John Was Still in Prison. Jesus Was Still the Messiah.

By Pastor John Erickson

I was thirteen when I sensed God's call to ministry. For years, I imagined what becoming a senior pastor would be like.

I pictured getting to know people, sharing meals, hearing their stories, and celebrating a new season with my family.

When that moment finally arrived, I announced it from my living room.

The pandemic had changed the setting almost beyond recognition. Instead of the conversations and shared tables I had imagined, much of the work began through video and Zoom. Leading through that season brought pain I had not expected.

The calling was real. So was the distance between what I had pictured and what happened.

That helps me listen more sympathetically to a question John the Baptist sends to Jesus from prison.

The herald asks whether he got it wrong

John is not a stranger who has heard a vague rumor. He has announced the coming One. He has called people to repentance and spoken of judgment with vivid language: an ax at the root, wheat and chaff, a fire that will not be quenched.

Then Matthew 11 finds him imprisoned.

He hears about what Jesus is doing and sends disciples to ask whether Jesus is the One who was to come or whether they should expect someone else.

That question has weight.

John has staked his life on his calling. Now, from confinement, he wants to understand the relationship between what he proclaimed and what he is hearing.

We should not pretend Matthew tells us every thought passing through his mind. But we can hear a real question without rushing to scold him for asking it.

Jesus points toward what is happening

Jesus tells the messengers to report what they hear and see: people are receiving sight, walking, being cleansed, hearing, being raised, and receiving good news.

His answer echoes the language of Isaiah's promises. He directs John toward the evidence of God's saving work taking place through him.

It is more than a list of impressive events. It answers the question of his identity from within the story of Scripture.

Jesus also speaks of the blessing of not stumbling because of him.

That can be difficult to hear. Sometimes the obstacle is not that Jesus has done nothing. It is that he has not done what we expected the Messiah to do.

We may be able to recognize his goodness somewhere else while wondering why he has not changed the circumstance immediately in front of us.

The question does not erase John's calling

After John's messengers leave, Jesus speaks to the crowd about him. He does not turn John into a cautionary tale about how doubt disqualifies a person from God's work.

He honors him as a prophet and the messenger who prepared the way.

That sequence matters.

The prison question does not erase John's whole history with God. It does not make his earlier obedience meaningless.

Some of us need to remember that when our own questions become painful. A difficult season is not a reliable verdict on the sincerity of every prayer we have ever prayed.

We can bring confusion to Jesus instead of trying to maintain a flawless spiritual reputation.

John sends the question to the very person he is struggling to understand.

That is a form of turning toward him.

The cell does not open in this scene

We must also be honest about what the story does not promise.

John is not immediately released. Jesus' answer does not change his surroundings into the outcome we would have wanted for him.

That makes this passage harder, and more important.

Christian hope cannot rest entirely on the claim that faithful people will receive rescue on our preferred timetable. Some prayers remain unresolved in this life. Some people suffer terribly while belonging deeply to God.

We should not use the story to tell them that their pain is insignificant. We should not say that a future hope makes present care unnecessary.

We can help, advocate, visit, grieve, and pray. We can also acknowledge that love for Jesus does not remove every painful question.

The Messiah's faithfulness is greater than our ability to predict his next action.

Trust a person without controlling the ending

I still like to know how things are going to turn out. I would prefer a calling with a detailed explanation and a guarantee that nobody will be disappointed in my leadership.

I did not receive that.

What I received was the opportunity to follow Jesus in a reality that did not match the movie I had played in my head.

Sometimes the faithful next step is less dramatic than we imagine. We bring the question. We listen to the testimony of Scripture. We let trusted people carry a message when we are too tired to carry it ourselves.

And we resist the conclusion that because the ending is not visible, Jesus must no longer be who he said he was.

John was still in prison. The question still mattered.

Jesus was still the Messiah.

We are allowed to hold those difficult realities together while we keep turning toward him.