Luke Part 25: John the Baptist is perplexed

Text: Luke 7:1-30

This passage contains two short episodes of Jesus’ healing, and tells of His exchange with messengers from a perplexed John the Baptist.

In the first episode, described in verses 1-10, we see Jesus healing the slave of a Roman centurion – a Gentile.  This is a Gentile of faith, a man who is saved.  How does the centurion show his faith?  First, he humbles himself.  All must come to Jesus humbly, as sinners.  Secondly, we see that he is concerned for his fellow man; he is asking Jesus not for himself but for the sake of his servant.

In the second episode, described in verses 11-17, we see an entirely different situation.  A widow’s only son has died.  We are told nothing at all of the widow’s faith.  Instead, Jesus uses this occasion to demonstrate His total victory over death.  He shows His power in turning an occasion of sadness and mourning into one of joyous celebration by raising the son to life again.

In verses 18-30, we read of an episode that confronts us where we are in our relationship with the Lord.  John the Baptist, in prison due to his standing up to Herod, sends his friends to Christ to ask if He really is the Messiah.  Did John the Baptist have a mistaken view of Christ’s kingdom?  Was he confused because he thought Jesus’ should have been establishing a kingdom here on earth if He was truly the Messiah?  No – the entire message of John was of a spiritual kingdom.

John’s problem was that good things were happening to everyone else –  miracles were being done, etc.   But John was sitting in prison off on the sidelines.  He was having his doubts.  This is surely our tendency as well.  “Lord, what about me?” we ask.  “Why do I here have to suffer through these things?”

Notice how gently Christ deals with him.  “All who are not offended by Me will be blessed.” he says.  John was a little offended and disappointed by Jesus, and Jesus was gently rebuking Him.

Then, Jesus praises John.  There was a tendency, then as now, to equate outward circumstances with God’s favor.  But Jesus wanted to show that God was pleased with John.  John was right where Jesus wanted him to be.  John had been put in prison because he had boldly stood up to the king.  Jesus points out that John was no flimsy reed shaken by the wind; he stood up for the truth.

This message was accepted by those who could recognize their own sin.  The Pharisees rejected Jesus, because they didn’t see their sin.

In verse 28, Jesus declares that John is the greatest of the prophets.  In doing this, Jesus indicated that He was not just another great prophet.  But, Jesus continued, those in the kingdom have seen and experienced things the prophets couldn’t understand – we now know more than the greatest prophets of old.

The key verse in this passage is verse 23 – “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”  Christ is our King.  The ruler of the kingdom orders the affairs of the kingdom and we don’t take offense at Him.  We struggle with doubts, we don’t see the results we want right away.  Yet we should remember in all these things: life is hard but God is good; like John, if we are following Christ, we are right in the situation where He wants us to be.