A Study In Luke - Day 17

DAY 17 - Luke 7:18-35
 
18 The disciples of John the Baptist told John about everything Jesus was doing. So John called for two of his disciples, 19 and he sent them to the Lord to ask him, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

20 John’s two disciples found Jesus and said to him, “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?’”

21 At that very time, Jesus cured many people of their diseases, illnesses, and evil spirits, and he restored sight to many who were blind. 22 Then he told John’s disciples, “Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” 23 And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.”

24 After John’s disciples left, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind?

25 Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people who wear beautiful clothes and live in luxury are found in palaces. 26 Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. 27 John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say,

‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
   and he will prepare your way before you.’

28 I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is!”

29 When they heard this, all the people—even the tax collectors—agreed that God’s way was right, for they had been baptized by John. 30 But the Pharisees and experts in religious law rejected God’s plan for them, for they had refused John’s baptism.

31 “To what can I compare the people of this generation?” Jesus asked. “How can I describe them? 32 They are like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends,

‘We played wedding songs,
   and you didn’t dance,
so we played funeral songs,
   and you didn’t weep.’

33 For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ 35 But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it.”

This is a complex passage that will use some unpacking.  News about Jesus had reached John in his prison cell (See 3:20). Even in prison, his followers looked to him for leadership and kept him informed of the outside world. John then sends two of these disciples to Jesus. Things had not worked out exactly as John expected, and perhaps some confusion about who Jesus was began to set in. Was this the savior? Or should they look somewhere else?
 
Jesus did not answer immediately. What he did was heal, teach, forgive, and do those things that Jesus was wont to do on any and every occasion. He didn’t answer with words, rather, with actions. He took care of people, he healed, cast out evil spirits, and restored them to the lives that they had been separated from for too long.

In the midst of this work, he leans over to them and says, essentially, “Tell him what you saw.” They did, and then Jesus addressed the crowds that were with him. He uses snippets from Isaiah as he describes his ministry to John’s two disciples. Three types of actions typify what Jesus did—healing, resurrecting, and preaching the good news.
 
Now, we don’t know how John took this message when he received it. Luke ignores what questions we might have about. Rather, he focuses on Jesus and what Jesus says next. Jesus makes his case with a beatitude or a statement of blessing people who act in a certain way. This beatitude focuses on people’s response to Jesus. He desperately didn’t want people to miss the messiah due to what they were expecting a messiah to be. He uses the idea of John the Baptist to remind people that what they expect is not always what they get but what they need.

He then points out there seems to be nothing he can do that won’t be seen as negative in the eyes of some.  They called John the Baptist possessed by a demon because he didn’t eat and drink, but they also said that Jesus was a glutton because he did. Jesus is essentially making the case that there is no winning around some people.
 

1. Do you know anyone like that, who is never happy, but keeps moving the goalposts on what is appropriate and what isn’t for other people? 
2. Do you think that Jesus answered the two disciples corrrectly? 
3. The last quote is worth remembering: “But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it!”