The Right Connections

"Hey,I know a guy. Somebody knows somebody who might know how to help you meet the somebodies who can help..."

We've been through this circus with our kids over and over again.  Make calls, do research, eat McDonalds six nights a week in a van, to get to a better team, to get to a better team, to get in front of better coaches, to get to the better school. This craziness begins in preschool.
Athletics is just one example of the rat race of making "connections"... perhaps you know a guy who may be able to make parking tickets disappear for example?!
Calling in a little favor is hard to resist...when you have connections.
John the Baptist was a character with connections.
Not only was he the cousin of the Messiah, but he was given the privilege of baptizing Jesus.  John was an eye witness to the dove that descended on Jesus and an ear witness to the voice that came from Heaven speaking divine approval. 
If I were to live an isolated life in the desert, tanning hides for my wardrobe, enduring beestings to secure my nourishment, and spending my days introducing people to someone they'd leave me for...I think I would be expecting to call in a few favors and retire well!
But this is not the kind of relationship John had with Jesus. Whatever expectations He had of what Jesus would or should do for him are simply stated in John 3:30,
"He must increase, but I must decrease." 
I'm not sure that John pictured his decrease to the extent of being imprisoned and beheaded. John had offended Herod by disagreeing with his "life choices", now he sat behind bars, awaiting his fate and hearing stories of his cousin, The Messiah, rescuing all sorts of strangers. How could he not wonder if he'd been mistaken about Jesus after all?
John's friends came to Jesus on John's behalf:

“Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?” Matthew 11:3

Can't you feel John's confusion? 
"Jesus, if you're who I thought you were, why am I sitting here? Why am I not reaping the rewards of working for you and knowing you personally?!"

Jesus sends word back to John, "Absolutely! I'm performing all kinds of miracles! The blind see and the lame walk. I even raise people from the dead! I'm spreading the good news that God is rescuing His people! But John, I'm not rescuing you from prison and I'm not rescuing you from your grotesque fate. Please, don't be offended." (paraphrase of Mt. 11:4-6)

Can't you imagine John's offense?
John's question still hangs in the air in 2017.
Jesus, are You who we thought You were or are we still waiting...for someone else to rescue us?"
I've never faced torture or deprivation as many around the world do, but I have had expectations and I have been offended.
This whole thing about "decreasing";  
decreasing my influence, my possessions, my rewards, my goals, my reputation...
well most of the time, I'd rather not.
After all, Jesus is my friend. I've been getting to know Him a long time. I do stuff for Him and I don't do stuff...for Him! I don't ask much either, not really. So, the least He could do is...

but sometimes, He doesn't. 

How could He treat His friends this way? 
I think there's a clue in Matthew 11:12. After Jesus honors John the Baptist He says this:
" From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence..."

John preached the Kingdom of Heaven at hand...
peace, justice, hope, joy
is here? 
Well, not by an immediate swift sweep of force. Instead, God's kingdom comes through individual hearts yielded to His love. Hearts that say: "Your way, not mine", one battle at a time.

"Our mission in His Kingdom is that His reign is "brought to bear where destructive powers have held sway. These powers will not give up without a fight. The fight itself and incurred suffering are not incidental but somehow the means by which Jesus' victory is applied.
One of the dangers of saying too easily 'the Messiah died for my sins' is to imagine that hereafter there will be no more dying to do, no more suffering to undergo."
-paraphrased from The Day the Revolution Began, NT Wright

Jesus did not spare John pain, He spared Himself no pain, and we ourselves will not be spared all pain...
We are at war. We feel the violence of the fight. 
But we know somebody who knows somebody...
a friend in high places,
who's called in a favor on our behalf.

"What shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all- how will he not also give us all things?
...in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:31-32,37