and blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in me.
John the Baptist had announced the coming King. Now, from prison, he sends messengers to ask whether Jesus really is the one — and the reply ends not with an explanation but with a blessing on whoever does not stumble.
The problem was not the evidence but the form the Messiah had taken. John looked for a King who would break oppression. Instead he found One who relieved suffering people while His own herald stayed in chains.
God, who appeared in the flesh, did not come to seek the pomp of royalty, although it was His due. He came for the deliverance of suffering men. His work revealed a character much more deeply divine. Its spring of action was far more glorious than anything that depended on owning David's throne. It was more glorious than a deliverance that would have set John free and ended the tyranny that imprisoned him.
Jesus could have said the opposite and meant the same thing. He did not.
He would not grieve that servant by leaving him unanswered, or by sending a reply that the messengers would recognise as a rebuke. So He tells them to go and report to John the wonderful and miraculous things they had seen themselves. They were to give him this message: "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me!" It is not "Cursed is the one who is offended by me" — that would have been the same thing, and yet so very different.
The correction travelled back to John through his own disciples, who could not read what they carried.
He returns a message to John that no one but John himself could weigh: "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me." Even John's disciples, who carried the message between him and the Lord, could not have understood this. Jesus would expose John to himself, but not to His disciples or to the world.
What people stumbled over was not a fault in Jesus but the shame and rejection that surrounded Him.
There was a gentle rebuke here, yet it was certainly meant to reach the conscience. John seems to have been stumbled; but blessed was anyone who was not offended in Jesus. Nothing so grated against every natural thought of a Jew as the rejection and shame that went with the Messiah, or with those who bore witness of Him. Man was completely unprepared for it.
The verse holds out a blessing, not only a warning. The one who is not tripped up is held up by the very thing others fall over.
He is not stumbled at the rejection of Christ. He sees the cross in the light of heaven, not of earth; he knows how it bears on eternal things. Present things are not the question... He therefore has the blessing fully; and he is strengthened, not offended, by the cross.
John did one thing right even while his faith wavered — he sent his question to the right address.
Shut up in prison, John seems to have suffered a temporary eclipse of faith. It is beautiful to see how loyal he is to the Lord, even under the darkness of doubt. If there are doubts, the One he has questions about is the only One who can settle them. It is well for us when we bring our very doubts to the Lord Jesus.
The placement of this line at the close of the message is itself part of the lesson.
The words "And blessed is the one who is not offended by Me" are words of exhortation to John the Baptist. How like the Lord to put them at the end of the message... The warning was certainly understood by John, and how deeply it must have searched him. It led to humbling and heart-searching, and in the end it was a beatitude, a "blessed." May it always be so with us.
- Cause. John stumbled over Jesus' lowliness, not His works. A King who relieved suffering people while His herald stayed in prison was not the deliverance he expected.
- Form. The Lord said "blessed is the one who is not offended," not "cursed is the one who is." Same content — and yet so very different in effect.
- Privacy. Only John could weigh the rebuke; his messengers carried it without being able to read it. Christ exposes a servant to himself, not to onlookers.
- Reach. The stumbling block was never a fault in Jesus. It was the shame and rejection that went with Him, which no one was prepared for.
- Result. The one who does not stumble is strengthened by the very cross others fall over. John's humbling ends where the verse ends — in a beatitude.
But as they went [away], Jesus began to say to the crowds concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? a reed moved about by the wind?
The Lord waits until John's messengers are gone. He then asks the crowd what first drew them out to the desert, and turns that question into a defence of a servant who had just wavered.
John had sent a question that sounded like doubt. The Lord's reply had to guard two things at once: His own dignity and His servant's heart.
He could not give a direct answer to His servant's question without loss of dignity. After what had happened, the question was an offending one. He would not grieve that servant either — not by leaving him unanswered, and not by sending a reply that the messengers would know was a rebuke... He then turns to the crowd after John's disciples were gone and pronounces the most glowing tribute. This was the hour of failure. Others would have used the moment to throw stones at the man who was down. The Lord defends and praises His old and tried servant.
The Lord had two audiences here: John, and the crowd.
But when these messengers left, the Lord shows His tender compassion and regard for him. He begins to defend the same John who had shown his weakness under suffering and long-delayed hope... When John sent his disciples with that question, a shallow judgment might have called him only "a reed shaken by the wind." But no, the Lord will not allow it. He maintains the honour and integrity of John. He has sent a little rebuke to John privately by his disciples; but before the crowds He clothes him with honour.
That order is worth copying: correct in private, defend in public.
A reed bends whichever way the wind pushes it. As a picture of a man, it means someone moved by whatever pressure is on him at the moment.
Before the crowds, however, He speaks highly of John. He asks them first: did they go into the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind? Was John merely a weakling moved by the forces of nature? They knew this could not be so. Nothing natural could explain the penetrating message he brought. Nothing natural could explain why crowds went out to the wilderness to hear him.
The Lord points to what the crowd once did with their own feet.
People do not go in crowds into the wilderness for nothing. It is a strong appeal to what they once thought, pressed home on them. It draws them back to the memory of John's unusual character.
Look at the moment He chose. John's own question had just made him look small. That is when the Lord speaks up for him.
John, the forerunner, is in prison. For a moment he is discouraged and gives up his testimony. Yet the Lord Himself bears witness to John before the crowd. What grace! What divine delicacy, to pick this time to restore John! His doubts had lowered him as a prophet in everyone's eyes... A man who in trial was weak and uncertain? Ah! Even if he seems weak now, while Jesus is speaking, he was not weak at the start of his course. And that is when they were called to get to know him.
Grace did not wait for John to recover before honouring him.
- Timing. Jesus waited until John's messengers had left. Only then did He praise him.
- Defence. The reed question refuses a shallow verdict on John. One moment of wavering does not erase a life of faithfulness.
- Evidence. The Lord argues from the crowd's own memory. Nobody walks into a desert to see a weakling.
- Grace. The praise comes at John's lowest point. Others would have thrown stones; the Lord restored him.
- Pattern. Follow the Lord's way with people: rebuke in private, honour in public.
But what went ye out to see? a man clothed in delicate raiment? behold, those who wear delicate things are in the houses of kings.
John's messengers have just walked away, carrying the Lord's answer back to a prison cell. Jesus then turns to the crowd. He asks what they had gone out into the desert to see, and He rules out a man in fine clothes. Such men live in palaces.
The Lord's praise of John came right after a gentle rebuke sent to him in private.
Verse 6 was a little rebuke to John, but how graciously given! He should not have stumbled or been offended, yet how the Lord praised him when the messengers were gone! We should be honest with a person to his face, and always ready to defend him fairly behind his back.
No word of rescue came back to John's cell.
Was John neglected by the Lord — a tool once used, then thrown aside when his work was done, with no care or thought for him? How often have men acted this way towards their servants! The Lord does not act like this: He never forgets His servants, though suffering for Him may be their lot. So now He bears witness before the crowd in favour of His imprisoned forerunner, and in doing so proclaims who He Himself is.
The Lord's argument turns on place. Fine clothes need an audience, and a desert has none.
People who want to attract attention do not go to the wilderness. They seek what caters to the flesh, such as kings' courts, where they can show themselves off among the glitter and tinsel.
One writer weighs both of the pictures the Lord ruled out:
He was no reed shaken by the wind: they could see that any day in the wilderness. Nor was he a man dressed in soft clothing. To find men in splendid dress, living in comfort, they had to look to kings' courts. There is no moral grandeur in any of these things.
John's rough garment was not eccentricity. It matched his message, and it stood against everything the ruler's court stood for.
The self-indulgent ruler had given himself over to satisfying every evil passion he had. The manners of his court made that easy. John was the opposite. In the lonely places of the wilderness he had learned the hard lesson of self-denial and self-mastery. His hairy garment and his plain diet were outward signs of the man's moral character… John called the people to sackcloth and ashes. He was not a man "dressed in soft clothing" himself. His practice matched his preaching.
John wanted nothing from the world he preached to. His clothing showed it.
John the Baptist found nothing in the world to attract him. He was in the desert, separated from it completely and openly… He asks nothing of the world. He does not go to it looking for "soft clothing". He brings into it the customs of the country he has chosen. His clothing is of camel's hair, the only rough garment the desert can give him.
The crowd could test this for themselves. They had made the journey; they knew what had drawn them.
Was he a courtier of men, clothed in soft clothing? Did they look for such men in the wilderness, rather than in the courts of kings? Certainly, his whole life proved him to be far different from these.
The Lord ruled out two pictures. Then He gave the true one.
When John sent his disciples with that question, a shallow judgment might have said he was only "a reed shaken by the wind." But no, the Lord will not allow it. He defends the honour and integrity of John. He calls him "more than a prophet," because John had a special place and honour given to no other prophet — to go straight ahead of the Lord as the herald of the Messiah Himself. John was not only a prophet himself; the prophets had also foretold him.
Where does a man in rough clothing find the nerve to face a king? One writer answers from the life of the prophet Elijah:
Elijah was used to dealing with the Sovereign of the universe at His high throne. So he did not dread Israel's petty ruler sitting on his throne, whatever the strength of the armed guard around him!
- Wilderness, not palace. The Lord's question fixes the place. Soft clothing belongs in kings' houses. So whatever drew the crowds into the desert was something else.
- Wilderness clothing. John's rough garment was not a costume but a sermon. His practice matched his preaching, unlike the ruler's self-indulgent court.
- Wilderness freedom. He asked nothing of the world, so the world could not bend him. He was no reed shaken by the wind.
- Wilderness honour. Fine clothes hold no moral grandeur. Real greatness belonged to the man in camel's hair who went ahead of the Messiah.
- Wilderness vindication. The Lord rebuked John in private and praised him in public. He never forgets a servant who suffers for Him. Nor should we — defend people behind their backs.
But what went ye out to see? a prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet
John sits in prison, shaken by doubt. The Lord has just answered him, and now He turns to the crowd to speak about him. Was it a prophet they went out to see? Jesus answers that question Himself, and His answer sets John above every prophet before him.
John's witness looked its weakest here. That is the moment the Lord chose to praise him in front of the crowd.
The imprisoned forerunner is discouraged for a moment and lets go of his testimony. Meanwhile the Lord Himself bears witness to John before the crowd. What grace! What divine delicacy in choosing such a time to restore John, whose doubts had lowered him as a prophet in everyone's eyes!
The Lord had two audiences here, and He said different things to each.
He has sent a little rebuke to John privately through his disciples. But before the crowds He clothes him with honour.
Before naming what John was, Jesus rules out two things he was not. A reed bending in the wind pictures a man moved by pressure; soft clothing points to comfort and status.
John had not been carried about by every wind of doctrine, giving way to superior power like a reed before the wind. He had not been clothed in soft clothing. No splendid clothes adorned him to catch the eye of the crowd.
The place itself made the point. Nobody seeking applause chooses a desert.
People who want to attract attention do not go to the wilderness. They look for whatever caters to the flesh, such as kings' courts, where they can show themselves off amid the glitter and tinsel. Yet people were drawn to go out into the wilderness — to see what? A prophet? Yes, the Lord says, "and more than a prophet."
Prophets spoke of things still to come. John was himself one of those things. That reversal is the heart of the phrase.
"A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet," because John had a special place and honour given to no other prophet. He was to be the immediate forerunner of the Lord, the herald of the Messiah Himself. John was not only a prophet; the prophets prophesied of John.
Commentators are careful about where this honour comes from. It was not something in John himself.
John had the high honour of being the only servant of God, apart from the blessed Lord Himself, whose ministry was directly and specifically foretold in the Old Testament. This was not because of any greatness in John himself, but because of his nearness to Christ as His forerunner and herald.
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His position also differed from the prophets before him. They spoke inside the nation; John called the nation out to him.
John the Baptist was a prophet. But even as a prophet, his position and ministry went beyond those of the older prophets. They prophesied at Jerusalem, in Israel, or among the captive or returned people. John the Baptist separates himself from the people; he lives in the desert.
The message matched the place. His call to repent rested on a different footing from theirs.
John's appeal rested on ruin that could not be undone, while the appeal of the older prophets always assumed the people could still return to the Lord as a nation. Like them, John the Baptist had certainly preached repentance, but a repentance founded on ruin beyond remedy.
One writer draws a careful line. John's greatness came from the job he was given, not from the man he was.
John's greatness, however, was relative, not absolute — official, not personal. He was a light-bearer (John 5:35), but not the Light itself, though he bore witness to the Light. Still, he stood above all the prophets and messengers of God since the world began, because he alone among them saw his own predictions about the Messiah fulfilled, and as the great forerunner he could say of One standing in front of him: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
Two verses later the Lord says the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. The comparison is about position, not merit.
He certainly is not speaking of any public display of greatness in the eyes of the world, for John had none of that. Nor is He speaking of moral greatness, though John's moral character was no doubt exemplary. He speaks rather of the greatness of the place John was given as the forerunner of the Messiah. This also explains His last statement, that a lesser one in the kingdom of heaven was greater than John. He means the greatness of the position believers are given today, compared with any position that was possible before Christ was presented to Israel in grace.
- Nearness. John's greatness came from one thing — how close he stood to Christ as His immediate forerunner.
- Not a reed. The wilderness proved it. A man after attention goes to kings' courts, not a desert.
- More. Other prophets foretold the Messiah; Malachi foretold John. He alone lived to see his own predictions fulfilled.
- Office, not self. His standing was official rather than personal — a light-bearer, never the Light.
- Surpassed. Position, not merit: the least in the kingdom of heaven now stands greater than John.
this is he of whom it is written, Behold, *I* send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.
John sat in prison with his confidence shaken. He had just sent his disciples to ask whether Jesus was the coming One. The Lord answers the crowd by reaching back to Malachi's prophecy about a messenger sent ahead. That verse says as much about the One announced as about the man who announces Him.
John's weakness did not cost him his honour. Jesus handled correction and praise in different settings.
He sent a little rebuke to John privately through his disciples. But before the crowds He clothes him with honour... "A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet." This was because John had a special place and honour given to no other prophet. He was the immediate forerunner of the Lord, the herald of the Messiah Himself. John was not only a prophet; the prophets prophesied of John.
Many men carried God's word to Israel. Only one man held the role this verse describes.
He was the immediate forerunner of the Messiah. God put singular honour on him. There were many prophets; there was but one John, but one who could be the messenger before His face.
In Malachi, God speaks in the first person, using His own name, Jehovah. He promises to send a messenger ahead of Himself. In this verse the pronoun changes: the messenger goes ahead of Jesus.
Jehovah's word to Malachi is, "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me." The Spirit applies these words to Christ. He says, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way." Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament.
The words come from Jesus, not from John.
The Lord Jesus refers to the same passage when He bears witness to His devoted servant. He quotes it in the same way, even at a moment when John's faith seemed to have passed under a cloud. John never applies it to himself.
Two prophets spoke of John, and he and his Master each used a different one.
He was the "prophet of the Most High," and indeed much more than a prophet — the immediate forerunner of the Lord, going before His face to prepare His way. But it is well to see that while he humbled himself in line with the prophecy of Isaiah (John 1:23), the Lord exalted him in line with the prophecy of Malachi.
Jesus quotes only the first part of Malachi 3:1 and stops. He does not carry the rest of the prophecy over with it.
The Lord, in Matt. 11:10, warrants our personal application of Mal. 3:1 to the Baptist, stopping short of the verses that follow, which await His coming again.
Being the forerunner puts John at a boundary line.
John was the "Elijah" of the first coming, and he marked the end of an era. The age of law and prophets ran up to him. From his day onward the kingdom of heaven was open, if there was the "violence" or vigour of faith to get in... Still, the least person inside the kingdom would have a position greater than this great man. He prepared the way but did not live to enter it himself.
- Sent — John's greatness lies in his commission. He is the one messenger the prophets foretold, sent ahead of the King Himself.
- Face — Malachi's "before Me" becomes "before your face" in the Lord's words about John. Commentators read this as Scripture identifying Jesus of the New Testament with the Jehovah of the Old.
- Prepare — his whole task was to make the road ready for Another. John used Isaiah's words to humble himself; the Lord used Malachi's words to honour him.
- Vindicated — Jesus praised John at the very moment John's faith wavered in prison. The rebuke stayed private; the honour was public.
- Surpassed — John closes the old order as the greatest of those who prepared the way. Yet the least person inside the kingdom holds a greater place than he did.
Verily I say to you, that there is not arisen among [the] born of women a greater than John the baptist. But he who is a little one in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.