Matthew 11

At this point, John the Baptist was in prison. He was beginning to have doubts about whether Jesus was truly the Messiah so he sent some of his followers to ask Jesus directly if He was indeed the Messiah. Rather than answer directly, Jesus pointed them to the miracles He had performed and the preaching He had been doing - this was all the proof John should need.

When John's followers left, Jesus started talking about John. The crowds may have been wondering why John, the one who heralded Jesus' coming and baptized Him, would now doubt who Jesus was. Jesus wanted to remind them of John's character and role. He reminded them why they went to see John in the wilderness in the first place - not because he told people what they wanted to hear, swaying this way and that with the wind of public opinion; not because he was a well-to-do elite - they went to see him because he was a prophet. He had the most important job of anyone up until that time. He was the one who got people ready for the Messiah, but the ones who were now going out and preaching the good news of Jesus had a more important job still.

It's natural to have doubts from time to time. When those times of doubt come, we need to be pointed back to the word of God. We need to remember what we have seen personally that made us believers in the first place.


Jesus condemns the people of this generation because they were not happy with John or Jesus. Neither John nor Jesus played into what the crowd expected. Worse! The things they saw in John (he set himself apart by not eating and drinking the customary foods) which dissatisfied them became their source of dissatisfaction when Jesus did the exact opposite by attending dinners, parties, feasts and the like. There was no pleasing these people! We can't expect God to fit into the box we have prepared for Him. He is much too big for that. Instead, when we see things that don't meet our expectations, we need to change our expectations.

Specifically, some of the cities where Christ had performed miracles were rebuked because they did not repent. They had seen the miracles performed first hand. They had heard Him speak, yet they did not repent; they did not act upon what they had seen and heard. Many people say they'll believe in God when He appears before them or does something miraculous that they can see. What conceit! Here we have Jesus saying this is exactly what happened in these places and it didn't change a thing.

The gospel message is not readily received by those who think they already have all the answers. On the contrary, those who know they don't have the answer are the ones who most readily receive the message. Come to God seeking answers; don't come if you think you have it all figured out. We can know God and be reconciled to Him because of Jesus. Get to know Him if you want to know God. If you're tired from trying to please God by following some set of rules and never knowing if it's enough, Jesus has a different way. Jesus' way is free from all of the pomp and ceremony. It's so easy a child could understand it. That doesn't mean it's easy to follow the path He has set out for us, but it is not needlessly complicated with rules and regulations. And He has promised to give us the strength we need in every situation to stay the course. He will never leave you nor forsake you.