Stuart Gardiner
14 December 2025
Father Stuart Gardiner reflects on Matthew 11:2–11 in the third of his five Advent and Christmas meditations.
John the Baptist is in prison.
Nothing has gone as he expected.
He preached judgment and power.
He thought God would act fast and loud.
Instead, Jesus is healing, forgiving, and mixing with outcasts.
John sends a message: “Are you the one, or should we wait for another?”
That’s not unbelief; it’s disappointment.
He expected fire and got mercy.
Disappointment can blind us to what’s real.
We need to look again.
Truth doesn’t always arrive in the shape we were waiting for.
Jesus doesn’t argue.
He says, “Tell John what you see — the blind see, the lame walk, the poor hear good news.”
He’s saying: “Judge by what’s happening, not by what you imagined.”
We know how that feels.
We hope, we work, we pray, and life doesn’t co-operate.
The door we thought would open stays shut.
We start to think hope was a mistake.
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But maybe the problem isn’t hope.
Maybe it’s how we measure it.
The signs of life are sometimes smaller and slower than we expected.
They’re still real.
Faith isn’t certainty.
It’s the courage to look again.
It’s trusting that something good is still at work, even when we don’t see it yet.
Jesus praises John after that.
He calls him more than a prophet.
It means we can question and still be faithful.
Doubt isn’t failure.
It’s evidence that we’re awake.
When life disappoints us, let’s not shut down.
Let’s pay attention to what’s actually happening.
Healing and kindness are still breaking through the cracks.
They just don’t shout.
John expected God to come with thunder.
God came with compassion.
That’s still the pattern.
Real change starts quietly.
Real truth often looks ordinary.
So, when our story doesn’t match our plan, let’s pause.
Let’s look again.
We might already be standing in the middle of the very thing we’ve been waiting for.
Reverend Stuart Gardiner recently retired from the Anglican Parish of Westmeadows/Bulla.
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