Jesus's answer to John the Baptist

Sight given by Jesus. Sight restored. Matthew 11:2-6; Luke 7:18-23.

What led up to it

John the Baptist is in prison. He sends his disciples to ask Jesus whether He is the One who was to come.

What happens

Luke says that at that very hour Jesus healed many and gave sight to many who were blind. Then He tells John's messengers to report what they have seen and heard, and the first thing on the list is that the blind receive sight.

In their shoes

When asked for proof of who He is, Jesus points to what is happening to blind people, lame people, deaf people and the poor. His words echo the promise in Isaiah 35:5. The blind are not at the edge of His work. They are the first evidence He offers.

The place and the time

What the old books and the archaeologists can add. Each paragraph names its source.

John sent his question from prison. Josephus says Herod, fearing John's hold on the people, sent him as a prisoner to the fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea, and later had him killed there. Edersheim describes the place as a frontier stronghold on sheer cliffs, built by Alexander Jannaeus and enlarged by Herod the Great.

Source: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation), Book XVIII, chapter 5; Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883), Book III, chapter XXVIII.

Opening the eyes of the blind was understood as a mark of the Messiah. Smith's calls it "a peculiar attribute" of the promised one in Isaiah 29:18 and 42:7, and Jesus's answer to John begins with the words of Isaiah 35:5. He was answering a question about who He was with the people He had healed.

Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entry "Blindness"; Isaiah 29:18, 35:5, 42:7.

The passage

Matthew 11:2-6

2 Meanwhile John heard in prison about the works of Christ, and he sent his disciples

3 to ask Him, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?”

4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see:

5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

6 Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”

Luke 7:18-23

18 Then John’s disciples informed him about all these things.

19 So John called two of his disciples and sent them to ask the Lord, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?”

20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?’”

21 At that very hour Jesus healed many people of their diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and He gave sight to many who were blind.

22 So He replied, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

23 Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”