Scripture: Matt 11:2-6: 2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Expectations. We all have them, even if we don’t recognize them. There are things that we expect every morning when we wake up and leave the house. We expect our alarm to go off. We expect the coffee maker to work and produce that cup of coffee. We expect the car to start, the light to turn green, and for other people to stay in their lanes.
We have expectations in relationships. We expect that others will treat us with kindness and respect. We expect that they will give us the benefit of the doubt. We expect that they will care and help us when we need it. Now if we are honest, we all have expectations when it comes to God as well. We probably wouldn’t share those expectations. In fact, we’d be a little embarrassed if we actually verbalized them.
We expect that God will protect us and our families. We expect that He will display His power and grace to us when we need it. But that’s not it. There are all kinds of other things that deep down, we really expect from God. We expect Him to intervene for us more often. We expect Him to answer our prayers more in line with our plans. And we expect Him to make sense to us.
John the Baptist wasn’t the exception to expectations. He was familiar with the promise of the coming Messiah, and was even told that he would be the forerunner of Him. John had expectations. We don’t know entirely what all of those were. But it’s fair to assume that John expected some pretty great things to come from the Messiah. But as he hears reports, what John the Baptist hears are somewhat ordinary. Not the healings, but the fact that Jesus was among the common people. Not the script that John had imagined or expected.
Is this really what a great Messiah would do? Why would He leave someone such as himself, the forerunner of Him, in prison while He was focused on seemingly less important matters? In other words, “Jesus, why aren’t you doing what I expected? Why doesn’t this look the way I thought it should?”
Jesus doesn’t rebuke John. He doesn’t say, “Stay in jail, you doubt-filled loser.” No, Jesus sends back His patient resurrection pointing evidence.
The blind receive sight. Lame men walk. And the poor have the gospel preached to them. Without saying it, Jesus challenges John’s expectations of Him and gently refocuses them. “Can you see now John? Who else could make the blind see? Who else could make the lame walk? Who else would preach the gospel to the outcasts?”
Jesus is saying to John, “Your expectations are too small. They are too narrow. They are too blinded by your circumstances. I want you to look again. I want to reshape your expectations.”
You and I have expectations of Jesus. It’s never that Jesus fails us, but it’s also true that He doesn’t meet our every expectation. He’s not afraid to leave us hanging. It doesn’t bother Him to leave us in our prison while He focuses on something else that is seemingly less important. Oh, this hurts. It hurts us when Jesus doesn’t do what we expect, when we expect. It can even tempt us to ask the question in our minds, “Is He really the one?”
Jesus isn’t the kind of Savior that we create. Jesus is the Savior we need. And the Savior we need is in the business of not meeting our every expectation. See, He wants us to see those wrong expectations that emerge when things don’t go our way. But not to leave us there. He exposes them to save us.
The resurrection is the ultimate proof that God’s plan is better than our expectations. No disciple expected Jesus to rise that Sunday morning. No one imagined that the darkest moment would become the doorway to eternal hope. And yet, that is exactly what God did.
So, when Jesus doesn’t meet your expectations, it’s not failure. It’s an invitation. He is calling you to trust Him beyond what you can see, to let Him reshape your expectations around His character, His mission, and His resurrection power.
Where might Jesus be gently challenging your expectations today?
Pastor Josh
Where have your expectations of Jesus been shaped more by your desires or circumstances than by His character and mission, and how has that shaped your experience of doubt?
When Jesus doesn’t meet your expectations—when He leaves you “in the prison” longer than you hoped—what emotions or questions rise to the surface, and what do those reactions reveal about what you truly expect from Him?
How does Jesus’ response to John—pointing to His works rather than explaining Himself—help you reinterpret your own disappointments in light of His identity, His mission, and His resurrection?
Identify one expectation you’ve been carrying toward Jesus—something you assumed He would fix, prevent, or provide by now. Write it down honestly. Then write beside it what Jesus has revealed about Himself in Scripture (especially through His resurrection) that challenges or reshapes that expectation. Pray that the Spirit would help you trust the Savior you have, not the one you imagined.
