The Third Sunday of Advent

Matthew 11:2-11. ² When John heard in prison of the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to him ³ with this question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” ⁴ Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵ the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. ⁶ And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” ⁷ As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? ⁸ Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. ⁹ Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰ This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.’ ¹¹ Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he..

Commentary. The Baptist, whose proclamation introduced Matthew’s presentation of the Messiah (3:1–12), is now appropriately called as the first witness to the meaning of Jesus’ ministry. Yet John’s response is equivocal, positive but uncertain. Nonetheless his is a preparatory role for the true time of fulfillment. John remains the one who points forward, even if uncertain.

John’s question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” John’s arrest was mentioned in 4:12, yet the full story of his imprisonment will wait until 14:3–12. No doubt he had anxiously followed the career of the one whom he had recognized as his superior (3:14–15) and had probably already taken to be the ‘mightier one’ for whose coming he had prepared (3:11–12). The Christ is Matthew’s description of Jesus, and sums up the impression he has aimed to convey.

John, as his question shows, was not yet ready to be so positive, though he would have liked to be. His hesitation was probably due (as v. 6 suggests) to a discrepancy between his expectations for ‘the coming one’ and what he actually heard about Jesus. The ministry so far recorded does not match up with the expectations of 3:11–12, and the miracles which are its most obvious feature were not a part of the common Messianic expectation. John may also have found it difficult to accept a Jewish ‘Messiah’ who failed to fast as his own followers did (9:14 ff.), and who kept the sort of company which a careful Jew would avoid (9:9 ff.).

The evidence to which Jesus points is not immediately conclusive, as it does not chime in with the popular (and probably John’s) idea of the Messiah’s work. But his words are an unmistakable allusion to passages in Isaiah which describe God’s saving work (Isa. 35:5–6; cf. 29:18), and the mission of his anointed servant (Isa. 61:1). Six specifics are enumerated: the healing of blindness (cf. 9:27–28; 12:22; 20:30; 21:14), lameness (cf. 15:30–31; 21:14), leprosy (cf. 8:20), and deafness (cf. 9:32–33; 12:22; 15:30–31); the raising of the dead (cf. 9:18; 10:8); and evangelism to the poor (cf. 4:14–17, 23; 5:3; Luke 4:18).

If these did not form part of the general expectation, and of John’s, they should have done. In Jesus’ own understanding of his mission, Isaiah 61:1–2 looms large (Luke 4:18ff.; and cf. above on 5:3–4). The relief of suffering, literally fulfilled in his healing miracles reaches its climax in good news to the poor, the godly minority described in the beatitudes of chapter 5 (the ‘ănāwim). If this is too gentle a mission for John’s Messianic hopes, he has missed the biblical pattern on which Jesus’ mission is founded.

Jesus seems to understand the difference in messianic expectations and the true nature of the kingdom and so hopes that none take offence (v.6). This is the same verb (skandalízō) as in 5:29–30, ‘be tripped up by.’ Many were ‘put off’ by Jesus, when his style of ministry failed to tally with their expectations, and even offended against accepted conventions. ‘Good news to the poor’ was an offence to the establishment, while a mission of the relief of suffering and the restoration of sinners would be at best irrelevant to those who fought for national liberation. It took spiritual discernment not to be ‘put off’ by Jesus, and such perception was enviable. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me – while it applies directly to John’s state of uncertainty, this beatitude is also a key to the theme of this section of the Gospel, which will introduce many who found Jesus hard to take.