And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Matthew 11:3
This is a questions that immediately baffles one, coming from a person like John who first announced Jesus to the nation of Israel. What could have gone wrong with him? Had he lost faith in the One that he emphatically introduced to Israel as the Christ, the Son of God? Could it be that his incarceration had had a better part of him? Or could it be that he expected Jesus to have done something about his incarceration and miraculously set him free from Herod's hands? We can make many suppositions about what may have caused John to send his disciples to Jesus.
When we consider the Jewish background to this event, we will be able to see into the crisis that John had about the identity of Jesus. John, like every Jew of his time, was anticipating the literal establishment of the kingdom of God in which the Messiah King would defeat their enemies and set up an everlasting rule of righteousness, as prophesied by Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 65:17-25. So, when the Messiah was shown to him, his expectations were that Isaiah's prophecy was about to be fulfilled. But lo and behold, the One he had believed to be the Messiah, and introduced to the nation of Israel as the One was not showing traits akin to the conquering Messiah that the nation was looking forward for. What he failed to realize is that the Messiah was going to first come as a suffering Messiah, before He comes as a conquering Messiah.
Like many in Israel of his day, John looked to see the Son of David that would come in the form of David, the great warrior of Israel. Many Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah did not explicitly distinguish the two comings of the Messiah. But when Jesus introduced Himself to the Jewish people in Luke 4:18, He made this clear by quoting only a part of Isaiah's prophecy about the Messiah. Isaiah 61:1-3. In Luke 4:18, Jesus did not read the second part of the prophecy of Isaiah that spoke of the day of vengeance of our God. For many Jews like John, this was the picture of the Messiah they were looking to see, but failed to see in Jesus Christ. So it is not surprising that John could ask, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?"
But Jesus' response to John was to point him to how He was perfectly fulfilling of Isaiah 35:5-6. The Hebrew scriptures affirmed that the Messiah, when He comes, will do mighty works. These were the credentials that Jesus pointed John's disciples attention to. Simply put, Jesus' response was an emphatic yes, I am the One you are expecting.
Toni
This is a questions that immediately baffles one, coming from a person like John who first announced Jesus to the nation of Israel. What could have gone wrong with him? Had he lost faith in the One that he emphatically introduced to Israel as the Christ, the Son of God? Could it be that his incarceration had had a better part of him? Or could it be that he expected Jesus to have done something about his incarceration and miraculously set him free from Herod's hands? We can make many suppositions about what may have caused John to send his disciples to Jesus.
When we consider the Jewish background to this event, we will be able to see into the crisis that John had about the identity of Jesus. John, like every Jew of his time, was anticipating the literal establishment of the kingdom of God in which the Messiah King would defeat their enemies and set up an everlasting rule of righteousness, as prophesied by Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 65:17-25. So, when the Messiah was shown to him, his expectations were that Isaiah's prophecy was about to be fulfilled. But lo and behold, the One he had believed to be the Messiah, and introduced to the nation of Israel as the One was not showing traits akin to the conquering Messiah that the nation was looking forward for. What he failed to realize is that the Messiah was going to first come as a suffering Messiah, before He comes as a conquering Messiah.
Like many in Israel of his day, John looked to see the Son of David that would come in the form of David, the great warrior of Israel. Many Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah did not explicitly distinguish the two comings of the Messiah. But when Jesus introduced Himself to the Jewish people in Luke 4:18, He made this clear by quoting only a part of Isaiah's prophecy about the Messiah. Isaiah 61:1-3. In Luke 4:18, Jesus did not read the second part of the prophecy of Isaiah that spoke of the day of vengeance of our God. For many Jews like John, this was the picture of the Messiah they were looking to see, but failed to see in Jesus Christ. So it is not surprising that John could ask, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?"
But Jesus' response to John was to point him to how He was perfectly fulfilling of Isaiah 35:5-6. The Hebrew scriptures affirmed that the Messiah, when He comes, will do mighty works. These were the credentials that Jesus pointed John's disciples attention to. Simply put, Jesus' response was an emphatic yes, I am the One you are expecting.
Toni
