Bible Commentaries
Luke 7

Verses 18-23

John’s Question and Jesus’ Reply (Matthew 11:2-6; see Luke 7:18-23)

"He who is to come" Is a classic expression, somewhat veiled, to designate the Messiah. People are often astonished that the Baptist had such a doubt, in view of what has been said about him previously (Matthew 3:11-15). It must be remembered, however, that in the thought of the Baptist the coming of the Messiah coincided with the Last Judgment, when the just would be delivered and the wicked destroyed (Matthew 3:12). Then, too, John is in prison for having had the courage of the prophets (Matthew 14:3-12). And "the Messiah" remains silent. He seems impotent. Evil continues to triumph. What John’s disciples have reported to him is not completely reassuring. Could it be that Jesus is only a prophet like himself, a forerunner and not the Messiah-Judge of the end-time? John honestly posed this question to Jesus.

Jesus replies with deeds. John would immediately grasp their significance; for they are the "signs" announced by the prophets (Isaiah 35:5-6), signs which even go beyond what had been prophesied, for Jesus mentions the healing of lepers and the raising of the dead. But more important than all the healings is the fact that "the poor have good news preached to them" (see Isaiah 61:1). The signs of the Kingdom are there. But it comes otherwise than John had foreseen; no fire from heaven falls on the wicked. This mystery of the Kingdom which comes in a manner both real and hidden, Jesus does not explain.

His works testify to Jesus for those who "understand". "Blessed is he who takes no offense at me." This "offense" is the mystery of the Son’s coming under the form of the Servant This is the scandal of the Cross (see Matthew 16:21-23; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25).

Verses 24-28

Jesus’ Declaration Concerning John the Baptist

(Matthew 11:7-19; see Luke 7:24-28; Luke 16:16; Luke 7:31-35)

The crowds had to face the questions of the origin and the relation between these two "prophets," at the same time so alike and so different This had already produced some discussions between their respective disciples (see Matthew 9:14). Paul later found some men who knew only the baptism of John (Acts 18:25; Acts 19:1-5). This indicates that the problem remained real in the Early Church, and it is not by accident that all the evangelists underline the role of the Baptist as forerunner (Matthew 3; Mark 1:3-8; Luke 3:15-17; John 1:6-8; John 1:19-40; John 3:22-30).

The words spoken by Jesus, as they are reported to us in Matthew 11, are designed to throw light on a latent question: What did Jesus himself say about the person and work of John the Baptist? The testimony which Jesus rendered to the Baptist is as explicit as it could be. John was no changeable man, a reed swinging in the wind, a courtier looking for an easy life. (Was this perhaps an ironic remark directed toward the detractors of John?) Those who had gone to find him in the desert knew him: it was to an authentic prophet they had gone. But his greatness surpassed that of the prophets, for he had been the announcer of the coming Kingdom, the herald who opened the way for the King (Malachi 3:1; Isaiah 40:3). Among all those born of women, there was none greater than he!

Here follows immediately a word which baffles us: fie yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (vs. 11), This text sets over against the natural birth another the birth from above (compare John 3:3-5). John stands on the threshold of the New Age, he announces it; in Jesus it has come. John is the last great figure of the Old Covenant and in a fashion he wins the Kingdom by main force, by asceticism and heroic obedience (vs. 12). But the New Covenant of which Jesus is the incarnation is a Covenant of grace, and marks a new beginning. This saying is not a judgment on the person of John, and certainly does not prejudge his eternal destiny; but it traces a clear line of demarcation between the former time and the New Age which Jesus inaugurates. John is the "Elijah who is to come" (vs. 14; see Malachi 4:5-6). To say this, for those who were able to understand, was to say that now, in the Person of Jesus, the Kingdom of God had come. And this coming, as has been seen earlier, is good and joyous news; it is the announcement of salvation,

The following sayings (vss. 16-19) are a melancholy declaration. The crowds are like changeable children who always demand a kind of music other than that which is offered them, They will neither dance with those who dance nor sing lamentations with those who play a funeral dirge. John practiced austere abstinence and they accused him of being demon-possessed. Jesus came "eating and drinking" and they charged him with being fond of wild living, with having evil companions (compare Matthew 9:10-15). They objected to John because of his asceticism and to Jesus because of the freedom with which he used the good things of this world and because he fraternized with sinners. Jesus did not appear to his contemporaries as a man austere and detached from the world, but as a man open to joy, free of prejudice, truly a man among men.

Verse 19b indicates that, however different John and Jesus were, the wisdom of God spoke through them both. It was necessary to understand then twofold message a message of repentance and a message of joy; for only he who has first understood and accepted condemnation can grasp the joy of salvation. "Wisdom is justified by her deeds" (Luke says, "by . . . her children," 7:35). The wisdom of God does not work among men in vain. Over against the ingratitude of the many is set the faith of those who have understood and believed. By them God is "justified" that is, recognized for what he is.