Matthew 11:1-11
And it came to pass, when
Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to
teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John had heard in the prison the
works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto him, Art thou he
that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them,
Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive
their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed
is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. And as they departed, Jesus began
to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to
see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in
kings' houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you,
and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send
my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I
say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven
is greater than he.
Luke 7:19-23
And John calling unto him
two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come?
or look we for another? When the men were come unto him, they said, John
Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look
we for another? And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and
plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Then
Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have
seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And
blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
As one
reads this passage with understanding, the question arises: how is it that John
the Baptizer, the man who was announced by the angel Gabriel to go before
Messiah in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), have doubted the
ministry of the very man whom he had announced?
The
circumstance of John the Batpizer’s life and ministry are best known through
the gospel of Mark. It is in this gospel, by means of retrospection, that Mark
recounts the events surrounding the imprisonment and eventual execution of John
at the hands of Herod the tetrarch. The account is also briefly mentioned in
the gospel of Luke.
History
informs us that the woman Herodias had previously been married to Philip, but
had at some point left him in favor of his brother, Herod Antipas.[1]
Not only was this woman the wife of his brother, but she was also Herod’s
niece, the daughter of his half-brother Aristobulus. While Herod was not
Jewish, being half Idumean and half Samaritan by birth, he was a leader in
Israel, and thus assumed some manner of personal responsibility before the
nation of Israel for his actions. His gross immortality with Herodias caught
the attention of John the Baptizer, who had at some point spoken against
Herod’s sinful behavior, stating plainly that it was not lawful for Herod to
have his brother’s wife (Mark 6:18).
It was
Herodias, not Herod, who was particularly angry against John for these words. The
Scriptures tell us that she sought to have him killed, but Herod was a
particularly superstitious man, and had some level of respect for John’s
authority, hearing John’s messages readily and observing John’s sayings. Thus
Herod was not willing to kill him, but only to imprison him as a means of
pacifying the wrath of Herodias.
The
amount of time John spent in prison was unknown, but the text seems to indicate
that once he had been arrested, he was never again released. Mark 6:27 reveals
that, in the process of time, Herodias was successful in her demand that John
be killed. It is the interlude, however, that we are most interested in: the
time between when John was arrested and when Herod had him beheaded.
The
Scriptures tell us that, following several events in the ministry of Jesus
Christ, John the Baptized sent two of his disciples to Jesus to inquire whether
or not He was the Messiah, the one who should come. How strange it is that the
very man who was chosen by God to herald the Messiah, and the man who had seen
the Spirit descend like a dove upon him, and the man who had heard the words,
“this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17); would also
be the man who now questions whether or not Jesus is the One who was to come..
There
are several important considerations as we seek to understand John’s
motivations in sending his disciples. The first consideration was his temporal
state at the time of his question. The second consideration was the near
universal expectation of the Jews concerning the appearance of their Messiah.
The final consideration is that of Jesus’ words and actions to that point in
His ministry, and how they would have been received by His audience.
I don’t know
about you, but there are certain days in my life – certain seasons even – when
it seems as though the promises of God just aren’t comforting me the way that
they should. This isn’t God’s fault: the promises have not failed, nor has God
faltered; but rather it is my faith in those promises that has faltered, even
when I know them to be true. Such an attitude is not unheard of, even in the
material world. I know my wife loves me, but there are days when emotions or
circumstances attempt to override fact, and my confidence falters. I know that
I have been called to be a Pastor, but there are seasons in my life where
circumstances or emotions override this knowledge and cause me to doubt my vocation.
I know just as well that “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen,
unto the glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20), yet my resolve in God’s
promises is not always as consistent as it ought to be.
John was
sitting in a prison cell; his life could end at any moment. He had spent years
knowing that he would be Prophet of the Most High. He had baptized the Lord,
and had heard the blessed declaration of Sonship delivered by God in heaven.
The higher a man rises, spiritually and emotionally, the harder the fall if
circumstances change for the worse. This is the reality of the human condition.
It is
not this author’s intent to justify faithlessness, nor to defend John’s wrong
actions or motives on the basis of his unrelated spiritual successes; yet it is
our tendency to elevate men of greatness to extra-human status, thus assuming
that his every recorded action must be righteous by default. In doing so, we do
these men (and women) and disservice, and run the risk of stripping Glory from
God and directing it in ignorance toward the vessels of honor that God
graciously used to fulfill His sovereign purposes. We would do well to
remember, as well, that while Jesus never justified John’s doubt, he did go on
to defend John’s character, and declare him to be the greatest of men born to
woman. High praise indeed!
So it is
that we first consider John’s personal emotions, spiritual temptations, and
level of personal discouragement as possible factors that may have motivated
his doubt.
The
second consideration we will address concerns the almost universal expectation
of the Jews concerning the advent of their Messiah. If the gospels teach us
anything concerning the Jewish mind, it was their myopic expectation of the
kingdom that Messiah would usher in. The restored Kingdom was the very essence
of all Jewish expectation. For hundreds of years the proud people of Israel had
been the doormat of every world power. The Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the
Greeks, the Egyptians, the Syrians, and finally the Romans. Just when they
thought they had cast off one oppressor, the next was waiting at the door. Some
of these overlords were benevolent, others were excessively cruel, but either
way Israel was not sovereign! Everything that the Jews longed for religiously
was directed towards God’s promises throughout the law and the prophets of the
Messiah, the One who would come and cast off all heathen oppressors, re-gather
and unite the nation of Israel, and lead them into a perpetual peace and
prosperity under the direct shepherding of Jehovah God.
The
gospels are filled with Jewish remarks concerning this expectation. There was a
large number of Jews who refused to believe on Jesus until the day that they
saw Him throw off their oppressors and claim His right as King. And was this
not, even in the ministry of Jesus Christ, seemingly a reasonable expectation.
Matthew 4:17 tells us Jesus’ gospel message: “From that time Jesus began to
preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John
proclaimed the nearness of the Kingdom, Jesus proclaimed the nearness of the
Kingdom…the Jews expected the Kingdom to come.
The
problem, then, was not this expectation, but rather the logical outworking of their expectation. The Jews heard the promise
of the Kingdom, and so rationalized in their minds the order of events that
would be required to see this Kingdom brought about. That order would be something
like this: the King is revealed, the people get behind Him, He overthrows the
Roman oppressors, He sets up His throne, and Israel lives happily ever after.
John the Baptizer recognized another important step: repentance. John rightly
recognized that the people’s hearts need to be prepared, and so preached this
repentance.
But
there was something that even John had not anticipated: the possibility that
the people would reject repentance, and thus reject their Messiah. So
unanticipated was this scenario that as John witnessed the nation divide
between the believers and unbelievers, and as John witnessed Jesus continue to
preach spiritual repentance rather than national deliverance, his confidence
began to waiver as to whether or not this was the King who would unite the
nation.
Even the
inner twelve, the men who had followed Jesus and been taught by Him for several
years, were not able to overcome their false understand of God’s Messianic plan
until the 50 days after Jesus’ death, when the Holy Spirit fell upon them at
Pentecost. In Matthew 18:1 the disciples spent their time debating over which
of them would be the greatest in the Kingdom. In Matthew 20:21 the mother of
James and John asked Jesus to allow her boys to sit beside Him in the Kingdom.
Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection, after Jesus had opened the eyes of
His disciples’ understanding to recognize God’s divine salvific purpose, they
asked Jesus in Acts 1:6, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the
kingdom to Israel?” The Jewish mind was myopic in its expectation that
Messiah’s appearance would inherently bring about the Kingdom.
The
reason for this overwhelming Jewish expectation is beyond the scope of this
paper, but it is sufficient to mention that the nature of Old Testament
prophecy, when read at face value and in a linear and chronological fashion,
does indeed present the Kingdom as appearing immediately following Messiah’s
advent. It is not until the writings of Paul that it is made clear that the
church age was a “prophetic mystery”: that there is no indication of the church
in any Old Testament prophecy.
John was
no different in his expectation. Though he, like many in Israel, were able to
see past the apparent contradictions between Jesus’ ministry and their
understanding of Old Testament prophecy through faith, this did not alter the
fact that in their minds they still had a strong expectation of the nearness of
the physical Kingdom. Yet with each passing day, as Jesus’ teaching went forth,
His words would serve only do further alienate Jesus’ ministry from Jewish
Messianic expectation. John being in prison, and unable to see Jesus’ miracles
and hear His word first-hand, would perhaps suffer a deeper faith crisis than
most in Israel.
Such can
also be the case in the church today. When we, as God’s people, allow logical inferences based upon God’s Word
to place undue expectations upon God and His sovereign plan, we can falter in
our understanding of Scripture and thus blind ourselves to the weightier
matters of the law. We run the risk of becoming so loyal to our inferences
regarding God’s plan that we fail to see the realities of God’s plan. Such is
the case in every area of theology, from salvation to Christian liberty to
prophecy, when we allow our logical expectations to override God’s Word, such
error can blind us to Truth, and lead others into our blindness as well.
This
brings us to our final consideration, one which is closely related to the
previous thought. The Jews’ expectation was heavily prejudiced toward an
immediate revelation of the physical Kingdom. At the point of John’s question,
Jesus’ teaching had focused upon the Jews’ repentance, but had presented a
decidedly unique understanding of the Kingdom, its purpose, and its timetable.
We reference particularly the gospel of Luke, as it would seem Luke’s account
is likely the most chronological in nature.
Jesus
had performed great miracles among the Jews. In Luke 4:38-41 Jesus healed
Simon’s mother and preached in the synagogues of Galilee. In Luke 5 Jesus called
Jewish disciples, healed leprosy and commanded the man to declare his cleansing
according to the Mosaic law; he also healed a paralytic. These were all signs
of the Kingdom, consistent with the Old Testaement declarations of theKingdom
being a place of near perfection: a reversal of the curse and the restoration
of Israel. It was here, however, that things began to be…unexpected. When Jesus
healed the paralytic, Luke 5:20 tells us He said this to the man, “Man, thy
sins are forgiven thee.” This was very significant, and the Jews took notice.
Their response in verse 21 was, “Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who
can forgive sins, but God alone?”
Here it
was the public perception began to diverge strongly between believers and
unbelievers. Though the nation began to split, however, to the believers this
was not surprising; Messianic prophecy announced that the Christ would be God,
and those who truly believed knew this to be true. Then things became even more
strange. In Luke 5:29 Jesus is seen eating and drinking, not with just and
devout Jews, but with publicans, a group of Jews that were seen as traitors to
national pride for their work with Rome to collect taxes. When the scribes and
Pharisee confronted Jesus, His response in verse 32 was simply, “I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
This
concept was somewhat unique to much of the nation. The Jews had worked
tirelessly to keep themselves ritualistically clean, so much so that the Mosaic
law became the lifeblood of the nation. In the minds of the devout, this
loyalty was done with the intent that they would be ready for Messiah, and now
this man Jesus, claiming to be Messiah, was not rallying the pious around Him,
but rather consorting with the unfaithful. In the mind of any Jew, this would
be a shock, to say the least. Thing get even more strange, however.
In Luke
5:33 the scribes and Pharisees questioned Jesus’ commitment to the law, noting
that His disciples did not fast as was customary in Jewish culture. Jesus’
response in verses 34-35 was thus: “Can ye make the children of the
bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come,
when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in
those days.” Jesus then went on to give a parable, one which they would not
understand but which, to the modern believer, is very significant.
Jesus
said in Luke 5:36-39, “No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if
otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of
the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles;
else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall
perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No
man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old
is better.” In this parable Jesus announced something new, something so new
that it would not possibly fit into the “old bottle” of the law. This would be
new wine, and necessitate a new bottle.
We find
more of the same in Luke 6:1-5. The disciples are in the corn fields on the
Sabbath, plucking ears of corn and eating them. Again, such action was contrary
to Jewish tradition concerning the expectations of the Mosaic law, and thus
overtly offensive to the sensibilities of the Jewish leaders. Likewise, in Luke
6:6-11, Jesus heals a withered hand on the Sabbath, offending the traditional
restriction imposed by Jewish leaders according to their interpretation of the
Mosaic law.
Following
such open and clear manifestations of the Jews’ false loyalties to the law
above even their loyalty to the God who gave them the law, Jesus gives what is
commonly referred to as The Sermon on the Mount, teaching that the blessings of
God are bestowed, not simply upon a man with the proper blood line, but rather
upon the man whose heart follows after the True and Living God. He tells them
to love their neighbors, but also to love their enemies. Not only to bear
persecution for righteousness, but also to allow oneself to be defrauded in the
name of righteousness. He tells them that a good disciple is known, not by
lip-service, but by action in the service of his master. All of this was a
direct confrontation against all that the Jewish system had become. There would
be no Jew, regardless of how devout, that would not cringe at Jesus’ words
concerning the traditions that they had spent their lives following.
In Luke
7:1-11 Jesus goes one step further. Yes, He had spoken against the Jewish
religious establishment. Yes, He had defied the false traditions of the elders
as they heaped unnecessary weights upon the keeping of the law. Yet in the
first several verses of Luke 7, Jesus ministers to the needs of a Roman
Centurion, one who was very kind to the Jews, and yet nonetheless a Gentile.
Among a nation of men and women who had grown to despise and separate from all
things that were not Jewish, the man claiming to be Messiah, the King of
Israel, was ministering to their enemies.
Such was
the string of events that preceded the day when John sent his disciples to ask
Jesus concerning His Messianic identity. It was not that John, like the other
disciples of Jesus, did not believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be. Yet
Jesus’ action defied what the Jews had taught and understood for hundreds of
years, and were so new and different that might cause any Jew conflict and
confusion at His actions.
Introspection
would cause us to ask the same questions of ourselves. Do we, as God’s people,
read the Bible with such stubborn pre-conceived notions of its intent and
meaning that we fail to see what is really there? Are we so caught up in our
traditions that, when confronted with Biblical truth that contradicts our
understanding, we reject the True in deference to the familiar and comfortable?
What “blind spots” do we have, and when we stand before God one day, what
elements of our religious devotion will be seen in His eyes as misguided
idolatry rather than humble devotion?
