What is Success? Matthew 11 & 12

Continuing our search for Jesus in Real Lives

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Transcript

Sermons from 

Mission Hills UCC

San Diego, California

Rev. Dr. David Bahr

david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org

May 14, 2026

“What is Success?”

Matthew 11: 1-3 – Common English Bible

 When Jesus finished teaching his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

2 Now when John heard in prison about the things the Christ was doing, he sent word by his disciples to Jesus, asking, 3 “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

This summer we're walking through the Gospel of Matthew chapter by chapter, looking for Jesus in real lives.  We’re now in chapter 11 and 12.

We started in chapter 8 when Jesus came down the mountain after preaching about loving enemies and blessing peacemakers. He immediately put those teachings into practice – including, showing compassion toward a Roman centurion.  Even him?  

In chapter 9, Jesus continues to embrace "the wrong people."  Tax collectors.  Outcasts.  The bleeding woman.  To his religious critics, Jesus had a provocative response:  "I'm after mercy, not religion."

Last time in chapter 10, Jesus sent his followers out to do the same thing.  To heal.  Cross boundaries.  Carry peace into fearful places.  He sends them out with power and authority, but Matthew never tells us how it goes.  It’s a contrast to the other gospels that report how the disciples return from their mission.  

Like, in Luke, the disciples come back almost giddy. "Lord, even the demons obey us!"  They excitedly tell stories, one after another, of people healed, lives changed.  They see with their own eyes the kingdom of God beginning to take shape.  

Mark adds that they were indeed excited, but also exhausted.  Exhausted because they didn't even have time to eat.  Jesus looked at them with compassion and said, "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest for a while."

Matthew chapter 10 ends without a report of either excitement or exhaustion and then chapter 11 opens with John the Baptist sitting in prison.  In these opening scenes, he’s discouraged, asking, "Are you really the one, or should we be looking for someone else?"

Sounds like the life of faith.  At various times excitement. Exhaustion.  And doubt.

Because some days we see lives changed and feel hopeful.  

Some days nothing changes and we are worn out by the work of holding on to hope.  

And some days we wonder whether any of it matters at all.

Many of us have experienced something like this.  Does this sound familiar?  We try to love our neighbors.  We work for a better world.  We pray.  We serve.  And then we look around and realize the powerful are still powerful.  The violent are still violent.  And people still suffer.

This may have been what confused John.  He had risked everything to prepare the way of the Lord.  He announced that God's kingdom was near.  And now he sits in prison while Herod remains on the throne?  No wonder he asks, did I place my hopes in the wrong person?

But maybe the question is:  What was he expecting to change?  What did John think the kingdom of heaven on earth was supposed to look like?  What would “success” look like?

Many people imagine success in terms of victory or miracles.  Or maybe on a small but no less important scale:  simply our problems are solved.  

Ai-jen Poo invites us to measure success differently.  By caregiving.  I just learned about her and she has a very interesting story.

Ai-jen was raised by a Taiwanese immigrant family in Pittsburgh.  By her family, I mean she wasn’t only raised by her busy parents.  Her mother was an oncologist and her father a molecular biologist.  And so, it was her grandfather Liang Shao Pu who made her lunches and picked her up after school every day.  He was a teacher of tai chi and a die-hard Wheel of Fortune fan.  And he could send Ai-jen and her sister into spasms of giggles.

When Liang’s wife suffered a series of strokes, he became her full-time caregiver.  He was all in.  He cooked every meal, cared for every need, and kept her comfortable in every possible way until the very end.  

But at age 93, when he too suffered a series of strokes, despite the family's desire to keep him at home, his needs eventually exceeded what they could provide. They couldn’t find a caregiver to stay with him, so he went to live in a nursing home.  

Ai-jen felt like she was watching her grandfather lose the dignity and care he deserved.  Staff overworked and underpaid.  And it changed the course of her life.  She went on to co-found the National Domestic Workers Alliance, advocating for family caregivers, care aides, and others whose labor often goes unseen.  She took something society treats as invisible and made it visible.  

She has since been recognized as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World and one of Fortune Magazine's World's 50 Greatest Leaders.

Why?  Because she organized hundreds of thousands of domestic workers.  She helped them win labor protections from which they were previously excluded.  She elevated caregiving from a private family concern into a national conversation about aging, home care, paid family leave, and how we support both caregivers and those who depend on them.

Of course, the reality is that aging parents will still grow older.  A person with dementia may not get better.  A family still faces grief.  But, she challenges us to rethink what success looks like.  

Pope Leo told the Spanish Parliament just this week, "The moral greatness of a nation is shown, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect, and love those whose lives are most fragile." That’s how you measure success. 

Or, you may have heard it said:  “The measure of strength is not who you can beat down.  The measure of strength is who you can lift up.”  That’s not in scripture, but it sounds a lot like Jesus

But Leo also said:  The measure of our humanity is “our ability to let ourselves be loved and, when necessary, even be helped." 

When John the Baptist asks, "Are you really the one," he’s really asking, what proof do you have?  Jesus points to people as the evidence.  "Go tell John what you hear and see..."

• People who had been pushed to the edges have been brought back into community.
• Barriers have been removed from people who had been dismissed or overlooked.

Jesus said, tell John the kingdom is already appearing wherever people’s minds, bodies, and spirits are being healed from isolation.  And reminded that they are loved and belong.

That’s John sitting in prison.  That’s the disciples who are exhausted.  That’s the people in our lives we love the most.  And Jesus' answer is not to "try harder."  In chapter 11, it’s “Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.”

So, remember that back in chapter 9, Jesus kept embracing "the wrong people" and he told his critics: "I'm after mercy, not religion."

Here, Jesus laments that those who witness healing and mercy yet remain unchanged.  He compares them to children who refuse to dance at a wedding or refuse to mourn at a funeral.  Nothing pleases them.  Nothing moves them. 

And now in chapter 12, his critics are back complaining.  This time because his hungry disciples are picking grain to eat.  On the sabbath.  Jesus repeats again, “I’m after mercy, not religion.”  And then proves it.  

There was a man at the synagogue with a withered hand.  Jesus had compassion and restored him.  On the sabbath.  To their grumbling and complaints, he asks, if your donkey falls into a pit on the sabbath, won’t you help it get out?  And if “yes of course,” then why not this man?  His critics were dumbfounded and walked away determined to find a way to destroy him.  

Jesus turned to the crowd, “either consider a tree good and its fruit good, or consider the tree rotten and its fruit rotten.  All I know is a tree is known by its fruit.”  

Which brings us back to John's question. "Are you really the one, or should we be looking for someone else?"  Why did he ask this?  Maybe because John expected the kingdom to arrive by overthrowing Herod.  But, tell John the kingdom already appears wherever people are cared for, loved, and accompanied.   

Perhaps here's the lesson for both John and us.

• Sometimes we're called to notice people others overlook.
 • Sometimes we're called to accompany people through pain we cannot fix.
 • Sometimes we're the ones who need to admit we can't carry everything ourselves.
 • And sometimes we're the ones who most need to hear Jesus say, "Come to me and rest."

And so, what is this about?

Not every enemy defeated.
 Not every problem solved.
 Not every prayer answered exactly as we hoped.

People cared for.
 People welcomed.
 And reminded they are not alone.

To Jesus, now that's success.