had been mistaken, and Jesus wasn’t the Messiah.  John sent a couple of his disciples to Jesus with a message asking just that (vs. 2-3).

In response, Jesus told the two messengers from John to look around and report back to him what they had seen Jesus doing and what they had heard him preaching (vs. 4-6).  The miracles they were seeing performed, and the Gospel message they heard, would be their answer to John’s doubts.

Jesus did not chastise John for having his doubts.  Instead, Jesus holds John up as a great man of God, one of the greatest prophets of the Lord (vs. 7-10).  John the Baptist truly fulfilled his God-given purpose. He had actually participated in the fulfillment of what the earlier prophets had prophesied.  However, believers today have a greater spiritual heritage, because we can know Jesus and His finished work on the cross (vs. 11). Believers today, because of the cross, can know what John the Baptist only foresaw in shadowy form.

Many of us have gone through some really rough and difficult circumstances in our life, and some might have doubts because of this.  Some may doubt whether God loves them, whether He forgives them, whether they truly are saved or not. Just like John the Baptist may have felt, if God really loved me, why would all these terrible things happen?  John did not have the benefits of any of the New Testament Scriptures, nor did the Holy Spirit permanently indwell him, as that did not happen for any believer until after the Day of Pentecost. We, though, do have the complete canon of Scripture, and the permanently indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

When circumstances in our lives cause us to have any doubts, we need to look to the Scriptures for answers.  John did the best that he could, by sending to Jesus to answer his questions. We should look to God’s Word, and come to Him in prayer for answers, reassurance, and the comfort and consolation of the Holy Spirit.  Don’t turn away from Jesus, turn to Him.