Tripping On Jesus (Luke 7:17-35) Series

And so what does John do?

He doesn't simply reject Jesus as messiah. [He's open-minded on this, open to persuasion, in a way that the Pharisees/scribes/biblical scholars are not]. John sends two messengers to get the answer from Jesus' own mouth. And the reason he sends two messengers, probably, goes back to Deuteronomy 19:15. Every issue should be settled on the basis of two or three witnesses. So John sends two.

So have I made a mess of this, and lost everyone, or no? John's unsettled about Jesus. He's not sure that Jesus is the messiah. And so he sends two witnesses to get his answer.

Verse 21:

(21) In that hour he healed many people from their weakness/sickness and torment/suffering and evil spirits, and to many blind people he gifted/graced to see,

(22) and answering, he said to them,

"Going, report to John what you saw

and you heard:

Blind people regain sight. [Luke 4:18; 7:21; 14:13, 21; 18:35-43; Isaiah 29:18; 35:5; Isaiah 61:1]

Lame people walk. [Luke 14:13, 21; 5:17-26; Acts 3:1-10; Isaiah 35:6]

Lepers are cleansed [Luke 5:12-16; 17:11-19; 2 Kings 5? This one is less obvious].

Deaf people hear. [the word can also mean "mute"; Luke 11:14; Isaiah 29:18; 35:5]

Dead people are raised up [Luke 7:11-17; 8:40-56; Isaiah 26:19].

Poor people are being proclaimed the good news, [Luke 4:18; 6:20; 14:13, 21; Isaiah 29:19; 61:1]

(23) and blessed is whoever doesn't trip by me.

So John was unsure of Jesus, and sent two messengers who will be witnesses to the truth. And what Jesus offers, is two witnesses to the truth. He tells them to report to John two things: "what you (1) saw, and what you (2) heard."

If you "look" at what Jesus is doing for the crowds, and "listen" to what you hear happening, you will find an answer to your question about who Jesus is.

Jesus assumes that John knows his way around the OT. When John hears this report, Jesus expects him to remember specific passages, mostly from Isaiah 29, Isaiah 35, and Isaiah 61.

We won't take the time to read those passages, but Jesus is doing many of the things that the OT says will happen when the messiah comes. The key word here, is "many." Because there's a catch. And the catch, is that Jesus isn't doing everything people expected. There's something missing. And it's this missing bit, that's the issue here. There's something that John's messengers didn't see, and didn't hear, that everyone expected from a messiah.

What is this missing piece?

It has to do with God's judgment, and vengeance.

The easiest way I can think of to show you this, comes from comparing two passages (both of which play big in Luke). Let's turn to Luke 4:16-19 (NRSV updated no reason):

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: