The Stumbling Block of God Text: Matthew 11:1-6
Introduction: The Crisis in the Dungeon
We come now to a moment of profound crisis, not on a battlefield or in a king's court, but in the damp, dark confines of a prison cell. Here we find the greatest man born of woman, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, the roaring lion of the wilderness, wrestling with a crippling doubt. This is not the story we would have written for him. John was the man who prepared the way of the Lord, the one who preached an axe laid to the root of the trees, a baptism of fire, and a winnowing fork in the hand of the coming King. He expected judgment, a swift and terrible cleansing of Israel. And what did he get? He got Herod's dungeon, and reports from the outside of a Messiah who was healing lepers and eating with tax collectors.
The reports did not match the sermon. The reality did not align with the expectation. And so, from the darkness, John sends his disciples with a question that cuts to the very heart of the gospel: "Are You the One, or do we look for another?" This is a foundational human question. We all have our expectations of God. We have a script written in our heads for how He ought to run the world, how He ought to fix our lives, and how He ought to bring His kingdom. And when God goes off script, as He is wont to do, we find ourselves in John's dungeon. We are tempted to ask if we have believed in vain, if we should start looking for another god, a tamer god, a more predictable god, one who conforms to our agenda.
But Jesus's response to John is His response to us. It is a call to abandon our scripts and to read His. It is a call to find our footing not on the shifting sands of our expectations but on the solid rock of His revealed Word and His finished work. What we have here is a master class in dealing with doubt, and a profound revelation of the nature of Christ's kingdom. It is a kingdom that does not storm the gates of power the way men expect, but one that invades the world with a quiet, inexorable power that raises the dead and gives sight to the blind.
The Text
Now it happened that when Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.
Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for someone else?"
And Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you hear and see:
the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.
And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me."
(Matthew 11:1-6 LSB)
The Unwavering Christ and the Wavering Prophet (v. 1-3)
The scene opens with a contrast. Verse 1 shows us Jesus, faithfully executing His mission.
"Now it happened that when Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities." (Matthew 11:1)
Jesus is steady. He has given the marching orders to His disciples, and now He is carrying on with His own work. The imprisonment of His forerunner does not derail the mission. God's sovereign plan is never held hostage by the circumstances of His servants, no matter how faithful. While John is in chains, the kingdom of God is advancing. This is a crucial comfort. The work of God does not depend on our freedom, our health, or our feelings. It depends entirely on the faithfulness of Christ.
Then, in verses 2 and 3, the camera shifts to the prison cell. John is not just physically captive; he is spiritually embattled.
"Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, 'Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for someone else?'" (Matthew 11:2-3)
Let us be clear. This is not the petulant doubt of a man who has lost his nerve. This is the theological crisis of a man whose categories are being shattered. John is the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. He stands at the hinge of history, looking forward with the lens of Malachi and Isaiah. He preached a Messiah who would come with fire (Matt. 3:11-12). He expected the chaff to be burned. Instead, he hears of a Messiah who is gentle and lowly, a Messiah of mercy. The axe is not falling. Herod is still on his throne, and John is in Herod's prison. The works of Christ seem to contradict the prophecies of John.
His question is born of this tension. It is a collision of two ages. John represents the severity and the righteous expectation of the Old Covenant. Jesus is inaugurating the surprising grace of the New. John's honesty here is exemplary. He does not murmur in the dark. He does not allow his doubt to fester into bitterness. He sends his question directly to the source. He brings his struggle into the light, to the feet of Jesus. This is the proper course for every believer. When you find yourself in a dungeon of doubt, you must send word to Jesus.
The Scriptural Answer (v. 4-5)
Jesus's answer is not a simple "yes," nor is it a rebuke. It is a profound redirection. He points John's disciples away from John's expectations and toward the testimony of Scripture.
"And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Go and report to John what you hear and see: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.'" (Matthew 11:4-5)
Jesus essentially says, "Go back and tell John to check his Bible." Every single item on this list is a direct fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, particularly from the book of Isaiah. "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer" (Isaiah 35:5-6). "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me... to bring good news to the afflicted" (Isaiah 61:1). Jesus is telling John, "You had the right book, John, but you were looking at the wrong chapter. You were expecting the final judgment, but I am fulfilling the prophecies of restoration and healing first. The kingdom is here, but it is advancing in a way you did not anticipate."
This is not a political revolution; it is a biological and spiritual one. The kingdom is advancing not by overthrowing Herod, but by overthrowing death, disease, and demonic blindness. The invasion is happening at the molecular level. This is how God builds His kingdom, not with the bombast of men, but with the quiet, creative power of His Word. The greatest sign, the climax of the list, is that "the poor have the gospel preached to them." The spiritually bankrupt, the outcasts, the nobodies, are being brought into the family of God. This is the central miracle from which all the others flow.
Jesus's answer establishes a vital principle: our experiences and expectations must always be submitted to the authority of Scripture. When reality seems to contradict what we believe, our task is not to question God, but to question our interpretation. We must allow the Word of God to define our reality, not the other way around.
The Blessedness of Not Stumbling (v. 6)
Jesus concludes His response with a beatitude that is also a gentle warning.
"And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me." (Matthew 11:6)
The word for "offense" is from the Greek skandalizo, from which we get our word scandal. It means to be tripped up, to be caught in a snare, to stumble. Jesus is, and always has been, the great stumbling block (1 Peter 2:8). People are scandalized by Him. Why? Because He refuses to fit into the neat little boxes we construct for Him. The Jews were offended because He was not the political Messiah they wanted. The Greeks were offended because the cross was foolishness to them. And modern men are offended because He is not a therapist, a social justice warrior, or a cosmic butler who exists to affirm their choices.
The offense of Christ is that He is Lord, and we are not. He saves on His terms, not ours. He builds His kingdom His way, not ours. He offers mercy when we might demand judgment, and He will bring judgment when we are demanding tolerance. He forgives people we think are unforgivable and makes demands we think are unreasonable. He is the rock upon which many are broken, and the rock upon which His church is built.
The blessing, then, is for the one who abandons his own script. The blessing is for the one who, like John, brings his doubts to Jesus and is willing to have his expectations corrected by the Word. It is for the one who trusts that even when he is in a dungeon, Christ is on the throne, faithfully carrying out the Father's will. Blessed are those who are not scandalized by a Savior who heals lepers instead of killing Romans. Blessed are those who are not offended by a God whose ways are not their ways.
Conclusion: The Unoffendable Heart
John the Baptist's crisis is our crisis. We live in an age that is perpetually offended by the claims of the historic Christian faith. We are told that the exclusivity of Christ is arrogant, that the moral demands of Scripture are bigoted, and that the sovereignty of God is monstrous. The temptation is to trim the gospel, to create a more palatable Jesus, one who would never cause anyone to stumble.
But a Jesus who never offends anyone is a Jesus who cannot save anyone. The gospel is necessarily offensive to the proud heart because it begins with the declaration that we are sinners in need of a Savior. It tells us that our own righteousness is as filthy rags and that we can only be saved by grace through faith in another.
The call for us is the same as the call to John. Look at the works of Christ as they are revealed in the Scriptures. See how He fulfilled the prophecies. See how He opened blind eyes, cleansed lepers, and raised the dead. And see, above all, how He went to the cross to become the ultimate stumbling block for our sin, bearing our shame, so that we might receive His righteousness. He is still doing this work. Through the preaching of the gospel, He is still opening the eyes of the spiritually blind, He is still cleansing the leprous of soul, and He is still raising the spiritually dead to new life.
Our blessing is found when we cease from our own works and our own expectations, and we rest entirely in His. It is found when we joyfully submit to the King who rules in a way that confounds the wise of this world. Let us therefore pray for unoffendable hearts, hearts that trust Him even from the dungeon, knowing that our King is at work, and His kingdom will come in His way, and in His time.