Luke 7:21-23

Luke recorded and Jesus listed several messianic works that He had done (cf. Isaiah 29:18-19; Isaiah 35:5-6; Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 61:1). Isaiah did not predict that Messiah would cleanse lepers. Perhaps Jesus mentioned that because His ministry fulfilled Elisha’s ministry, and he cleansed a leper (cf. 2 Kings 5).

Acts of judgment are conspicuously absent from this list since that was not the time for judgment. Apparently in Jesus’ day the Jews believed that Messiah would not claim to be the Messiah before He performed many messianic works. [Note: R. Longenecker, The Christology of Early Jewish Christianity, pp. 71-74.] Jesus pronounced "blessed" those who accepted the evidence that He presented and concluded that He was the Messiah rather than stumbling over it. John was in danger of stumbling, namely, drawing the wrong conclusion and thereby falling into a trap (Gr. skandalisthe, cf. Isaiah 8:13-14). Stumbling is the opposite of believing here.

"There is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is a matter of the mind: we cannot understand what God is doing or why He is doing it. Unbelief is a matter of the will: we refuse to believe God’s Word and obey what He tells us to do." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:196-97.]