The wicked ruler Herod had put the prophet John in prison. Even there John heard of the wonderful miracles done by Jesus, and he sent men to ask Him this question: “Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another?”
John had been certain that Jesus was the promised One to come from God, but being in prison was hard, and no doubt he supposed the Messiah would free him.
It seems Jesus did not answer the question right away; He kept on curing all the sick people about Him, casting out evil spirits, and giving sight to the blind. Afterward, He said to the men, “Go your way, 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.”
If those men did not see the dead raised, they could have the witness of many who had seen, even perhaps of the ones raised. All the wondrous things they saw, fulfilled the words of the prophets about the good to be done by the promised Messiah to come.
So Jesus’ answer taught John, and the men sent, that they could judge from the scriptures, which they knew, that Jesus was indeed “the One to come.” Even in prison John was to trust God’s words and believe Christ.
The promises of the Messiah’s freeing God’s people from all evil, was as true as the other good things, but the rulers did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. So the time did not then come for all evil to be stopped, and John was not freed from prison, and suffered a most unjust death.
What Jesus Taught the Crowd
Jesus told the people that John was the prophet written of long before: “Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee.” (See also Malachi 3:11Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1)).
John came to announce the Lord Himself, so was the greatest of all prophets, yet many did not believe his words, and did not believe Jesus. They did not like John to live apart from them, and speak against their sins; neither did they like Jesus to live among the people, ready to forgive their sins. Jesus said, “They are like unto children sitting in the market place, and calling one to another ... We have piped unto you and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.”
Jesus showed that the men, who were leaders of the people and should have been wise to believe, were like foolish, contrary people.
John the Baptist called them to mourn; they had no heart for it. Then came the Lord Jesus, calling them, as it were, to rejoice at the glad tidings of great joy, but they heeded Him not. John was too strict, and the Lord Jesus was too gracious. They could not accept either, and in fact, man dislikes God. Whatever they might plead in the way of abuse of John or Jesus, “Wisdom is justified of all her children.”
The children of wisdom (those in whom the wisdom of God worked) gave glory to it and its ways.
Further Meditation
1. What did Jesus’ answer teach John?
2. We are very conscious of rejection and suffering. What would it have been like for John to expect a great response to his preaching and then find himself in jail? How are we taught that the world as a whole will respond to the gospel?
3. If you’ve been thinking about suffering you might find the pamphlet The Meaning of Suffering, by R. Elliott to be a real encouragement and help in forming a Biblical view of the subject.