NOTES for Luk 7:18-23

John the Baptist sends his disciples to ask Jesus whether He is the Messiah. The Lord listens to the messengers but does not give a direct answer; instead, He points to the miracles that accompany His preaching. He does not hand them a ready-made, unambiguous answer, but invites them to decide the question for themselves on the basis of certain facts. “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them”—this is what the disciples are to report to John as their own experience, the testimony that can touch his heart. We often try to seek God in theological treatises or long services. It is much harder to look freely at the things happening around us as part of divine providence. This path frightens us because it carries the possibility that we may prove blind and insensitive. But without this risk, a genuine relationship with God is impossible.

Seeing the evident signs of God’s presence in the world is part of the Christian calling. If we make no effort to see these signs, as the Forerunner did when he sent his disciples, then we will “take offense at Him.”