When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist
sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect
someone else?’” (Luke 7:20)
It shows even John the Baptist could fall into doubt on the
Messiah. When he was told everything about Jesus, he sent messengers to Jesus,
asking “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” The
mighty rugged prophet had a sensational ministry, giving the baptism of
repentance in the Jordan water. His message stirred up the nation and all
people from every side of country came to him to be baptized. Tax collectors,
soldiers, peasants, women and children, religious leaders, and young and old
were thronging to see this man.
Angel Gabriel told Zechariah the news of the birth of his
son and added a strange statement, saying “And he will go on before the Lord,
in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their
children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a
people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17)
Who was Elijah? He was the prophet in the northern kingdom
Israel when Ahab was king. He prophesied no rain in the land three and a half
years. He not only stopped the rain but also he prayed to begin raining in the
land. Because of this, he became the stench of King Ahab. He was very zealous for
the Lord God Almighty. When the nation and people deserted the Jehovah God and
worshipped the idol Baal, he challenged four hundred fifty prophets of Baal on
the Mount Carmel.
The prophet stood alone in the midst of over four hundred of
Baal worshipers and yet he demonstrated there was a God who could hear and act
in the human events, bringing down the fire of the Lord from heaven and
consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up
the water in the trench. Then, the prophet slaughtered all of the prophets of
Baal in the valley of Kishon.
Ironically, the mighty prophet was afraid and fled for life
for Queen Jezebel vowed to kill him. He travelled forty days and forty nights
and reached Horeb, the mountain of God and hunkered down in a cave. God came to
him and asked, “What are doing here Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:8-9) He replied, “I
have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected
your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the
sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” (1
Kings 19:10)
It is so encouraging and comforting that our God never
rebuked Elijah or called him a coward but understood him, touched him, and even
fed him by an angel.
Surely the prophet was disappointed and depressed after the
dramatic and crucial fight on the Mount Carmel according to his viewpoint. He would
have expected something dramatic to happen in the nation followed by the Carmel
challenge like a huge turnover to God from King to shepherds. Instead, he had
to run for life and hide in the cave. Nothing happened in Israel to the eyes of
prophet even after all witnessed how God in heaven manifested in power and
might.
God taught Elijah kindly and patiently how God was working
in the midst of degradation and depravity in Israel. There were a great
powerful wind, an earthquake, and then a fire but the Lord was not in them. After
the fire came a gentle whisper in which Elijah could hear. The Lord revealed a
amazing truth to the prophet, saying “Yet I reserve seven thousand in
Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not
kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18)
Even the mighty prophet Elijah did not know that there were
not seventy but seventy times one hundred in Israel who had not bowed down to
Baal. John the Baptist might have the similar problem Elijah had. He did a
great and sensational ministry in Israel and even baptized Jesus the Messiah
whom he called “the Lamb of God!” He might have expected Jesus to do even
greater things as the Promised One to come in Israel.
When our Lord Jesus was asked such a question, 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 cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed
is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” (Luke 7:22-23)
Our Lord Jesus did not come to satisfy what we wanted but to
do the will of the Father in heaven. Jesus said to His disciples, “My food is
to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34) What our
Lord Jesus said to John was the quotation from the prophecy of Isaiah. Christ
Jesus was not interested in building a popular and gigantic ministry to human
eyes but in building a new man in God.
Our Lord Jesus labored and toiled even to the point of death
in order to make a new creation in Him. He demolished the old man in Adam on
the cross and made the new man in Him with the power of resurrection. The blind
will receive sight back and walk in the light, not in the darkness. The lame will
walk straight without stumbling. The leprosy will be cleansed and washed away. The
deaf will hear clearly and no more in confusion. The dead will be raised when
they hear the voice of the Lord.
The good news is proclaimed to the poor, not to the rich. It doesn’t
mean financially poor or rich at all. As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount,
it means the poor in spirit. The good news is the good news to the poor because
they reached the point where they learned of the secret of life that never lies on
their capabilities but on the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the new man what the
Lord Jesus made through the death, burial, and resurrection.
The new man in Christ Jesus does not say what he can do but
admit that he can do nothing by himself. He always fixes his eyes on Jesus
Christ who is the pioneer and perfecter of faith and endures in the midst of
pressures and struggles until the Lord Jesus works out. Hang on tough! It’s because
our Lord is living and working to fulfill all the scriptures according to the
divine plan made before the time began.
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to
present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to
the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus
Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)
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