I heard that a college student came to his religion professor and said, "You know I used to be OK with that 'What Would Jesus Do?' thing until I started reading the Bible. Sometimes Jesus did some strange things."

Sometimes he did. And because of that John asks and the disciples ask and we ask: Are you the one to come or are we to wait for another? Each of us has expectations about the kind of Messiah we want: Some of us want a first-century Jonathan Edwards - breathing fire and brimstone, scaring the heaven into people. Or maybe we want an ideological Jesus who will champion our favorite cause, who will assure us that God is for gun control or against abortion? Or maybe we would prefer a gentle, Good Shepherd Jesus who will not demand anything of us, but will assure us that He loves us just the way we are.

Sooner or later our ideas about Jesus do not conform with reports of what he is doing either in the Scripture or in the world. And we ask: Are you the one to come or are we to wait for another? Jesus - the real Jesus – at times upsets our expectations; He breaks out of whatever box we put Him in. Then it's time for us to ask ourselves if we want to follow the living Christ or simply our idea of who the Christ should be.