The appeal of the gospel
John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”1
Some people in this world are looking for someone. They are looking for the one who made them, who explains them, and who gives their very existence meaning. So long as they go without this one, they long. They search. They wait.
Faithful Jews in 1st century Judea were waiting for a promised Messiah – a man who would deliver them. They set their hopes on such a man. They did not ask whether there is a God, or whether he would send the Messiah. They asked when God would send him, and wondered who he might prove to be. They understood themselves as God's own people, and put their trust in his promises as recorded in their sacred texts. The Redeemer will come to Zion, Isaiah had told them, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins.2
Yes, repentance of sin was a part of it: a turning away from wrongdoing. The Jews lived by a law handed down from God himself, but they struggled to keep it. It was all too easy to fall short of God’s righteous requirements, and this was all the more reason to long for the Messiah. He would redeem the repentant, and cover over their sin.
When Jesus began his earthly ministry, his cousin John heard the news. John was a prophet himself, a baptizer. He invited sinners to repent, and come be immersed in cool water to demonstrate their repentance. At the news of Jesus’ teachings and miracles, John sent his disciples to ask, Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?3
John drew his conclusions about Jesus, and was not ashamed to share them. He saw him and exclaimed, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!4 Jesus, John had concluded, was the one. The one John had been waiting for, and faithful Israel along with him. John regarded Jesus as the Messiah, the one who was to come, and he could sensibly do so because he had been watching and waiting for that man.
Some Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah. They called him a worker of evil and a blasphemer. Others accepted and followed him. But none foresaw what was soon to come. He would redeem them not by might, but in weakness. He had come not to conquer, but to die. With his death on a Roman cross – the awful, shameful death of slaves and criminals – the hopes of those who loved Jesus were dashed. Those who hated him were pleased: The blasphemer had been silenced. But on the third day past Calvary, all of that changed.
On that day, some who loved Jesus searched for him among the dead, but they could not find him. How familiar it must have felt to those who had been waiting – had been searching – for so long. They were provided an explanation that at first puzzled, but would later comfort them: He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.5
This was the message the apostles would proclaim. Christ had died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried. And in accordance with the Scriptures, he was raised on the third day.6 He was the Messiah – the one for whom they had waited.
They found that even among the Gentiles, many had been waiting. They too had struggled with the shameful weight of sin, and had longed to repent and be restored to right fellowship with their Maker. As things turned out, their Maker wanted that as well. And so the gospel message of a Jewish redeemer has transformed our world.
We who have turned to Christ have not done so because he worked wonders. It is not even – to the extent that it was a wonder – because he rose from the dead. We have turned to him because we are among those who have waited for him. His wisdom, his wonders, and his resurrection have reassured us that our wait is over. From these we find a confidence that Jesus is the Christ, the very one for whom we have longed. We rejoice in the knowledge that he was delivered over to death for our sins, and was raised to life for our justification. 7
For some, this message has no appeal. They will say there is no God and no sin. That there is no Jesus, cross or resurrection. They will say there is no “evidence” for any of it. But that is all because at the start, they have felt no need of it. When they hear the law and the prophets, their hearts do not burn with shame. They have not longed to know their Maker. They have not been waiting. They reject that one who would save them not for lack of evidence, but for lack of interest. Of these, Christ has rightly said, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. 8
If you are among those who have received him, I speak of what you already know. If you are among those who have waited, you need wait no more. Our redeemer has come, and he is Jesus. Only come to him, and he will receive you.9