John the Baptist was looking for vindication, for Jesus to catch the ball he had thrown him, and make a touchdown for the winning team. Instead Jesus was doing a lot of teaching about the kingdom of God and healing. He sent his disciples 100 miles north from his prison, to ask Jesus whether he was indeed the one who was to come, the Christ, or whether they should expect someone else. In other words, he wanted to be reassured in his perplexity. He did not want to end his days backing the wrong horse. He did not want to feel that his life was wasted. He did not want to fall away from his faith. He did not want to feel that he was a failure. He had questions which needed answers.

How human, how normal, how real this picture of John the Baptist is. He is not portrayed as a spiritual superman who endured all things, suffered and was ultimately executed with nary a doubt. He encourages us to accept that all of us have these times in our lives when we are perplexed, puzzled and bewildered, and need reassurance. We fear that we are going to fall away from our faith, and end badly in bitterness and disappointment. What do we do when we feel like that? Many people, when they are going through a painful period in their lives simply disappear from church worship. They could not smile, and they did not want others to know that they were in pain. They are fearful of breaking into tears. So they stay away from the very place they needed to be in order to hear about the grace of God.

John the Baptist gives us another example. He sent his disciples to ask Jesus. We can do the same in prayer. We can do the same in asking questions of those who are near to Jesus. No question is a bad question. If John the Baptist could ask Jesus about whether he was the one who was to come, surely we can ask him anything. We should not be embarrassed by our perplexity. It is far better to ask the question than to bottle it up and let it eat at us in the prison of our minds. When such questions are asked of Jesus we should be open for him to reply in the way of his choosing. He might not answer as we expect him. John the Baptist might have expected a straight "yes" or "no" answer to his question. Instead he got a report of what Jesus was doing: a catalogue of healings, and preaching. In other words he gave him a picture of the fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah concerning the coming of the messianic age.

Jesus was telling John that his activities proved that the messianic age of blessing had arrived. God was at work in and through him as had been prophesied. He was directing John to focus on what was being done not what was not being done. He was proclaiming the good news not the bad news. When he preached in his home synagogue in Nazareth, he read from Isaiah 61:1,2

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me

because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

He stopped short of adding the next line: "and the day of vengeance of our God." (Luke 4:18,19) That would be in the future, not in the present.

John the Baptist did not see the bigger picture of God's timing. He had assumed that Jesus would preach the judgment first instead of blessing. He had only a limited picture of what the Messiah would do. He needed to know that God was working out his purposes in his own time, not John's time. His answers would come on the last day when all would be revealed.

That is why Jesus said that "among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (Matthew 11:11) John is to be honored for his ministry of preparation for the coming of the Messiah, but, as a transitional figure, he does not have the whole picture, which a member of the kingdom of heaven possesses, who has the words of Jesus through his apostles.

Our perplexity, our puzzlement, our bewilderment, is likewise due to not seeing and understanding the big picture of God's timing. "We know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:9-12)

In the meantime Jesus gives us signs of his authenticity: miracles of healing, the manifestation of the power of God, the blessings of the kingdom of heaven, the good news preached to the poor. He fulfills the prophecies of the coming kingdom of God. They are historical facts, objective truths, which can reassure us if we are willing to receive them as such. They reveal God at work in Jesus.

When we are perplexed, puzzled, bewildered, with lots of questions about our lives, when we are tempted to fall away from our faith, we need reassurance. Jesus said, "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." (Matthew 11:6) "Happy is the man who never loses his faith in me." (JBP) When we are in a hard place, as John the Baptist was, we need to know that our faith is not in vain. Blessedness, the favor of God, is upon us, as we trust in Jesus as Christ our Lord and Savior. As we trust, as we receive his word into our being, we experience his healing, his good news, his saving power. He who was to come, comes to us, even today.

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