A QUESTION FROM PRISON

John the Baptist had a history with Jesus.

Their mothers were cousins who had celebrated their unlikely pregnancies together (see Luke 1:39–45), and it seems likely that Jesus and John would have met as boys. John baptized Jesus as part of his public ministry of announcing the good news of the soon-coming Messiah (see Luke 3:1–18). But when John publicly denounced Herod for taking his brother’s wife “and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison” (Luke 3:19, 20). It seems John was imprisoned for about a year in the lonely fortress of Machaerus on the other side of the Dead Sea. John had been among the first to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah, but his doubts and fears that perhaps he had been wrong about Jesus had plenty of time to fester. Isolated from his people, hearing only secondhand reports about Jesus, John sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus that question. There was also the harsh reality of his circumstances. We might wonder if John’s question was more a suggestion—a hint that if Jesus really was the Messiah, perhaps His forerunner, cousin, and supporter should not be languishing in Herod’s prison. Jesus’ answer was to point to the practical ministry He was doing, a list that echoed what He had announced in His sermon at Nazareth (see Luke 4:18–21). But he concluded with an important addition: “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me” (Luke 7:23). Jesus urged John not to fear, not to let his circumstances get in the way of his faith, not to give in to his disappointed expectations of what he thought the Messiah should be. Interestingly, the Gospel writer also pointed out that John’s ministry continued to bear fruit (see Luke 7:29).