Luke 7:18-23

Butler's Comments

SECTION 3

The Suffering (Luke 7:18-23)

18 The disciples of John told him of all these things. 19And John, calling to him two of his disciples, sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another? 20And when the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, -Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?-' 21In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight. 22 And he answered them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.

Luke 7:18-20 Confusion: Some of the disciples of John the Baptist reported to the imprisoned John all the great miracles of compassion and the words of encouragement and hope Jesus was teaching during this great Galilean campaign. John the Baptist had been arrested and imprisoned about a year earlier near the middle of Jesus-' first year of public ministry. Josephus records that John had been incarcerated in Machaerus, a fortress built in 90 B.C. by Alexander Janneus in the desolate wilderness east of the Dead Sea. It was the second most important fortress in Palestine, had been refortified by Herod the Great, and used as a winter residence. John was only about 33 years old when he was put in the dungeon at Machaerus.

John the Baptist had preached emphatically that the Anointed of the Lord, the Messiah, was to come shortly and lay the axe to the root of the tree and hew down every tree that did not produce the fruit of repentance (see comments, Luke 3:1-38). He had been imprisoned for insisting that Herod Antipas repent of an adulterous marriage to his brother's wife. Matthew says (Matthew 11:2) John was in a place of bonds and fetters (Gr. desmoterion) when he heard of Jesus-' ministry of compassion. The scriptures indicate Herod had many conversations with John when he was imprisonedperhaps some badgering of John that his predictions of an avenging Messiah were, after all, wasted. So, when John heard that Jesus was healing people instead of judging them, bringing people back to life instead of slaying them, preaching good news of forgiveness instead of the wrath of God, he sent two of his disciples to question Jesus.

John's problem with Jesus was not whether He was the Messiah or not but whether He was conducting the messianic program as He should, Jesus-' program was not conforming to the vivid announcements John had made in the wilderness. So John asked, Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another? While Luke used the Greek word allon for another (which generically means, another of the same kind), Matthew used the word heteron (which means, one of another kind). John's problem was not doubt, it was impatience. Many of Jesus-' own disciples were impatient with the way Jesus conducted His messianic program. Hobbs says, It was not a question born out of doubt but of perplexity, He expected the two pictures (judgment and salvation) to be fulfilled simultaneously. Both pictures are true, but they are fulfilled within God's will and according to His purpose. Foster writes, John was too anxious to see the Messiah coming on the clouds of heaven in flaming fire to bring destruction upon the wicked and to bring succor to the noble. He had not been willing to tarry with the Messianic predictions of humble service, mighty miracles, and sufferings and death for the sins of the world.

Luke 7:21-23 Clarification: Jesus sent word back through John's disciples to John clarifying the essential nature of the earthly ministry of the Messiah. Contrary to popular Jewish opinion (apocryphal) the Messiah's ministry was to be one of hope and healing. Hope that the next life would be blessed and free of sin and sickness through the power of faith in Christ to heal both body and soul; this was what the Messiah came to announce. The essence of the Messianic ministry had long ago been prophecied (cf. Isaiah 29:18-19; Isaiah 35:5-7; Isaiah 61:1-3). When John wrote his gospel record (some 60 years after Jesus-' crucifixion) he reminded his readers, For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17). Impatient men have continually cried out for God to judge the world, but God is long-suffering not wishing that any should perish so He is giving the world a message of hope and healing. The time will come, in God's divine plan, for judgment. Presently, however, it is time for hope and healing. Blessed is the man who imitates the longsuffering of God and does not stumble at God's patience through the Messianic ministry. Jesus chastened John the Baptist but He did so tenderly. The Greek word skandalizomai means, offended, stumbled, tripped-up, trapped; we get the English word, scandalized, from it. Jesus does not want his ministry to become a stumblingblock to John the Baptist, but John must clearly understand Jesus-' ministry will be conducted in God's way and God's own good time, and He will not alter His ministry to suit John's human misconception. Suffering humanity continues to cry out, How long, O Lord. (cf. Revelation 6:10), and the Lord continues to say, In a little while.