Daily Bible Reading 24th June 2026 // Luke 7:18-23
18 The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, 19 calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 20 And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” 21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. 22 And he 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. 23 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
In the next place, we should notice that it is an appeal to reason that Jesus makes. He says, in effect, to John: 'Think, man! What is Messiah supposed to do? Is not this, that I am doing, the work of Messiah? Can you not put two and two together and see that I am He?' In this connection, we need to recognize that Jesus, in giving John answers couches what He says in Messianic terms. John, in asking, 'Art Thou He that should come?', himself used Messianic categories, for 'He that should come' was a well-known Messianic phrase, used to describe the One who would meet men's deepest needs. In the same way, Jesus answers him in kind, for the words and phrases He uses are all filled with Messianic ideas (cf Isaiah 29:18ff; 35:5ff; 61:1ff). It is as if He had said, 'What kind of Messiah were you thinking about, John? Is not this His work that I am doing?' We should also note something else. Jesus did not answer the questions and questioning in John's mind. There was no explanation of why he was left to languish in prison (although after John's disciples had left, Jesus said something that indicated that the imprisonment was perhaps integral to the divine purposes and was fruitful in the work of the kingdom. Earlier, John had said, 'He must increase, I must decrease' (John 3:30) and this was literally happening. His imprisonment was perhaps the seed-bed from which the flowers of the gospel were to come in the future. And even when John was bewailing his uselessness, Jesus was calling him the greatest of the prophets and the forerunner of the gospel. His martyrdom, indeed, was a foreshadowing of that death that was to bring life to the world). But Jesus gave him no explanation of it then, and for this reason: there are some things that will necessarily remain in the dark, some questions that will never be answered, some perplexities that will never be clear. But these are never real barriers to faith! There is always enough evidence for faith to dawn and doubt to depart, in the word that is preached. Jesus, in 23, is in fact implying, 'Even if there are things you cannot understand, John, trust Me. There is ample evidence for you to do that.'