Luke 7:18-23 - Jesus Responds to Doubt

In Luke 7, Luke takes us from the “great faith” of a Gentile Roman centurion to King Herod’s prison where a great prophet is having doubts about who Jesus is. We believe that this takes place about a year and a half from the time that John the Baptist baptized Jesus and presented Him to Israel as the Savior and Messiah.   John had been in prison some months (Luke 3:19-20), but he knew what Jesus was doing because his own disciples kept him informed. It must have been difficult for this man, accustomed to a wilderness life, to be confined in a prison. The physical and emotional strain were no doubt great, and the long days of waiting did not make it easier. The Jewish leaders did nothing to intercede for John, and it seemed that even Jesus was doing nothing for him. If He came to set the prisoners free (Luke 4:18), then John the Baptist was a candidate!   It is not unusual for great spiritual leaders to have their days of doubt and uncertainty. Moses was ready to quit on one occasion (Num. 11:10-15), and so were Elijah (1 Kings 19) and Jeremiah (Jer. 20:7-9, 14-18); and even Paul knew the meaning of despair (2 Cor. 1:8-9). There is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is a matter of the mind: we cannot understand what God is doing or why He is doing it. Unbelief is a matter of the will: we refuse to believe God's Word and obey what He tells us to do. "Doubt is not always a sign that a man is wrong," said Oswald Chambers; "it may be a sign that he is thinking." In John's case, his inquiry was not born of willful unbelief, but of doubt nourished by physical and emotional strain. The truth is that we would not have the opportunity to exercise faith if we didn’t first experience doubt.   You and I can look back at the ministry of Christ and understand what He was doing, but John did not have that advantage. John had announced judgment, but Jesus was doing deeds of love and mercy. John had promised that the kingdom was at hand, but there was no evidence of it so far. He had presented Jesus as "the Lamb of God" (John 1:29), so John must have understood something about Jesus' sacrifice; yet how did this sacrifice relate to the promised kingdom for Israel? He was perplexed about God's plan and his place in it. But let's not judge him harshly, for even the prophets were perplexed about some of these things (1 Peter 1:10-12).   When John’s disciples confronted Jesus with his question, Jesus did not give the two men a lecture on theology or prophecy. Instead, He invited them to watch as He healed many people of many different afflictions. Certainly, these were His credentials as the promised Messiah (Isa. 29:18-19; 35:4-6; 42:1-7). He had not established a political kingdom, but the kingdom of God was there in power.   In verse 23, the Greek word translated "offended" gives us our English word scandalize, and it referred originally to the "bait stick" in a trap. John was in danger of being trapped because of his concern about what Jesus was not doing. He was stumbling over his Lord and His ministry. Jesus gently told him to have faith, for his Lord knew what He was doing. Jesus first came to change hearts with a spiritual internal “re-birth” (John 3:1-7).   There are many people today who criticize the church for not "changing the world" and solving the economic, political, and social problems of society. What they forget is that God changes His world by changing individual people. History shows that the church has often led the way in humanitarian service and reform, but the church's main job is to bring lost sinners to the Savior. Everything else is a by-product of that. Proclaiming the Gospel must always be our first priority.   Today, don’t get caught in caught in the devil’s trap of doubting God because He is not doing what you expected Him to do for you in the physical or material realm, but remember what Jesus has already done for you, and is continuing to do for you spiritually and internally.   God bless!