One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--Ministry YearsSample

Expectations: The One who is greater

Jesus doesn’t always meet our expectations. 

John didn’t expect to die that day in Herod’s prison. Every day he thought Jesus would get him out somehow. Didn’t the prophet Isaiah say the Messiah would open prison doors and set the captives free? But weeks became months, and Jesus didn’t come. And a fear gripped John the Baptist’s heart that he had been wrong. That Jesus wasn’t the One. 

Only the proud would call John out on his doubt—or those who’ve never experienced a desperate prayer gone unanswered. A marriage doesn’t survive. A depression doesn’t lift. A wayward child doesn’t return. A remission doesn’t come. Only those who have tasted that abandonment can sit with John in prison and wonder if Jesus is the Savior after all. 

His whole life, the strong-hearted John knew his mission was to announce the Messiah—the angel Gabriel had told that to his parents. But now the “voice crying in the wilderness,” cried out as an innocent man on death row. Did he get the message wrong? Is Jesus the Lamb of God? 

So, John did the right thing with his doubt, he took it to Jesus Himself. On a day when Jesus stood before the crowds, teaching and healing and changing destinies, John’s disciples interrupted, “John needs to know—are You the One, or do we look for another?” 

Jesus hears their question but doesn’t answer. He just keeps healing broken bodies and hearts. He leaves John’s men waiting and watching. Then after who knows how long, He tells them, “Go tell John what you have seen and heard: . . . about the blind who now see and the paralyzed who now walk, about the broken-hearted who now sing, and the dead who live again.” —all clues from the prophet Isaiah on how to recognize the coming Messiah. 

So as one chapter begins, another ends. John’s life, the bright, hot comet flying across the night sky, burns out in an obscure prison cell at the whim of a foolish girl, her resentful mother, and a wicked, weak king. We don’t even know if John got Jesus’ message. 

But if John, now knowing the bigger story, could be a voice to us again, he would tell every broken-hearted follower of Jesus to keep believing. Even in your doubt. Even in the brunt of life’s bitter blows. What’s ahead far surpasses your greatest expectations. Really.

Because when your expectation is tied to Jesus’ bigger mission, your future reality will be better than anything you’ve hoped or prayed for. Fix your eyes on Jesus and keep on. The joy is still ahead. 

Tomorrow: One on one with Nicodemus