Signs of the Kingdom that We can Hold and Wave
The disciples of John reported all [of Jesus’ miracles] to him. And John, calling two of his disciples, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.
“And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
If you ever wondered about second guessing yourself or having doubts about God, you have plenty of examples of great people in the Bible doing the same thing. John the Baptist was one of the greatest prophets ever, according to Jesus(!), but here he is, having his doubts.
John the Baptist was the one that said “Behold, the Lamb of God” and pointed to Jesus. John the Baptist was the one that said to Jesus “You should be baptizing me.”
But here he is, wondering from his prison. “Are you the one?”
We don’t know that he ever got an answer back before he was beheaded. The timeline isn’t clear on that part.
Jesus passed up a lot of opportunities to explicitly say that He was the Messiah. In a shrouded answer, look at how He passes the proof back to John’s disciples.
- the blind receive their sight,
- the lame walk,
- the lepers are cleansed,
- the deaf hear,
- the dead are raised up,
- the poor have good news preached to them.
There are 6 things in that list that are Jesus giving proof that He is the One.
Five of them are miraculous, to say the least.
Five of them obviously require divine intervention and a direct move from God on nature.
But one of them isn’t. One of them is something we can do right this minute, just by walking out our door or by taking a walk around a park.
If we ask “who is the poor,” I think Jesus would point us to the other young person that asked “but who is my neighbor?”
He is empowering us and encouraging us. We can preach the good news of His kingdom to anyone, and to those that receive it, they’ll see more and more reasons that He is the One who is and is to come.
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