and John, having called two of his disciples, sent to Jesus, saying, Art *thou* he that is coming, or are we to wait for another?
John's question reaches Jesus from a prison cell. It comes from the very man who had once pointed Him out to Israel, and it asks what happens to faith when God's power is at work everywhere except in your own life.
The question comes from a man whose faithfulness had cost him his freedom, and whose Master had left him there.
Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, had thrown John into prison. John had rebuked him over his brother Philip's wife and over all the other evils he had done (Luke 3:19). Yet the Lord had brought him no deliverance, though He had just shown His power over death. Was He really the Christ? So John sends to ask. Alone in his prison he may have turned over what seemed so strange: if Jesus was the Christ, why was the man sent ahead to announce Him left to waste away in the fortress of Machaerus? John's testimony to the Lord at Bethany beyond the Jordan had been clear (John 1:21-34). He had seen the Holy Spirit coming down on Him and remaining on Him. He had borne witness that He was the Son of God, and had announced Him as the Lamb of God. But now a cloud came over what had once seemed so clear. John questioned within himself whether the One he had testified to was really the One who should come — the theme of prophecy.
John's trouble was not the evidence in front of him. It was what he expected the Messiah to do.
He had clearly not grasped that the Messiah would be humbled and rejected. He expected the Lord to free him from prison by the power he knew the Lord had been using in grace.
Commentators differ here. Some read the question as one John asked to help his own disciples. Others say the plain reading needs no rescuing: John asked for himself.
Later, it is true, in a moment of low spirits he wondered whether Jesus really was the One who was to come, or whether they should look for another. Some writers want to guard the reputation of this most honoured servant of Christ. So they have explained his question as asked for others rather than for himself. But such care is unnecessary. Only One was perfect, who always said and did the right thing — and He was more than man, though most truly man.
The other reading has a long list of names behind it:
Augustine, Hilary, Chrysostom, Calvin, Wordsworth, and Ryle think John sent his disciples to strengthen their faith.
Whatever weakened John, it did not drive him away. He took the question to Christ, and the answer came back as evidence.
His question is, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Honest doubt never stays away from Christ. It comes to Him for the answer. The Lord points him to the works He was doing at that very moment. God's power was showing itself in goodness of many kinds, while the good news went out to the poor. Wonders on their own were not the evidence. These wonders were "signs" — they showed the nature and power of the One they came from.
There is a warning in the shape of his doubt. Notice which side John questioned:
In his uncertainty John did not ask himself whether he really was the messenger. Our failures lead us to suspect God sooner than ourselves. Either way, this scene is somewhat comforting. If John is led to question whether the Saviour is the Messiah, he has no doubt about Him in other respects. The word of Jesus is his only resource, and it is enough. It is a decline in a life of faith; but, thank God, it is still faith, however small its measure.
The reply carries a rebuke, and it turns the roles around.
It was a solemn answer, and should have been a very touching rebuke to John. Here was One who did not seek His own glory, yet He could not help pointing to what God was doing, for God was with Him... But was it not sad and humbling? The man raised up for the very purpose of bearing witness to Jesus now needed witness from Jesus. And Jesus, in the overflowing of His grace, gives witness not only to what God was doing through Himself, but to John as well. So no human being boasts in His presence... John needed at the very least to be confirmed. He needed solid proof that Jesus was the promised Messiah, for himself or for others.
- Prison — John's question rose out of real suffering. He sat in Herod's fortress while the Lord's power healed others.
- Expectation — his problem was not the evidence but his own assumption. He had not grasped a Messiah who would be humbled and rejected.
- Honesty — his doubt did not run from Christ but to Him, which is where every doubt belongs.
- Self-suspicion — failure tempts us to question God sooner than ourselves. John asked whether Jesus was the Coming One. He never asked whether he himself was the messenger.
- Grace — the most honoured of servants needed witness from the One he had announced. He received it, so that no one boasts before God.
But the men having come to him said, John the baptist has sent us to thee, saying, Art *thou* he that is coming, or are we to wait for another?
Two messengers walk from a prison cell to Jesus and repeat their master's question word for word. The man who once pointed Israel to Christ now asks Christ to say who He is — so what broke him, and how does the Lord answer a wavering friend?
John sat in Herod's prison, and no rescue came.
Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, had thrown John into prison. John had rebuked him over his brother Philip's wife and over all the evil he had done (Luke 3:19). Yet the Lord worked no rescue for him, though He had just shown His power over death. Was He really the Christ? John sends to ask. Alone in his prison, he may have kept turning over what seemed so strange. If Jesus was the Christ, why leave His own forerunner to waste away in the fortress of Machaerus? The Lord's answer makes it plain that John sent the two disciples for his own sake, and not only for theirs. His faith was wavering. He did not understand why the One he had once borne witness to seemed to forget him and treat him with cold neglect.
The title John uses is the standing name for the promised One. Even John must come to Christ the same way everyone else does.
He sends to ask, has the promised One come? He trusts the word of Him about whom he had heard such things, but he wants to know if He is the One who should come. John is to believe in Christ; Christ is not to receive testimony from men. But "He that should come" is the promised One. And John is to receive Him, like others, by the testimony He gave of Himself. That testimony was this: He was setting right all the sorrows that sin and Satan had brought into the world, and in grace He was caring for the poor.
Commentators do not excuse the question. What failed in John was not belief but waiting.
There is such a thing as faith, and the patience of faith. Abraham illustrated both. God called him out to listen to the promise under the stars, and he believed God. That was simple faith. Later God called him to give up everything he hoped in. That was the patience of faith. That is where John failed. He believed, and pointed out the Lamb of God, but the prison was too much for him. He was a choice servant, but he failed here. He did not like being passed over while others got attention. He was offended.
The messengers' words turn John's own calling upside down.
Here was One who did not seek His own glory, yet He could not help pointing to what God was doing, for God was with Him... But was it not sad and humbling? The man raised up for the very purpose of bearing witness to Jesus now needed witness from Jesus. And Jesus, in the overflowing of His grace, gives witness not only to what God was doing through Himself, but to John as well. So no human being boasts in His presence.
Notice where John sends his doubt.
Honest doubt never stays away from Christ, but comes to Him for the answer. The Lord points him to the works He was doing at that very moment... The evidence was not wonders alone, but wonders that were "signs" — they showed the nature and power of the One they came from.
John was waiting for a Messiah of glory. The reply sets grace before him instead.
While John is in doubt about Christ, the Lord meets his failure by setting His grace before him. "Go and tell John what you hear and see" (His words and His works)... Was grace, then, a smaller thing than the glory the Baptist expected? To his question Jesus replies, "Grace remains in power, and the poor have good news preached to them."
The miracles John's messengers saw point back to prophecy. The last line of the answer is aimed at John himself.
The signs pointed back to Isaiah's prophecy, and they went beyond what Isaiah 35 promised for the Messiah's coming: Jesus includes the raising of the dead. The implication was clear: the Messiah was there... The Lord's words amount to a very tactful and delicate warning to John... But He wraps the warning in a blessing. Instead of saying "I am worried about you; make sure you don't fall," He says "blessed are those…" It was a message veiled in grace. It was meant to warn John and encourage him at the same time, without blaming him or lowering him in front of the messengers.
- Prison. His prison, not his doctrine, cracked John's confidence. He stayed in Machaerus while Jesus healed others.
- Patience. He had faith. What failed was the patience of faith — holding on when you must give up everything you hoped in.
- Address. His doubt went straight to Christ, and that is the mark of honest doubt.
- Grace. The answer was not release but evidence: signs of God's power, and good news reaching the poor.
- Blessing. The rebuke came as a blessing. It warned John without shaming him in front of the messengers.
In that hour he healed many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and to many blind he granted sight.
John the Baptist's messengers arrive from prison with a blunt question about who Jesus is. Before He answers them in words, He answers in deeds: one hour of healing, done in front of them.
The timing matters. The two men arrived while the Lord was working the proof in front of them.
The question was put plainly, and the Lord answered it just as definitely. The answer showed real wisdom. He pointed to His miraculous works as proof that He was the Christ. In this way He would settle John's faith in Him by the word of God. The Baptist's messengers arrived at just the right moment.
One word in this verse carries more force than the English suggests.
Plague is an uncommon word in the New Testament. Luke uses it of the works Jesus did in front of the two disciples John the Baptist sent to Him from prison (Luke 7:21). Mark also uses it twice for the illness of the woman with a discharge of blood (Mark 5:29, 34). It literally means a scourge, and it probably covered the more severe illnesses that people sought relief from.
The word behind "evil" in "evil spirits" is the same one used for the enemy himself and for his active working:
ponēros often refers to the evil nature of the one acting, and to the active working out of that nature. So Satan is called that "wicked" one (Matt. 13:19; Eph. 6:16; 1 John 2:13-14). The demons are evil spirits (Luke 7:21; Luke 8:2; Acts 19:12-16).
Luke singles out this one cure and counts it separately from the rest. Of all the miracles listed, this one carried a weight the others did not.
In this we have what the Old Testament had predicted as the signs and effects of the Messiah's power. As far as I know, no one cured the blind before Christ came. Jewish tradition reserved that miracle for the Son of David. He it was who, according to Isaiah 35, was to open the eyes of the blind. The Lord puts the blind receiving their sight first among the outward miracles. It shows that He really was the Christ who was to come.
The healings and the casting out of spirits were not only credentials. They were a preview.
Here below the Lord was giving a sample of what will mark the world to come. He exercised powers that others later exercised in His name. Hebrews 6:5 calls them "the powers of the age to come." The millennial age will give a full display of the defeat of Satan, to the glory of God, and this in and by man. The Lord's curing of bodily diseases and casting out of demons showed in part what will be public and universal in that day.
These works were not proof for the crowd only. They were proof for the man in prison.
Here was One who did not seek His own glory, yet He could not help pointing to what God was doing, for God was with Him. He "went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him" (Acts 10:38). God meant this for a witness. But was it not sad and humbling that the man raised up specially to bear witness to Jesus should need witness from Jesus?
Notice also what He leaves out of the answer.
He does not mention His own personal glory. He does not send these two disciples back to their master with claims about His Deity or Messiahship. He only points them to public, well-known facts of His gracious ministry.
- Hour — The messengers arrive with a question, and the Lord answers by healing in front of them. The deeds come first, but the word always holds the higher place.
- Scourge — "Plague" literally means a scourge, covering the severest illnesses. "Evil" spirits share the word used of Satan himself and of his active working.
- Sight — No cure of blindness appears before Christ came. Jewish tradition kept that sign for the Son of David, so it stands first in His reply.
- Preview — Healing bodies and casting out demons showed in part what will be public and universal in the age to come.
- Reversal — The man raised up to bear witness to Jesus now receives witness from Jesus. It comes as plain facts of a gracious ministry, with no defence of His own glory.
And Jesus answering said to them, Go, bring back word to John of what ye have seen and heard that blind see, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised, poor are evangelized;
John had sent his disciples with a blunt question: was Jesus the one who was to come, or should they keep waiting? The reply is not an argument or a title. It is a list of things the messengers could see for themselves. The order of that list, and where it ends, carries the whole answer.
Christ does not defend Himself. He sends the messengers back with a report of what God was doing through Him.
It was a solemn answer, and should have been a very touching reproof to John. Here was One who sought not His own glory, yet He could not but point to what God was doing, for God was with Him. He "went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him" (Acts 10:38). God meant this for a witness. But was it not sad and humbling that the man raised up specially to bear witness to Jesus should need witness from Jesus?
The answer was chosen for a man who knew his Scriptures.
The Baptist knew the prophet Isaiah well… So the Lord turned him to that same prophet for his answer. He drew the messengers' attention to the proofs that He was the Messiah (Isaiah 35:5-6; 61:1). This was a wise way of answering. John knew the prophetic word. So what his disciples told him they had heard and seen was proof. The Christ was there, and Jesus was the Messiah. They saw miracles of healing done in front of them, and they had heard of the dead being raised. His miracles proclaimed it, for such works are powers of the coming age (Hebrews 6:5) — samples of the blessings people will enjoy when He reigns in power.
Two things stand out here: how the Lord treats a doubting friend, and what He puts on His list.
He had no desire to expose the momentary weakness of His servant John. But nor could He deny who He is… The reference to Isaiah's prophecy must have been plain to John's disciples. But the miracles they saw went beyond those that Isaiah 35 said would come with the Messiah. He includes: "the dead are raised up." The implication was clear: the Messiah was there. But how remarkable the way He points it out: it is full of grace, pointing to the miracles of grace He had done.
Read in order, these cures trace what God does with a soul.
Notice that all the miracles in this list stand for something spiritual. First, the blind received their sight. That was itself evidence that He was the Messiah (Isaiah 42:5-7), and a picture of people in total ignorance being given light. The lame are the powerless, healed so that they can walk before God. Lepers stand for those in corruption, cleansed from that loathsome state. The deaf are those indifferent to the voice of God, now made to hear. The dead are the lifeless, with no life toward God, but made alive by divine power. Finally, the poor are those who are spiritually destitute, but made rich by the gospel of grace preached to them.
The list does not stop at raising the dead. It ends with preaching to the poor.
Notice this: in the everyday ministry of Jesus, no point was more remarkable than His care for the poor. To the poor the gospel was preached. His concern for them was the very opposite of everything found among men before. If others had cared for the poor, that was only evidence of His Spirit working in them, and nothing that marked them out. In Jesus' case it was the opening out of His heart. He cared for them, if possible, more than for any others.
The same writer sums the whole list up in the two words of an older translation:
Here we have a summary of the Messiah's work: "Poor evangelised." Wesley's comment on it is typical of him: "The greatest mercy and the greatest miracle of all."
John was expecting glory. What came back was a report of mercy.
John is in doubt about Christ. The Lord meets his failure by setting His grace before him… Was grace, then, a smaller thing than the glory the Baptist expected? To his question Jesus replies, "Grace remains in power, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." It is a precious thought. Now is a time of weakness, and miracles have ceased. Yet a soul may still recognise Jesus in the preaching of the gospel to the poor, and say, "I myself have heard the Lord."
- Question. John asked if Jesus was the coming one. The Lord answered by pointing to what God was doing.
- Evidence. The reply was a report of things seen and heard, not a claim — facts John's own messengers had witnessed.
- Prophecy. The list matches Isaiah's marks of the Messiah's day. Raising the dead goes beyond even that.
- Grace. John expected glory. He was shown mercy at work — and that is not the lesser thing.
- Climax. The list ends where the gospel ends: good news to the poor. That is the greatest mercy and the greatest miracle of all.
and blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in me.
John the Baptist was in prison. He sent messengers to ask whether Jesus was the one who was to come. The Lord pointed to the miracles they had just watched, then closed His reply with this short sentence. It sounds like a blessing, but it is aimed at the man who asked the question.
The verse turns on one word: "offended". Its everyday meaning is physical.
To be offended, in biblical language, means to fall or stumble. The Lord's words are a very tactful and gentle warning to John. He must not stumble by failing to recognise the Lord's glory and His claims as the coming one. But the warning comes wrapped in a blessing. Instead of saying "I am worried about you; make sure you don't fall", He says "blessed are those …". The message was kind and veiled. It warned John and encouraged him at the same time, without blaming him or running him down in front of the messengers.
The stumbling-block was not any failure in Jesus. It was the shame that came with Him.
Nothing cut across every natural thought of a Jew like the rejection and shame that came with the Messiah, and with those who bore witness of Him. People were not ready for it. They had waited long, weary years for the Messiah to bring deliverance. Now He had come, and evil fell on His servants, and even on Himself, and seemed to go unpunished. Men despised them, and Him too. That was too much for their faith.
John's own case was sharper. The prophecy he knew seemed to promise the very thing he was not getting.
John may have wondered why he was not brought out of prison, since Isaiah 42:7 spoke of the Messiah bringing prisoners out of prison. Soon his release came by way of a martyr's death, which has surely brought him greater blessing than he had imagined.
John's problem was not that he stopped believing. His endurance ran out.
There is such a thing as faith, and there is the patience of faith. Abraham showed both. He was called out to hear the promise under the night sky, and he believed God; that was simple faith. Later he was called to give up all he had hoped in; that was the patience of faith. That is where John failed. He believed, and pointed out the Lamb of God, but the prison was too much for him. He was a choice servant, yet he failed here. He did not like being passed over while others were cared for.
Notice the shape of the sentence. Said from the other side, it would have crushed the man.
He could not answer such a question from His servant directly without loss of dignity, for after what had happened the question gave offence. Nor would He hurt that servant by leaving him with no answer, or by sending a reply the messengers would recognise as a rebuke… He did not say, "Cursed is the one who is offended by me." That would have meant the same thing, and yet been so very different. Then, once John's disciples had gone, He turned to the crowd and gave John the highest praise. At the hour of failure, when others would seize the moment to throw stones at the man who was down, the Lord defends and praises His old and tested servant.
Every miracle reported to John was a gift to someone else. What lay ahead for the Giver was the cross.
John seems to have been caught off guard by his imprisonment. So he sent to the Lord for reassurance, and the Lord gave him the fullest possible answer. But the Lord was never caught off guard. He "knew all that would happen to Him." He knew that while He poured out countless gifts on poor, needy people, nothing lay ahead for Himself but the cross and its dreadful offence. That was to be the greatest gift of all — the giving of Himself, whatever shame came with it.
The blessing is open to anyone. It still costs something.
And truly blessed is the one who looks this way at the mystery of the previous Psalm, who considers the poor and needy Jesus, and who by faith throws in his lot with Him. "Blessed is the one," as He says Himself, "who is not offended by me." And yet the pride of life and the way this world has turned from God make our following of "this poor man" no easy or pleasant thing.
- Stumble — To be "offended" is to trip and fall. The warning is real, but it comes wrapped as a blessing rather than a threat.
- Prison — John believed; his patience broke. Simple faith trusts the promise, the patience of faith gives up what it hoped in.
- Shame — People did not stumble over weak evidence. They stumbled over a Messiah who came with rejection and shame, and servants left unprotected.
- Gentleness — Christ shaped His rebuke so the messengers would not hear it as one. Then He praised John in public, at the very moment others would have thrown stones.
- Cross — While He handed out mercy to everyone else, only the cross lay ahead for Him. The blessing belongs to whoever, seeing that, still casts in his lot with the poor and needy Jesus.