Luke 7:24

when the messengers of John were departed We notice here the exquisite tenderness of our Lord. He would not suffer the multitudes who had heard the question of John to cherish one depreciatory thought of the Baptist; and yet he suffers the messengers to depart, lest, while hearing the grand eulogy of their Master, they should be pained by its concluding words. It is natural to suppose that the two disciples carried back to John some private message of peace and consolation.

A reed John was not like the reeds which they had seen waving in the wind on the banks of Jordan, but rather, as Lange says, -a cedar half uprooted by the storm.