The coming of Jesus was greeted by a number of contradictory assessments. To some, he was the Son of God; to others, he was a prophet or great teacher; to still others, he was a blasphemer and friend of tax collectors and sinners. Likewise today, the biblical claims about Jesus bring about contradictory responses of belief, unbelief and even apathy, depending on the audience.
The problem then and now lies in the distance between, on the one hand, our human expectations about who God is and how God should operate, and on the other hand, the reality of Jesus Christ and how his life, death and resurrection challenge us to align our expectations with God’s designs.
Mark Twain wrote, “A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes.”1 In a similar vein, Sir John Lubbock observed: “What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”2
Earlier in his Gospel, Matthew records a profound conversation between Jesus and the disciples of John the Baptist.3 John is in prison and will soon lose his head for preaching against King Herod. John asks a surprising question in verse 3, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Isn’t this an amazing question? Of all the people, who have ever lived, surely John the Baptist had to have known the true identity of Jesus! John performed the baptism of Jesus and witnessed the miraculous events of the Holy Spirit’s descent onto Jesus and heard the voice of God identifying Jesus as his beloved Son. Furthermore, John had heard about all of the authoritative teachings and miraculous deeds that Jesus had accomplished up to this point in the story. Yet, it is precisely t
