Luke 7:21-23 (NIV) At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
John was concerned that Jesus was just another forerunner like himself, and not actually the Messiah. This concern arose not because of what Jesus was doing, but because of what He was not doing, specifically, fulfilling the popular notions about the Messiah: that He would oust the Romans and the Herods, declare Himself king, and restore Israel to its former glory.
But when John’s messengers approached Jesus with these concerns, Jesus refocused their attention on what he was doing, which was the real point. That very day they had watched as Jesus healed diseases, cast out demons, and restored sight to the blind. They also heard Him teach about the kingdom of God in ways that the simplest of His hearers could understand.
Jesus instructed these men to go back to John and to simply tell Him what they had experienced and seen with their own eyes, as well as what they had heard testified about among Jesus’ followers. Not only were those with illnesses and disabilities healed completely, but the dead were raised by Jesus and His power. And, to top it all off, the good news of the gospel, the news of the here-and-now reality of God’s kingdom, was being preached, not to the rich and powerful, but to the poor, both the poor in spirit and the materially poor.
The messengers left satisfied. All of these were signs of the Messiah and of the coming kingdom as foretold by generations of prophets and seers. The fact that Jesus was doing such things, and not just occasionally, but all the time, showed them clearly that Jesus really was not only the Lamb of God, but the Messiah Himself
Father, so often we get hung up on our own expectations, to the point where we don’t see clearly all that You are doing in our midst. Keep my eyes open and my vision clear at all times, Lord, so that I can see Your hand at work in my life and in the lives of those around me, so that my testimony of those works can assure any skeptics of who You really are. Amen.