“Are You the Coming One, or are we to look for someone else?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: those who are blind receive sight and those who limp walk, those with leprosy are cleansed and those who are deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is any person who does not take offense at Me.” [Matthew 11:3-6 (NASB)]
Having quoted from Isaiah when proclaiming the Messiah’s arrival, we know John knew Isaiah’s prophecies. The Messiah would “bind up the brokenhearted [and] proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners,” [61:1] but, after spending more than a year confined to a dark cell, John had neither liberty nor freedom. It’s no wonder he doubted.
While Jesus’ answer to the Baptizer’s question seems cryptic to us, it would have made perfect sense to John. By pointing to the facts, Jesus affirmed that the days of salvation had begun. Although he was using His Messianic power in a way John hadn’t envisioned, Jesus was fulfilling the Messianic promises of Isaiah 35, 42, and 61. Jesus was, indeed, the Christ! When John’s disciples returned with a report of Jesus’ words and actions, the Baptizer’s questions were answered and his doubts erased.
Encouraging John not to give in to despair or abandon his faith, Jesus added a blessing to His message: “And blessed is any person who does not take offense at Me.” Calling this the “forgotten Beatitude,” Vines Expository Bible Notes paraphrased His words as, “Blessed is the person who does not get upset by the way I [God] handle my business.”
What follows, however, is somewhat unexpected. Lest the people think less of John for his imprisonment and doubt, Jesus bore witness to the prophet and praised him. Declaring him to be a true prophet who spoke directly for God, Jesus affirmed that John was the returning Elijah, the one to announce the Day of the Lord, and the greatest of the Old Covenant’s prophets! Clearly, John’s doubt did not diminish Jesus’ respect and love for him!
While we probably aren’t languishing in a prison cell, we will have doubts. Things happen that make our confidence waver and we begin to question things we’ve come to believe. No matter how deep our faith or how long we’ve followed Jesus, doubts and questions will arise from time to time—especially when we’re in the dark places of pain, persecution, injustice, loss, disappointment, isolation, or failed expectations.
When we can’t see or understand God’s plan, like John, we tend to doubt Him. Doubt, however, is not the same as unbelief because, like John, doubt seeks an answer when unbelief doesn’t. The Psalmists certainly weren’t shy about expressing their feelings and asking God questions. “Why do You stand far away, Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?” [10:1] “How long, Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” [13:1] “Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression?” [44:24] “Lord, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?” [88:14]
When we have questions, we must do what the Psalmists, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Job, John, and the rest of Scripture’s doubters did—trust the Lord enough to share our uncertainty, express our anxiety, and ask our questions. Let us remember the question Jesus asked while hanging on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus’ words tell us that He knows what it’s like to feel abandoned by God and they give us permission to confront God with our troubling questions in the midst of our trials and despair.
To ask is to believe that somewhere there is an answer….Far from faith excluding questions, questions testify to faith….We ask, not because we doubt, but because we believe. [Rabbi Jonathan Sacks]
At the time, Herod Antipas was the Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. While married to the daughter of Aretas IV, king of Nabatea, Antipas visited his half-brother, Herod Philip and his wife Herodias (who was the daughter of another half-brother, Herod Aristobulus) in Rome. While there, Antipas became enamored with his brother’s wife. After divorcing their spouses, he and Herodias married and lived in Herod’s palace with Herodias’ daughter Salome. Their divorces and marriage were politically explosive and religiously scandalous and John the Baptizer was outspoken in his condemnation of their incestuous sinful relationship. While marrying a niece wasn’t uncommon, Mosaic law prohibited marrying a brother’s wife except in what was called a “levirate marriage” when a brother died childless. Philip, however, was very much alive at the time! Both Herod Antipas’ reputation and his political security were threatened by John’s public condemnation of his marriage as well as his Messianic message.
While we now know what is meant by an iota and dot, jot and tittle, or yod and kots, we wonder what Jesus means by “the least of these commandments!” If the smallest letter is as important as the largest and the smallest flourish on the smallest letter in Scripture was not to be eliminated, how can there be a “lesser” commandment? The confusion again comes from reading an English translation of a Greek rendering of the original Hebrew. Jesus probably was using a popular Jewish idiom “mitsvot kalot” meaning “light” commandments, rather than “mitsvot ketanot,” meaning less important or small commandments. While this seems a bit like splitting hairs, it reflects Jewish thinking in Jesus’ day when a distinction was made between “light” and “weighty” commandments when comparing one to another.
What is a jot or a tittle? Found in the King James version, the words “jot” and “tittle” date from the 15th and 16th centuries. “Jot” comes from jota, an alternate spelling of the Greek iota (the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet) and, at the time, meant something very small. “Tittle” was a translation of keraia, a Greek word meaning “a little horn” that referred to an accent mark over a vowel. While those English words were good translations of the New Testament’s Greek, Jesus wasn’t speaking Greek when He gave the Sermon on the Mount. He was speaking Hebrew or Aramaic and the words He used weren’t iota and keraia. He would have used yod, which was the smallest Hebrew letter, and kots, meaning thorn, which was the little curve or flourish at the yod’s top distinguishing it from other letters. The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, yod sounds like a “y” and looks a bit like an apostrophe.
There are 613 commandments in the Torah/Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). But, as seen in Jesus’ interaction with the lawyer who wanted “neighbor” defined, there was room for interpretation. For example, what exactly does it mean to “honor” one’s parents? When Deuteronomy 11:18-20 says to bind “these words” to one’s hands and forehead and place them on doorposts and gates, exactly what words and how was it to be done? Work on the Sabbath is prohibited in twelve places but is the command limited to the few types of work mentioned? For that matter, what defines work?
When a nomikós (Scripture lawyer, an expert in religious law) tested Jesus by asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, the Lord countered with his own question, “What does the law say?” When the man responds with the words of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, Jesus says he’s answered correctly. Wanting clarification, he then asks, “Who is my neighbor?” His query tells us the nomikós is more interested in the letter of the law than its spirit. Apparently, he wouldn’t want to waste any love on someone who wasn’t his neighbor or miss loving someone who was! Jesus answers the man’s question with one of his best-known stories—the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Devotions of the Heart 