Matthew 11:2

2. John John the Baptist was like his prototype Elijah. See notes on Matthew 1:1; Matthew 17:10; Matthew 17:12. As the former was driven by Ahab into the wilderness, so the latter was shut up in prison; and as the former at a certain period (1 Kings 19:1-13) bore his solitude impatiently, so the evangelist now shows us of John that he bore his imprisonment impatiently.

John had heard… works of Christ Near eighteen months now had John remained in prison, a period about as long as the exercise of his active ministry. His disciples, apparently, had access to him, and through them the rumours of our Lord’s works might reach his ears. Successively he might have heard how Jesus had organized his twelve apostolates one for every tribe of Israel; how he had healed the servant of the centurion of Capernaum, had lately raised the widow’s son at Nain, and had filled Palestine, and even Syria and Idumea, with the renown of miracle and preaching. These were indeed mighty works; but why did not the reign of righteousness and glory commence its era?

Sent two of his disciples In regard to this message of John to our Saviour, there are at least two opposing opinions. One view, that supported by Watson and by Stier, and held by orthodox commentators more generally, is that John sent his message to Jesus not so much to satisfy any doubts of his own, as for the instruction of his disciples in the true character of Jesus from the lips of the Lord himself. This view is sustained by these commentators on the ground of John’s character. They dwell on the high office of John as the official witness for Jesus, and expatiate on the scandal upon Christianity arising from the supposition that he doubted the genuineness and truthfulness of his Lord. In spite, however, of all these opposing arguments, which appear to us to misapprehend the opinion they controvert, we are compelled to adopt the view that John sent his inquiry for the satisfaction of his own mind.

The doubts in John’s mind were not such as tended in the slightest degree to invalidate his previous testimonies to Jesus, or the evidence on which they rested. John’s misgivings were not in their nature skeptical, but anxious. He doubted not the divinity of Jesus, but queried what was to be his future course. Like others, he expected a more rapid development of the Messiah’s kingship; and as Jesus seemed to be permanently a peaceful prophet, he questioned whether a different royal Messiah was not yet to appear. The very fact that he sent to Jesus himself for relief, as the fountain and oracle of truth, shows that he still acknowledged him as one the latchet of whose shoes he was unworthy to unloose. The import of his message was: “I acknowledge thee profoundly as ever as the Son of God, ‘the way, the truth, and the life,’ whose unworthy harbinger and messenger I am. But thy present acts and words indicate that thou art to be a teacher and a worker of miracles. Art thou also the predicted King of the glorious divine reign about to come in, or must we wait for another?” John then did not retract or doubt the past; he only queried the future.

There is something severe in the whole of our Lord’s demeanour and language, as if reproving this shaking of John’s higher faith in God. Just so at a time when the firmness of Elijah’s faith was shaken, (1 Kings xix,) the Lord rebukes him, and instructs him with signs and miracles.