Looking into the Lectionary
Third Sunday of Advent
December 14, 2025
Matthew 11:2-11
December is a tough month for me – much too dark and too cold. Loneliness is magnified and sorrow seems deeper during the winter for the people I serve. Someone I love was diagnosed with yet another cancer. There are families in my wealthy suburb who don’t have enough to eat. Our nation seems more divided than ever and the world feels out of control. I remember the curse the White Witch put on Narnia in C. S. Lewis’ classic The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe: Always winter, but never Christmas.
John the Baptist was arrested by King Herod because he was publicly critical of Herod for marrying his brother’s wife. John had already identified Jesus as the Lamb of God, the coming one whose sandals he was unworthy to untie. John had baptized Jesus in the Jordan and seen the heavens opened, the Spirit of God descend as a dove, and the voice of God identify Jesus as “My Son, the one I love.” But now, in prison, John is not so sure. In the dark of loneliness, the prison of Herod’s moral failings, and the anxiety of what awaits him, John wonders if Jesus is really the Messiah. That should comfort all of us. Even John the Baptist, when things got tough and the future looked bleak, had to ask, “Are you the One to come — or is there another?”
If we are serious about faith in Jesus Christ, that is our question too. Is Jesus the real thing? This world seems pretty messed up. Did the Son of God, the Messiah, really come as a baby to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago? If so, what difference does it make? Will Christmas come and bring tidings of comfort and joy? Or will this winter go on forever?
Jesus sent John’s disciples back to him in prison, uncritical of John’s question. But Jesus’ answer was not a clear yes or no. Jesus answered, “Look at what is going on, watch what I am doing and decide for yourself if I’m the One. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” Jesus’ answer echoes what Isaiah saw from long ago and proclaimed would happen when the Messiah came.
How do you answer the question: Is Jesus the One? What evidence have you seen? What have you experienced?
I saw and heard some hard things this December. But I have not given you all the evidence. I also saw and heard some great and wonderful things. Someone walked into my office offering financial help to any family in need in our church. Prayers for healing were answered after months of intercession from our prayer team. Our church family responded overwhelmingly to a call for mac and cheese from our local food pantry. Someone mourning the death of a father was comforted with the hope of the resurrection. A lonely, divorced man found love again with a fantastic Christian woman and married her. A stroke survivor made it to worship last week.
Signs of God at work among us to help and heal, to allow us to see more clearly and hear more accurately, to be cleansed of all that limits us, to take steps forward and be encouraged – these happen every single week. We only have to notice them. And then, just as this description of Messiah is couched in joy in Isaiah’s prophecy, these events result in great joy in our world too.
Not only does joy explode when we witness these things, but joy grows in us as we allow ourselves to be used by Jesus to bring them about. Aren’t our hearts strangely warmed when we buy Christmas presents for children who would otherwise go without? Don’t we want to sing as car after car driving up to the food panty is offered a holiday meal? Isn’t the wilderness glad when carolers visit our homebound members? Don’t sorrow and sighing flee when we forgive our family members and share this holiday?
Jesus is the One to come. We look forward to soon celebrating this truth with joy and being a part of what Jesus is doing in the world now.
Reflection questions on the third Sunday of Advent
- When are you tempted to despair and doubt who Jesus is?
- Where do you see God at work in the world today?
- What is the Spirit calling you to do to bring more comfort and joy into the world in the name of Jesus?
View the corresponding Order of Worship for the third Sunday of Advent
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Each Advent, we are invited to slow down and pay attention — not just to Christmas on the horizon, but to Christ’s presence with us here and now. Draw Near, written by Outlook Editor/Publisher Teri McDowell Ott, is a daily devotional that helps you do just that.
