The Unscandalized Blessing Text: Luke 7:18-23
Introduction: A Question from the Dungeon
We live in an age of brittle faith. We have Christians who are perpetually in a "crisis," whose faith is "deconstructing," and who are "re-examining their relationship with the church." And most of this drama unfolds from the comfort of a suburban living room with a smartphone in hand. But before we consider our own delicate spiritual sensibilities, we must first go to a dungeon. We must go to the cold, damp cell of the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist.
This is a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. This is the man who stared into the face of Jesus and declared, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" This is the man who preached an axe-and-fire Messiah, a Lord with a winnowing fork in His hand. And now he is in prison, awaiting execution at the whim of a petty, incestuous tyrant. The axe he preached about seems to be falling on his neck instead of on the dead wood of Israel. The kingdom he announced does not feel like it has arrived.
And so, from this place of darkness and apparent defeat, he sends his disciples with a question. And it is a hard question. It is a question that reveals a tension between the promise he preached and the reality he was living. But we must see that John's question is not the cynical, self-serving doubt of our modern age. It is the honest, rugged question of a true believer whose expectations are being gloriously and violently rearranged by the sovereign plan of God. Jesus' answer to him is therefore an answer for all of us, whenever we find ourselves in a prison of circumstance, wondering if the Messiah is truly who He says He is.
The Text
And the disciples of John reported to him about all these things. Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are You the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?" When the men came to Him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?’" At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and He granted sight to many who were blind. And He answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me."
(Luke 7:18-23 LSB)
The Prophet's Perplexity (vv. 18-20)
We begin with the question that drives the narrative.
"Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, 'Are You the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?'" (Luke 7:19 LSB)
Let the weight of this settle. John had seen the Spirit descend like a dove. He had heard the voice from Heaven. His confidence at the Jordan was absolute. What has changed? His circumstances. John preached a Messiah who would bring judgment, who would clear the threshing floor. But Jesus was not behaving like that. He was eating with sinners, touching the unclean, and healing the sick, all while the corrupt political and religious systems continued unchecked. Herod was still on the throne, and John was in Herod's prison.
John's confusion was theological. He had the right book, but he had underlined the wrong passages, or at least, he had them in the wrong order. He was expecting the Messiah of Malachi 4, but he was getting the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. He was looking for the conquering king, but he was getting the gentle healer. His question is essentially, "Did I misunderstand the job description?"
This is a profound lesson for us. Our faith is often tested not by a lack of belief in God, but by our rigid, preconceived notions of how God is supposed to act. We build a box for God based on our desires, our politics, or our systematic theology, and when He refuses to get in it, we are tempted to wonder if He is "the One." John's question is born of a collision between his faithful expectation and Christ's sovereign, unfolding plan.
The Empirical Answer (v. 21)
Jesus' response to this raw, existential question is remarkable. He does not offer a philosophical discourse or a theological treatise. He puts on a show.
"At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and He granted sight to many who were blind." (Luke 7:21 LSB)
Before He gives a verbal answer, Jesus gives a visible one. He doesn't just talk about the kingdom; He demonstrates it. The kingdom of God is not a set of abstract principles; it is an invasion. It is the power of God actively pushing back the curse of the Fall. Where Adam's sin brought disease, affliction, demonic oppression, and blindness, Christ's power brings healing, freedom, and sight.
This is a direct assault on any Gnostic or hyper-spiritualized version of Christianity that thinks the gospel is only about saving souls for a disembodied afterlife. The gospel is about the restoration of all things. Jesus came to redeem man, body and soul. The miracles were not just parlor tricks to prove His divinity; they were the firstfruits of the new creation. They were tangible, historical, physical evidence that the reign of God had broken into human history. He is telling John's disciples, "Don't just listen to my words. Watch my work."
The Scriptural Answer (v. 22)
After the demonstration, Jesus provides the interpretation. And He does so by pointing them right back to the Scriptures.
"And He answered and said to them, 'Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.'" (Luke 7:22 LSB)
This answer is a mosaic of Old Testament prophecies, primarily from the book of Isaiah (Is. 29:18-19; 35:5-6; 61:1). Jesus is not simply saying, "Yes, I am the one." He is saying, "Go back to your Bibles. Read what the Messiah was prophesied to do. Now, compare that to what you have just seen with your own eyes and heard with your own ears. You do the math."
This is the foundation for all Christian certainty. Our faith is not based on a subjective feeling or a private experience. It is based on the twin pillars of historical fact, what we have seen, and divine revelation, what we have heard. Jesus performed the works that only the Messiah could perform, and in doing so, He fulfilled the words that only the Messiah could fulfill.
And notice the climax of the list: "the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM." The ultimate miracle, the capstone of His work, is the proclamation of good news. Physical healing is a wonderful signpost, but it points to the greater reality of spiritual restoration. The greatest poverty is not a lack of money but a lack of God. The greatest healing is not the opening of blind eyes but the opening of a dead heart to the good news of salvation. Jesus is telling John that the kingdom is indeed advancing, but it is advancing first through grace before it culminates in judgment.
The Scandal and the Blessing (v. 23)
Finally, Jesus concludes with a gentle warning that is also a profound beatitude.
"Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me." (Luke 7:23 LSB)
The Greek word for "take offense" is skandalizo, from which we get our word scandal. It means to be tripped up, to stumble over something. Jesus is the great stumbling block of history (1 Cor. 1:23). And what is the great scandal of Christ? It is that He is not who we want Him to be. He is who He is.
The Jews were offended because He was not a political zealot who would overthrow Rome. The Greeks were offended because the cross was foolishness. And modern man is offended because Jesus claims to be the only way, because He speaks of sin and judgment, and because He will not bend His moral law to suit our fleeting passions. We want a customizable Savior, a Messiah who will fit into our political party, endorse our social agenda, and affirm our lifestyle choices.
The temptation for John, sitting in that prison, was to be offended that Jesus was not acting like the judge he expected. The temptation for us is to be offended that Jesus allows us to suffer, that He does not fix our problems on our timetable, that His kingdom does not look like the one we would build. The blessing, therefore, belongs to the one who abandons his own script. The blessing is for the one who smashes his own idols of what the Messiah ought to be and bows before the Messiah who is. It is the blessing of surrender, of trusting His wisdom over our own, His timing over our impatience, and His character over our circumstances.
Conclusion
We all have our dungeons. They may not have stone walls and iron bars, but they are prisons nonetheless. A prison of a difficult marriage, a rebellious child, a financial crisis, a lingering illness, a deep-seated doubt. And from that place, the question comes, "Are you really the one? If you are who you say you are, why is this happening?"
And the answer Jesus gives to John is the same answer He gives to us. He points us to what He has done and what He has said. He tells us to go back to the Gospels and see His power over sin and death, culminating in the resurrection. The empty tomb is the ultimate empirical evidence. And He tells us to go back to the whole counsel of Scripture and hear His promises. What we see and what we hear must be the anchor for our souls.
Our circumstances are a shifting, unreliable foundation. Our feelings are fickle guides. But the finished work of Christ and the written Word of God are an immovable rock. The blessing comes when we stop being offended by the Lord's mysterious providence and start trusting in His revealed character. He is the One who is to come. We need not, and we must not, look for another.