Why Jesus Answered with Actions, Not Armies
Opening: The Spark in the Quiet
I was mulling over Matthew 11 in my quiet time when Jesus’ words jumped out: “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” Why those specific deeds—blind seeing, lame walking, dead rising? It got me wondering—what did John already know about the Messiah? The question wouldn’t let go. Here was John the Baptist, the thundering prophet of the wilderness, now caged in Herod’s prison, sending disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one, or should we wait for another?” (Matthew 11:3). Jesus doesn’t reply with a title or a throne. He points to actions—miracles that ripple with meaning. It’s a moment that begs us to dig deeper: what lens shaped John’s hope, and how did Jesus’ deeds both fit and flip it?
John’s Prison and the Messiah He Expected
Picture John: wild hair matted, voice once roaring “Repent!” now hushed by stone walls. He’d baptized Jesus, seen the Spirit descend like a dove, heard God declare, “This is my beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). That day at the Jordan, John knew—he pointed and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). But now, months later, he’s in chains, and Jesus isn’t storming fortresses. John’s own preaching had an edge: “The axe is laid to the root of the trees… His winnowing fork is in his hand” (Matthew 3:10, 12). He’d heralded a Messiah of fire and judgment, a kingdom-shaker. Yet Jesus was out there touching lepers, not toppling tyrants.
Was John doubting? Maybe. Or maybe he just needed clarity. Raised as Zechariah’s son, a priestly heir (Luke 1:5), John was no stranger to the scrolls. He’d quoted Isaiah 40:3—“Prepare the way of the Lord”—to frame his mission. He knew the Prophets’ promises: a shoot from Jesse’s stump (Isaiah 11:1), a preacher of good news to the poor (Isaiah 61:1), a healer of the blind and lame (Isaiah 35:5-6). Zechariah 9:9 even hinted at a humble king—“your king comes to you… riding on a donkey”—a detail easy to miss amid cries for liberation. Under Roman rule, John might’ve blended these with a hope for deliverance. He knew the Messiah’s deeds would signal God’s reign. But which deeds?
Jesus’ Answer: Deeds That Echo Isaiah
Jesus’ reply is no offhand remark. “Go and tell John what you hear and see,” he says, “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:4-5). These aren’t random—they’re a checklist from Isaiah’s playbook. “The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer” (Isaiah 35:5-6). “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… to proclaim good news to the poor” (Isaiah 61:1). Jesus isn’t just doing miracles—he’s fulfilling prophecy, step by step.
Why the specificity? Because John knew the script. Jesus’ answer leans into that knowledge: “You’ve read the signs; here they are.” It’s confirmation tailored to a prophet’s lens. But notice what’s missing—no axe, no fire, no Roman ruin. Where John saw a winnowing fork, Jesus offers a healing hand—echoing Zechariah’s lowly king more than a warrior. The Messiah’s deeds signal God’s kingdom, yes, but they prioritize mercy over might, renewal over revolution. “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me,” Jesus adds (Matthew 11:6)—a gentle nudge. Was John tripped up by a Messiah who didn’t match the full picture he’d painted?
The Gap: Judgment Deferred, Compassion Now
That gap—between John’s fiery vision and Jesus’ quiet works—holds the tension. John wasn’t wrong to expect judgment; the Old Testament brims with it (e.g., Malachi 4:1, “the day is coming, burning like an oven”). Isaiah pairs healing with justice (11:4, “he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth”). Jesus would later speak of separating sheep from goats (Matthew 25:31-46). But here, the Messiah unveils phase one: compassion breaking in. The dead rise not to judge but to live. The poor hear hope, not doom.
John’s question isn’t failure—it’s human. Locked in darkness, he needed to reconcile the Messiah he proclaimed with the one he saw. Jesus’ deeds didn’t cancel the script; they reordered it. The prophets fused near and far—restoration now, reckoning later. Isaiah 53 whispers this too: a servant “pierced for our transgressions” (v. 5), bearing grief before bringing glory. Jesus lives that split: the “already” of mercy, the “not yet” of wrath. John’s lens wasn’t blurry; it just hadn’t zoomed out to the cross, where this suffering Messiah would fuse justice and mercy (Psalm 85:10).
The Deeper Truth: A Messiah for the Margins
Step back, and Jesus’ choice of deeds whispers something profound. Blind, lame, lepers, deaf, dead, poor—these aren’t power players. They’re the overlooked, the outcast. Isaiah’s promises weren’t just for kings but for the crushed (61:1, “the brokenhearted”). Jesus doesn’t march on Jerusalem; he kneels in Galilee’s dust—foreshadowing the cross, where he’d be “numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). This Messiah redefines “kingdom” not as conquest but as care. John knew the signs, but Jesus shows their soul: God’s reign begins with the least, not the loudest.
That’s where my quiet-time question landed me. If John knew the deeds, why the doubt? Because they didn’t look like triumph—at least, not yet. Jesus answered with actions that fit the ancient promises perfectly—Isaiah’s healings, Zechariah’s humility, the servant’s sacrifice—yet flipped the script on how they’d unfold. The Messiah John heralded was real, just not the shape he’d braced for.
For Us: Seeing the Signs We Didn’t Expect
John’s story mirrors ours. We too carry scripts—about God, life, deliverance. We scan for thrones when he offers touch—ultimately, a cross. I’d expected a Messiah of might too, not one whose proof was a leper’s smile or a pierced side. But that’s the point: the signs we demand aren’t always the ones we get. Jesus didn’t just answer John—he answered me, and maybe you. “Tell what you hear and see,” he says. What do we see? A kingdom sneaking in through mercy, building to a day when the axe falls true. Blessed are we if we’re not offended by it—by a Messiah who rode a donkey, bore our sins, and calls us to the margins still.