Matthew 11:2–11
2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.10 This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Matthew 112–11 ESV – Bible Gateway
The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture puts this chapter of Matthew into context:
Matthew 11 is a hinge chapter that swings the storyline of the Gospel into its next major phase. It begins by addressing what Jesus’ mighty words and deeds indicate about his identity. It also begins a long section, extending to 16:16, that reports how different people respond to Jesus. Some believe he is the Messiah and Son of God (14:33; 16:16). Others are sufficiently impressed to think he is a prophet (14:2; 16:14). Still others reject him and his message (11:20–24; 13:53–58). Most disturbing of all, the Pharisees accuse him of wielding the power of Satan (12:24) and begin to plot his demise (12:14).[1]
This question, from John the Baptist to Jesus, sent via John’s disciples, can be perplexing. How can John, who proclaims Jesus as the “Lamb of God” come to what appears to be doubt regarding this?
The Church Fathers also asked the same question regarding this passage and provided some interpretations:
St. Gregory. We must enquire how John, who is a prophet and more than a prophet, who made known the Lord when He came to be baptized, saying, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world!—why, when he was afterwards cast into prison, he should send his disciples to ask, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? Did he not know Him whom he had pointed out to others; or was he uncertain whether this was He, whom by foretelling, by baptizing, and by making known, he had proclaimed to be He? [2]
St. Ambrose. Some understand it thus; That it was a great thing that John should be so far a prophet, as to acknowledge Christ, and to preach remission of sin; but that like a pious prophet, he could not think that He whom he had believed to be He that should come, was to suffer death; he doubted therefore though not in faith, yet in love. So Peter also doubted, saying, This be far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee. (Mat. 16:22) [3]
St. Hilary. John then is providing not for his own, but his disciples’ ignorance; that they might know that it was no other whom he had proclaimed, he sent them to see His works, that the works might establish what John had spoken; and that they should not look for any other Christ, than Him to whom His works had borne testimony.[4]
It is easy to assume that the question John the Baptist is asking is a straightforward question whether Jesus is the Messiah. That is not the question he actually asks, but “Are you he who is to come?” This terminology provides a clear allusion to a prophecy in the book of Malachi.
Dr. Brant Pitre dives into this aspect of John’s question in Jesus’ reply.
Here Jesus alludes to a very important prophecy from the book of Malachi. I mentioned Malachi last week as prophesying that one day Elijah would come before the great and terrible day of the Lord, before the coming of the Lord (see Mal 4:5). And at the end of Malachi it also says that God is going to send his messenger to prepare his way (see Mal 3:1). So here Jesus identifies John as the messenger who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord himself (see Matt 11:10). Now that’s very interesting because a lot of times Christians assume that he’s just talking about the coming of the Messiah. But if you go look at the book of Malachi, it doesn’t say anything about the coming Messiah, it says something about the coming of the Lord, about the coming of Yahweh, about the God of Israel coming on this great day of judgment. So what Jesus is saying here is that he’s more than a prophet because he’s the one who heralds the coming of the Lord himself.[5]
John’s question might be something deeper than asking if Jesus is the expected Messiah. Whether the Messiah is something much greater than the general expectations of what the coming of the Kingdom of God means?
There are multiple ways to look at this and there might be both/and with some interpretations. He could ask this question as a teaching moment for his disciples and also asking a deeper question for himself. John was always working to point to Jesus instead of himself.
In most modern commentaries I read, there is much more openness to the idea that John had some doubts, or more accurately, some questions. I don’t believe he actually doubted in the theological sense. I refer to St John Henry Newman quote, “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.”
Is St. John the Baptist going through a dark night of the soul?
Dr. John Bergsma writes:
Even great saints can go through a dark night and experience trials of faith. Such is not incompatible with holiness. As John suffers in the physical and spiritual darkness of Herod’s dungeon, he reaches out to Jesus for consolation: “Are you the one who is to come? Don’t you know I’m imprisoned for speaking up for marriage?”[6]
When St. Thérèse of Lisieux was going through her dark night, she wrote: “I believe that I have made more acts of faith in this past year than all through my whole life.”
St. John the Baptist was not the man to wax and wane in his spiritual life, as Jesus attested when he asked if John was “A reed shaken by the wind?”
Asking questions of God when you are amid suffering is not an act of denial, but of trust. That even if you do not understand what is going on, that in God’s providence and personal love of you, that there are answers. Coming to a Jobian understanding of this is difficult because we have to put away our pride in thinking we can see everything from God’s point of view. Our asking questions of him shows we realize the intelligibility of God’s plan and that there are answers even if we can’t grasp them.
What I find interesting is that John’s question and Jesus’ answer do much more than shoring up either his own faith or the faith of John’s disciples. Jesus’ answer lets us also so that we might see God’s plan. His answer points to the passage in Isaiah, which is in the first reading today. That it was always part of God’s plan that he heal us of our infirmities. Faith removes the blindness of doubt, the dead raised into the beatific vision, those contaminated with the leprosy of sin, restored. Those who are deaf to others move out of themselves to hear and to help them.
The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture has an interesting observation on these verses:
Verses 7–15 are the mirror opposite of verses 2–6. Just as John, by asking a question, brought to light the true identity of Jesus, so now it is Jesus who poses a series of questions in order to reveal the true identity of John. And just as Jesus explained his messianic mission by alluding to Scripture, so now he explains the preparatory mission of John by referencing Scripture. The parallels are significant, for each in his own way is described as “one who is to come” (Jesus, 11:3; John, 11:14).
CCC §719: John the Baptist is “more than a prophet.” In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah. He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the “voice” of the Consoler who is coming. As the Spirit of truth will also do, John “came to bear witness to the light.” In John’s sight, the Spirit thus brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing of the angels. “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.… Behold, the Lamb of God.” (2684; 536)[7]
Sources
- The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
- Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
- The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A – John Bergsma
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
- Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
- The Gospel of Matthew, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch ↩
- St. Gregory I. Pope, A.D. 590. (Hom. in Ev. vi. 1.) Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew (J. H. Newman, Ed.; Vol. 1, p. 404) ↩
- St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, A.D. 374. (in Luc. 7. 19.) Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew (J. H. Newman, Ed.; Vol. 1, p. 404) ↩
- St. Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, A.D. 354. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew (J. H. Newman, Ed.; Vol. 1, p. 404) ↩
- Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre ↩
- The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A, John Bergsma ↩
- Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference. ↩
