“Who” Makes the Difference
“Are You the One who is coming, or do we look for someone else?” Luke 7:20
Look For – Is Jesus the One? That’s really the central question of every person’s life. Is it really Jesus, or should be look for someone else? But did you notice that this question depends on a basic assumption? It is a question about authority and it assumes that I cannot be my own authority. The question asks, “Who should I follow?” “Who will be my authority in life?” The disciples of John the Baptist recognize that they need a leader, an authority figure, and now that John is gone, they are looking for the new shepherd. We are just like them. We also want someone to follow. Martin Luther or Martin Luther King. Calvin or Kennedy. Guevara, Sosa, Peter or Paul. How do we know which one?
John’s disciples offer us some insight. Every leader we choose to follow has a similar problem – death. Every leader in this world dies. If we put our trust and confidence in human authority figures, the day will come when we will once again ask the question, “Are you the one, or do we have to wait some more?” Jesus is the only everlasting authority. No other leader has ever come back from the grave. With Jesus, the question receives a once-and-for-all time answer.
If we were listening to this conversation, we would have understood the real question. While the verse in Luke uses the Greek word prosdokao (“to expect or to wait for”), John’s disciples didn’t speak Greek. They asked the question in Aramaic. They probably used the word tiqwa (you can see it in Isaiah 40:31, Hosea 2:15 and Proverbs 23:18, translated “hope”). Why that word? Because tiqwa is a powerful expression of expectant waiting found in the later prophets and the Psalms. It is a word of eschatological significance. It is overwhelmingly about God, the final authority and guarantor of hope. Zechariah 9:12 uses the phrase “prisoners of hope.” That’s what these disciples wanted to be. And that’s what we must be. Anyone who puts his hope in an authority less than the risen Christ will be disappointed. When Jesus is my authority, when He is the One, something amazing happens. My hope never goes away. And I am freed from the necessity of finding fulfillment here. Jesus is coming back. He is bringing with Him the fulfillment of all my hope. It is not all up to me. But I do have something to do. It is not that I wait for God to show me what to do but rather that I continue in steadfast faithfulness, doing what I must, while waiting for God to reveal Himself.
My waiting time is not simply filling in the gaps with my own agenda. It is also not passive endurance, doing nothing until the Lord returns. There is a battle plan. It has been revealed to me in the Scripture and the life of the One I follow. So, while I wait, I carry out the plan. I follow the leader. I do what He did. And I hope.
