What Are You Waiting For?
December 7, 2025. Matthew 3:1-11 Rev. Edward Skutshek
“What are you waiting for?” Some might say: “I am waiting for a big break in my career that will take me to the next level. Other answers could include: “I am waiting to finish my degree, diploma or certificate so that I can launch a new career, or “ I am waiting to retire so I can have time for myself.” The hopes and dreams we wait for are endless. “What are you waiting for?”
Hope is inspired by a promise. To hope is to want that promise to be fulfilled, and to believe with some level of confidence that the promise will be fulfilled.
This question looms very large during the season of Advent. The scriptures that we listen to during this season speak of waiting. Waiting for a “Messiah,” a man anointed by God, a saviour, a redeemer and a king.
This waiting for the Messiah was inspired by the Word of God, by promises God made through the prophets of Israel. Speaking through the Prophet Isaiah God said: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11) The faithful of Israel believed that God would always fulfill the promises that came from His mouth and recorded in His word.
The belief in the coming of the Messiah was passed down orally from generation to generation from the time of Adam and Eve when God promised that a descendant of Eve would crush the Devil and restore paradise. From the time of Moses, the promise of the deliverer was declared in writing and expanded. If you asked any of the people who stood before John in today’s Gospel lesson what they were waiting for, each one of them should have immediately answered without hesitation or equivocation: “I am waiting for the Messiah to come.” Each generation of God’s people hoped that the Word of God concerning the Messiah would be fulfilled and take on flesh in their lifetime.
Today Luke quotes from chapter 40 of the Book of the Isaiah. God promised that He would come to rescue His people. In this chapter human beings are described as mortal and perishable, just like grass. These verses declared that human beings are fixated on the worship of idols. God described the nations that surrounded, attacked and took Israel into captivity, and their leaders, as just drops in the bucket and of no lasting consequence. God promised that he would come in power, but he would also be gentle with his Chosen ones. God promised to lead them and tend them like a shepherd, holding the young and the helpless especially close to him. In the Messiah all flesh would see God’s salvation. God promised that a herald would precede the coming of the Messiah and his salvation.
The first audience for God’s words spoken through Isaiah and recorded in Chapter 40 were the Israelites captive in the land of Babylon. King Cyrus would eventually free them and they would return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and its crown jewel, God’s Temple. Worship would be restored within the Temple. The people knew that the leaders that walked out of Babylon with them and rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple were not a fulfillment of Isaiah 40. Therefore, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah continued to be read out loud and studied as they waited afresh and anew for the supernatural highway to be built, the herald to cry out and the Messiah to come.
Our lesson opens with a man named John. He is standing on the banks of the Jordan River. He represented the fulfillment of promises made by God. Quoting Isaiah 40:3, Matthew declared of John: “This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
God used John’s voice, the content of his message and even his clothing and diet to inspire faith and trust in Israelites, the Chosen People, that this man was a prophet who spoke for God.
John was no ordinary man. His birth and his mission were announced by angels and men. Before he was born, the Angel Gabriel had announced John’s coming and his mission to Zachariah, John’s father. “He (John) will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:16-17) Zecharia was on old man of the priestly class. He was married to Elizabeth who was also old and had been barren all her life. Soon thereafter Elizabeth conceived and gave birth to a miracle baby, a child of God’s promise.
The infant was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth and given the name John. Speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Zachariah declared of John: “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.” (Luke 1:76-77)
Our Gospel lesson testifies that everything that the Angel Gabriel and Zachariah had prophesied about John came to pass. Even John’s clothing testified to the fulfillment of God’s promises. 2 King’s 1:8 described Elijah as a man who wore a rough hairy coat kept on him by a distinctive leather belt.
Every pious Israelite knew this. John’s robe and belt were an outward sign of his prophetic office and the fulfillment of the angel’s words that John came in the spirit and power of Elijah. God had often fed Elijah miraculously. God used ravens to feed Elijah bread as he waited in the desert. Instead of bread delivered by ravens, God fed John with locusts and honey from hives found in the wilderness.
God spoke to the people through the place John preached and baptized, the banks of the Jordan River. This was no ordinary river; it loomed large in the minds of the faithful of Israel. It was steeped in the history of Israel. Joshua had led the people across the Jordan 1,500 years before, when the Promised Land was first conquered. When the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant touched the water of the Jordan, it piled up and the people were able to cross over on dry land. The river signified crossing over to the Promised Land. The river pointed to new beginnings: the forgiveness of sin and the coming of the Messiah who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and lead them into the future.
God’s appointed herald was to cry out for the construction of a road that would carry God to them. Mountains and hills were to jump into valleys and otherwise level out so that a straight road could be built. Impossible! However, these physical barriers pointed to barriers that exist between God and humanity: our sin, our rebellion, our idolatry and our mortality (death). No matter how we try, no matter how positively we think and act, we can’t remove these obstacles.
So, God must build that road and come to us.
People flocked to John hoping that he would point them to the Messiah and prepare them for his arrival. John did not disappoint them. He gladly helped them. He announced that the Messiah was indeed coming and that their preparation for him required contrition, confession of their sins and a sincere desire to turn from sin toward God, to repent. He called repentant people to produce fruit that was in keeping with their repentance. In Luke’s Gospel the people asked: “What should we do?” John answered: “Be generous and gracious, if you have an extra coat give it to the one who has none. Tax collectors and soldiers were told to be honest and fair in their duties and be satisfied with their rightful pay. As a sign and seal of their repentance, he baptized them with water and washed their sins away.
Can you see it! God took away their sins and made a straight the path to their hearts, minds and souls through the repentance that John preached. The people who had repented were now ready to receive the Messiah and his message.
Whenever God does something wonderful and gracious, the forces of evil inevitably come and lurk around a corner, waiting to act. Our Gospel lesson is proof positive of this principle. John was preaching and baptizing and making straight paths for the Messiah. How wonderful! However, John’s message and news of his baptism had reached the ears of ruling Jewish authorities and drew them to John. They mingled with the crowd and looked as though they might have come with good intentions. Curiosity and fascination drove them. Most importantly, their leaders could not remain indifferent to this movement. John was attracting huge numbers. They came to see this man and hear his message.
The Sadducees and the Pharisees came to the Jordan with unclean hands and hearts. John knew their motives. John called them out. "Brood of vipers" is the epithet John applied to them. He called them offspring of serpents, imbued with the nature of the slithering, stinging reptiles. John branded these men as both deceitful and malicious. They bit other people and infected them with their own disease. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and openly denounced the idea of life after death. The Pharisees were all about following rules. Pharisees demanded that their disciples obey their codes of conduct they concocted. They declared the rules and regulations they enacted were equal to the ones given by Moses. They heaped ritualistic obligations on people that even they didn’t keep. The Pharisees and Sadducees would oppose God, and would rise up and kill the Messiah. They cared nothing for the souls of those God had entrusted to them. Those who believed their lies would succumb to their fate.
John called them out. He chided them. “Did you come to escape the judgment and the punishment?” He declared that unless they repented, they will be lost forever. The Messiah who had come to save, had also come to judge. He warned them not to rely on their pedigree to save them, that they could trace themselves back to Abraham, the great father of their faith. What made Abraham the father of their faith was what he believed, that the Messiah would be his descendant and would be a blessing on all the tribes of the earth. (Genesis 22:18) The promised seed of Abraham was among them and they refused to see.
John had declared the law to them. What God wanted from them was repentance, and trust and belief in the immanent coming of the Messiah and that John was the Messiah’s herald. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were in grave danger of committing blasphemy by questioning and even denying John’s identity and authority and his message that the Son of God was here.
John spoke the Gospel to them. He announced the good news that not only were their sins were forgiven by God, but that the “Kingdom of God was near them.” A kingdom exists because a king is present and is ruling. John announced the divine king was present in the form of a human being who was real and present. He had come to save, rescue and redeem them. John declared that he was not worthy of removing the Messiah’s shoes and washing his feet. The Messiah had come with a mission, to baptize, that is to pour out the Holy Spirit on human beings. Only God pours out the Holy Spirit. This man had to be the Son of God if he was going to pour out the Holy Spirit.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God’s people was an ancient hope. It was first expressed by the great prophet Moses. The people had become particularly rebellious. “We want meat! We are sick of Manna!” they chanted. Mose grew exasperated. God directed Moses to bring 70 elders to Him and he would put some of the Spirit He had put on Moses on them. God did just that and 68 of the elders prophesied to the people assembled by the power of the Holy Spirit. Two of them prophesied in another place. Joshua shouted to Moses: “Stop them!” Moses’ response: “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29) John the Baptist announced that what Moses hoped for would become a reality. The Messiah was in the wings. He was ready to come out on center stage and to baptize them with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ fulfillment of John’s promises looms very large during the season of Advent. Like John, the Messiah’s preaching began with these words: “The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the Good News!” Jesus was baptized with John’s baptism, making it his own. He sanctified the waters of baptism by and through his holy and innocent suffering and death for our sins. By his glorious resurrection, he opened for us the gates of heaven. On the first Easter Sunday, Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples. He gave them a mission. As God the Father had sent Jesus out, he was sending them out into the world to do as he had done. With respect to the forgiveness of sin, he instructed them: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:21-23)
On the first Pentecost Sunday Peter declared: ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” – Acts 2:38. What Moses’ hoped is a reality for each believer. We received the promised Holy Spirit.
Scriptures teach us that forty days after the resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven and promised to come back. (Acts 1:1-10). He promised that when he comes back he will judge all mankind and make all things new. And they waited. And we still wait for him to come.
Waiting for the Old Testaments saints was never passive. God called them to cherish, study and obey His word. The Lord commanded them: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 11:18-20) God said broadcast the words that came from my lips, they will never return empty to me, they will accomplish my purpose for them: to create faith in them; faith that God’s promises will become a physical reality.
What are we waiting for? We wait for Jesus’ promises to come true. We wait for the vision Jesus gave the Apostle John’s to come true. For the Messiah to come in glory, defeat Satan and all evil forever. To consign Satan to Hell along with all those who the ancient serpent has bitten. John declares: “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)
Jesus’ church is not to wait for his coming passively. We are still called to cherish, study and obey God’s word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus calls us to believe that he is constantly coming to us. Whenever we gather in his name, he is present with us (Matthew 18:20), and will be with us until he comes again to judge. (Matthew 28:20). To believe when we were baptized, we died with him and our sins are forgiven. And if we have died with him in a death like his we will rise with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-4). To believe when Jesus consecrates the bread and wine of Holy Communion with the words the came from his lips, the bread and wine are the conduits through which Jesus comes to us and forgives our sins.
Jesus calls us to believe that he has given every member of his church a prophetic office. Jesus calls us to believe that when we preach the Gospel, these words will never return to him empty. The Gospel will cause true repentance and faith to blossom in someone. The mountains and ravines that kept a sinner from God will be removed by the blood of Jesus. God will build a royal highway into the heart and mind of a sinner and snatch them from the grips of the sin, death, judgment and the Devil. Jesus calls some to preach the Gospel in public places, from pulpits in churches, on street corners, in courtrooms, in prisons and in stadiums. Just like John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul. However, Jesus has called even more to share their faith in more private places.
When we were baptized a candle was lit and these words were spoken over us. “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Jesus has called us to be his disciples and bearers of his light. He promises that the light of faith and hope will shine from us. He has called us to share the Gospel in response to someone’s question. “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15) Do you believe this?
Jesus has given us his light for a purpose. There is no end to the darkness and there is no end to the people sitting in darkness.
What are we waiting for?
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