Matthew 11:2-11 Commentary

Even the stalwart in faith wonder during times of difficulty.

Of course, we know this to be true even for Jesus, who prays to have the cup of suffering taken from him in the Garden. But in our passage today, we see it on full display in the strong-in-faith-and-purpose John.

John was the one who leapt in his mother’s womb when fetus Jesus entered the room. John was the one who, when he saw Jesus coming towards him on the banks of the Jordan River, said, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” And in those same waters, when he baptised Jesus, John was the one who was able to see the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus in the form of a dove. (John 1.29-34) Throughout his days, John pointed people to Jesus Christ as the Messiah, continued to pursue righteousness and to live on the straight path. He continued to be strange and to stand up for truth.

And now, because of all this, John sits in a prison cave underneath the palace of the political figure he challenged with the truth. Sitting in prison and knowing the stakes, John wonders. Undoubtedly, he wondered about his choices and perhaps this is what leads him to wonder about Jesus. Is Jesus really the one? Is Jesus truly the Messiah—that lamb of God John so ardently believed just a few years ago? Will Jesus be the Messiah that sets this particular captive free?

When John’s disciples get to Jesus, they ask the sad, difficult, honest question at the heart of John’s wondering: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” In these words are questions for Jesus and his methods, but also questions John has for himself. Is this suffering worth it? Will it end? Was I stupid for being so sure? Have I wasted my life? Is there hope?

Jesus answers by giving hope and the truth of the good news, but not in a way that will immediately alleviate John’s personal suffering and difficulties. Jesus harkens back to the promises of the Old Testament as he describes for John’s disciples what they are to recount: Jesus has been giving the blind sight, making the lame be able to walk, healing and making clean the lepers, the deaf are able to hear, and even the dead have been raised from the dead.

But by now perhaps we all know the part that has not been included in Jesus’s list. Jesus makes no mention of the captives being set free. When John hears the report, he will likely feel heartbroken: his personal hope for being freed from his current troubles will not be; there is no promised comeuppance for his enemies nor a reversal of his circumstances. So now, John must wonder whether all of this other good news—good news for others—is enough to stake his literal life upon. Will he follow the Lamb of God at great cost?

And here we do well to remember Jesus’s other message. He tells John’s disciples to add: “And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” (NRSV) In the NIV it’s “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

Like John, when our faith is challenged and we wonder because Jesus does not seem to be doing what God promised, the Messiah makes a beatitude that calls for bigger hope and trust oriented towards a different idea of time and fulfillment. Instead of turning away from God in Christ, stumbling over these difficulties that come in the life of following the way, Jesus invites us deeper into his own suffering as the way to ride out the storms. It is paradoxical.

As John’s disciples walk away, Jesus turns to the people around them—people who know John and have been helped by him in their own faith journey. And what does Jesus do? He validates John to a crowd who might be beginning to wonder about this larger-than-life figure. Jesus reminds them that John is a prophet sent by God to them. And then, he opens up the world to them, telling them that they could be part of even greater things if they follow John’s example. Because great as John is, “whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” How remarkable. How humbling.

Textual Point

In the Word Biblical Commentary section on this text, Donald Hagner makes the argument that all of the verbs in verse 5 are connected to one another and therefore the good news being brought to the poor is a sort of summary of the miracles listed prior to it.

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Illustration Idea

In February 2024, Christian dissident Alexei Navalny was murdered in a Russian political prison camp high in the Arctic. Much like John the Baptist, he questioned and spoke out for righteousness against the powers of his time. And much like John in the wilderness, Alexei sat alone in a cell and understood the “strangerhood” of his choice. Reflecting on Navalny’s witness, Russell Moore writes, “Navalny recognized, though, that the allure of moral cowardice when standing in courage means standing alone. A conscience can always reassure itself that being quiet right now is the right thing. Navalny recognized the terror in the thought of being left outside a field of belonging—being branded as a traitor by fellow countrymen and a heretic by fellow churchmen.”

Navalny found particular purpose and a call to action in the beatitude “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matt 5.6) In letters from prison he wrote, “For a modern person this whole commandment—‘blessed,’ ‘thirsty,’ ‘hungry for righteousness,’ ‘for they shall be satisfied’—it sounds, of course, very pompous. Sounds a little strange to be honest. Well, people who say such things are supposed, frankly speaking, to look crazy. Crazy, strange people sitting there with disheveled hair in their cell and trying to cheer themselves up with something, although they are lonely, they are loners, because no one needs them.”

Sounds a lot like John the Baptist, doesn’t it? The Spirit continues to use messengers to prepare the way.