Luke 7:18-35 - Homiletics

The message of John Baptist, and the discourse occasioned by it.

Various answers, not now to be discussed, have been given to the question—Why did John send the two followers with the message recorded? The message does seem to imply that the confidence of the Baptist had become overcast by the sorrow of the passing hour. Would it have been strange if, hearing of Jesus in the flood-tide of popular enthusiasm, working and speaking in the power of the Lord, a moment's feeling of weariness stole over the ardent spirit? "He there, and I here, within the dismal walls of the prison! He, thinking of all else, and no thought apparently of me! He increasing more and more, like the sun advancing to the perfect day; I decreasing more and more, my sun setting in the thick darkness! Can it be all a reality? Has my witness been wholly true? What if—? what if—? Jesus of Nazareth, say, 'Art thou really he? Tell me, so soon to pass from this earthly scene, that I have followed no illusion—that verily there is none else to be looked for.'" Other thoughts may have filled the mind, other motives for the mission may have influenced; but it brings the passage very near to us when we trace in it the faltering of faith. For there are moments of faltering in the history of faith. The sky of our spiritual life is not always cloudless. All the while the soul may be thirsting for the living God, but it cannot see him; from within there come voices demanding, "Where is thy God?" If a tormenting scepticism visited the honest heart of John, we can understand it, and feel the more our kinship with him. The wonderful thing would have been if misgiving had never ruffled the face of his heart; if no such film had gathered over his eye as that signified in the question, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?"

I. THE QUESTION HAS NOT YET RUN ITS COURSE . It expresses the attitude of the piety of the people, in the roll of whose greatest stands the Baptist's name. It is sad that so much of the culture of Israel has separated from Israel's hope, has declared its contentment with a mere barren pantheism; that so much of its piety is busied with the effort to explain away the obvious meaning of the old prophecies, or to deny their reference to the Anointed One. But the Jew still lives, and the land of the Jew still waits. Pray for the conversion and restoration of Israel, when the people that sit in darkness shall see the problem solved which has for so long been the stumbling-stone and rock of offence, "Jesus of Nazareth, art thou he who was promised to come, or must we continue to look for another?"

II. NOW , OBSERVE THE LORD 'S ANSWER . It is:

1 . A word to John. The reply to the inquiry is given " in that hour." The messengers are charged to return and tell (verses 22, 23) what things they saw and heard. The works of Christ are the credentials of his mission, not because they are miraculous, but because they are the kind of works appropriate to the Sent of God. Recognizing the supernatural efficacy of Christ's kingdom, the witness for him is chiefly what he does, what Christianity effects wherever it is truly received. We see it breathing a new life, inspiring with a new hope, awaking new powers, putting to flight the armies of the aliens—a power of God to salvation. E.g. Lady Barker, in her charming letters from South Africa, says, "I feel it incumbent on me to bear testimony, not only in this instance and in this colony, to the enormous amount of real, tangible, common-sense good accomplished among the black races all over the world by Wesleyan, Methodist, and Baptist missionaries." So, universally, it is the kind of life which Christ's teaching produces; it is the wondrous changes in man himself, and therefore in man's world, which the spirit of his life accomplishes, which, to all earnest inquirers, settles the issue, "Art thou he that should come?" "Blessed"—with gentle authority the Master adds—"blessed is he whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me."

2 . A word concerning John after the messengers have departed. "A word," says Farrar, "of rhythmic and perfect loveliness" (verses 24-28). Mark the conclusion, however—Greater prophet than he now immured in Herod's gloomy prison never was born of woman. Yet this must be added, he who is real]y within the kingdom, who has really received the kingdom in receiving Jesus as the King, however inferior to him in gifts and force, is a partaker of fuller blessing and privilege than he. "With all my imperfections," said Bunsen, on his dying bed, "I have ever striven after the best. But the best and noblest is to have known Jesus Christ."

3 . A word to the unsympathetic and opposing Pharisees and lawyers. The people endorse the eulogy passed on John; but the Pharisees and lawyers frown. It is with reference to their unreasonable petulance that the sentences verses 31-35 are spoken. What could satisfy such carpers? Verily, their successors are to be found in our day. The mind that is enmity against God will make faults, will twist any evidence, will imitate the children who will not be pleased, no matter what is done to evoke their response. Poor pedants! "they must stay in the dark until they are tired of it." Very different from such are the children of the true wisdom. They recognize and honour her under different types and forms. Wherever they see the prints of her shoes, there they love to put their feet also. "Wisdom is justified of all her children."