Luke 7:18–35
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, lepers1 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.”
24 When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus2 began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. 26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way before you.’
28 I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just,3 having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,
“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
1 Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13 2 Greek he 3 Greek they justified God
Section Overview
Jesus has shown that he is Lord over disease (Luke 7:1–10) and death (vv. 11–17), and we see in this section that he is not only greater than John the Baptist but the fulfillment of all the Baptist has proclaimed. The text has three movements. First, the Baptist sends messengers to Jesus, asking if he is truly the coming one (vv. 18–23). Jesus answers by appealing to OT texts that describe the coming of the kingdom, showing that his healings and exorcisms and his preaching about the good news fulfill what the Scriptures promise. Second, after the messengers from John leave, Jesus speaks about the Baptist’s unique role in salvation history (vv. 24–30). People flocked to see John in the wilderness because he was a prophet, and yet as a prophet he had the distinctive role of preparing the way of the Lord. Thus no OT prophet was greater than John, though even the least member of the kingdom is greater. Tax collectors and sinners who received John’s baptism declared that God was in the right, but the Pharisees refused to be baptized by John, refusing to submit to God’s will. The third section features the hard hearts of the present generation, which expresses itself in its rejection of both John and Jesus (vv. 31–35). They are like children who are not happy with anything. They do not like John’s asceticism nor Jesus’ conviviality and joy. In other words, they do not like a funeral march nor wedding songs. Still, wisdom is justified by her true children—tax collectors and sinners and all those who receive John and Jesus’ message.
Section Outline
III. Jesus Proclaims Salvation in Galilee by the Power of the Spirit (4:14–9:50) . . .
C. Good News for the Poor (6:12–8:3) . . .
3. Receptivity to Jesus’ Message by the Lowly (7:1–8:3) . . .
c. The Role of the Baptist (7:18–35)
Response
We learn from the Baptist that godly people can struggle with doubts about the truth of God’s Word. We do not commend doubt as a way to live, but we must realize that doubts come along the way, and like Jesus, we must seek to help those who are doubting or to get help if we are the ones doubting. We also see that people come up with all sorts of excuses to disbelieve. They might say that Christians are world denying if we are not as involved in society. Or they might complain that Christians are not serious enough if we participate in the things of this world. We realize as believers that we are imperfect and have a long way to go. At the same time, the excuses people give for not believing are flimsy.
Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13
Greek he
Greek they justified God
7:18–20 Luke, unlike Matthew, does not tell us that John is in prison when this event occurs (Matt. 11:2). John’s disciples see all that Jesus is doing—his healings and even the raising of the dead (cf. Luke 7:1–17; cf. 4:40–41; 5:15; 6:17–19)—and report it to John. John then sends two disciples to inquire of Jesus. He asks whether Jesus is truly “the one who is to come” or if another will fulfill that function. “The one who is to come” refers to the Messiah, the king of Israel (3:16; 4:34; 5:32; 13:35; 19:38; Acts 19:4). In Daniel 7:13–14 the Son of Man “comes” to the “Ancient of Days” to receive a kingdom. Malachi 3:1 is even more germane, for the Lord will “come to his temple” after the messenger prepares his way. Scholars dispute whether John is doubting when he asks these questions, but the Matthew parallel, where John is in prison, suggests he is. John has proclaimed fiery judgment (Luke 3:7–10, 17), and such judgment does not seem to be happening in Jesus’ ministry. The kingdom is not arriving the way the Baptist has expected.
7:21–23 When the men from John arrive, Jesus is engaged in his typical ministry, healing the sick and afflicted, freeing the demonized, and granting sight to the blind (cf. 4:40; 5:15; 6:18–19). Jesus then instructs John’s disciples to report to John what they have seen and heard. But we misinterpret the significance of what Jesus says here if we limit this to a report of what they have seen and heard him do, for Jesus also supplies an interpretation of his healings. He instructs the Baptist on the significance of his works so that John may understand what the healings communicate about Jesus’ person. The explanation picks up the themes sounded at the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry, when the Spirit anointed Jesus to proclaim good news, to announce the year of liberty and Jubilee, to grant sight to the blind, and to herald the year of the Lord’s favor (4:18–19). So too here, the healing of the blind fulfills Isaiah 29:18; 35:5. Isaiah 29 forecasts the judgment of Jerusalem, but the chapter slowly transitions to the future salvation of the people of God (Isa. 29:17–24). Isaiah 35 is a beautiful description of the coming new creation and the return of Israel from exile to Zion. Jesus continues to allude to Isaiah 35 (35:6) when he references the healing of the lame. The cleansing of lepers (cf. Luke 5:12–16; 17:11–19), the purifying of the impure, signifies that a new day has come for Israel, that a defiled people are being made holy.
The restoration of hearing to the deaf also signals the arrival of the kingdom, the coming of the new creation. The servant of the Lord will show mercy to Israel by opening the eyes of the blind (Isa. 42:7) and leading them back to their land (Isa. 42:16). Those who are deaf will hear again (Isa. 42:18). As in Luke 4:18–19, the blind and deaf are not limited to the physically blind and deaf but also include those who cannot see or hear the truth about Jesus. The inauguration of the new creation is signaled by the raising of the dead, for in the OT the resurrection means that the new age has come, the kingdom has arrived (cf. Isa. 26:19; Ezek. 37:13–14; Dan. 12:2). Jesus is proclaiming the good news of the kingdom to the poor (Luke 6:20), and when the Messiah comes he will act for the sake of the poor (Isa. 11:4; 61:1). The good news in Isaiah is return from exile, the day when the Lord brings in his kingdom (Isa. 40:9–11). We see in Isaiah 52:7 that the good news proclaimed to Zion is “Your God reigns.”
Jesus’ words for the Baptist end with a blessing for those who are not scandalized because of Jesus. Why are such words even necessary? The healings and works performed by Jesus indicate that the new age has come, and yet there has been no judgment, no destruction of the enemies. The new creation has arrived, and yet much that occurs is still typical of the old creation. Jesus is calling on John to see how the ancient prophecies are fulfilled in a surprising and astonishing way, that there is an already-but-not-yet character to the fulfillment. Thus John must not be blind and deaf to what the Lord is doing in Jesus. He must not take offense and fall prey to spiritual blindness.
7:24–25 The messengers John had sent now depart, and in Luke 7:24–30 Jesus clarifies John’s role so that the people can understand who he is. Why did the people go to the desert to see John? He was not a reed in the wilderness, shifting with public opinion, living to please others and to pander to the influential. John had a strength, a conviction, an ethical probity that was striking. He warned people of the coming judgment in uncompromising terms (3:7). He reproved Herod for marrying the wife of his brother (3:19). Nor did the people go to see John because he wore fine and soft clothing, fitting for kings and royalty. In fact, we know from Mark that John was “clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist” (Mark 1:6).
7:26–28 John was not a weak and vacillating person, nor was he royalty or from the privileged classes (cf. Luke 1:15). Still, people flocked to see him, for he was a prophet of the Lord, one who spoke, as the OT prophets did, the word of the Lord. Zechariah, speaking of his son, said, “You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High” (1:76). Still, John was “more than a prophet” in that he had a unique and unrepeatable role in the history of salvation. Jesus cites Malachi 3:1 (cf. also Ex. 23:20) to delineate John’s particular function: he was the messenger who prepared the “way of the Lord.” In the OT this reference is to Yahweh, but Jesus almost certainly refers to himself, for he is the Lord who will come to the temple in Jerusalem. John is distinguished from every other prophet in that he enjoyed the privilege of introducing the Messiah to Israel. John fulfilled the prophecy that Elijah would come (Mal. 4:5–6) before the coming of the Messiah (Luke 1:15–17; 3:4–6).
We find the reason, then, that Jesus says that John is the greatest human being up to this point. We must recognize that Jesus speaks of function, not essence. John is not essentially greater than Isaiah or Jeremiah or any other person, but he is the greatest in terms of function because he has had the privilege of introducing the Christ to Israel (cf. 16:16). On the other hand, those who live on the other side of the coming of the Christ, even one with the most insignificant ministry, is greater than John. Again, this greatness should be explained in terms of function. Citizens of the kingdom live on the other side of the cross and resurrection, and thus they can point others to the Christ with more clarity than the Baptist could. Furthermore, John could baptize only with water (3:16), but every believer can promise the gift of the Spirit to those who repent and believe (Acts 2:38; 5:32; 15:8).
7:29–30 Jesus speaks of the place of John the Baptist in remarkable terms, provoking a response from ordinary people and tax collectors. Tax collectors, as we have seen, were hated and despised because they collaborated with the Romans and often dishonestly skimmed more money than was warranted in tax assessments for their own profit. They vindicated God’s justice, which means not that they made God righteous but that they recognized that he had acted righteously. This is another way of saying that the people and tax collectors affirmed that the Baptist was sent by God. Their response to the Baptist was not simply notional; they confessed their sins and submitted to his baptism (Luke 3:12). By way of contrast, the Pharisees and those who interpreted the law did not acknowledge that the Lord was speaking through John, and thus they refused to be baptized. In other words, they did not confess their sins but claimed to be righteous (18:9–14), and thus they spurned God’s intention and will for their lives. The religious leaders, who should have been the first to respond, did not accept John’s message because of their pride and self-righteousness.
7:31–32 In verses 31–35 Jesus turns to the response to both his ministry and that of John the Baptist. He begins by asking about the nature of the present generation and to what generation they can be compared. In 9:41 he indicts his contemporaries, “O faithless and twisted generation” (cf. 11:29–32). Jesus also says that “the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation” (11:50). Israel is implicitly compared to the wilderness generation, a “crooked and twisted generation” (Deut. 32:5) and a “perverse generation” (Deut. 32:20). Jesus compares his generation directly to children congregating in the marketplace, desiring to play a game. They play a flute to engender joy and dancing, but the other children do not want to dance. So they change their tune and play a dirge, a funeral march, but the children hearing the dirge do not weep, either. They are fickle and changeable, unwilling and unsatisfied to play in any circumstance.
7:33–35 The structure of Luke 7:31–34 is as follows:
(A) Playing a flute and dancing
(B) Singing a dirge and weeping
(B') Ascetic John
(A') Celebratory Jesus
We might expect John’s ministry to be featured first, in proper chronological order, but Luke structures the text this way in order to feature Jesus’ superior ministry. Jesus considers the nature of the Baptist’s ministry: he isolated himself from normal society, living as an ascetic, refusing to drink the wine or eat the tasty food that most people enjoyed. He lived like a Nazirite in the sense that he abstained from all alcohol (1:15). As Mark tells us, John “ate locusts and wild honey” (Mark 1:6). One could see the ascetic and committed lifestyle of the Baptist and think he was devoted to God, but some rejected him as having a demon—perhaps thinking that demons made their home in the wilderness. Instead of recognizing that John was from God, they repudiated him as if he were evil.
Both Jesus and the Baptist are from God, but their ministries and mode of presentation are remarkably different. Jesus as the Son of Man does not abstain from food but eats and drinks and enjoys the company of others in social settings. He is rejected, therefore, as a “glutton and a drunkard,” which is clearly a wild exaggeration that does not accurately describe his behavior. Still, he is charged with such, in part, because he associates and eats with tax collectors and sinners (cf. comments on 5:27–32). The charge against Jesus is not an idle one, as the punishment for the charge is to be stoned as a rebel (Deut. 21:20–21; cf. Prov. 23:20–21). But, in truth, those who reject John and Jesus are the guilty ones, for their rejection of both asceticism and joyous celebration uncovers the true nature of their hearts. They do not want to do the will of the Lord.
Luke 7:35 is difficult to interpret. Matthew says that “Wisdom is justified by her deeds” (Matt. 11:19), which means that wisdom is vindicated by the works performed. The Lukan version probably means that those who are truly wisdom’s children vindicate it. Tax collectors and sinners and all who accept the good news of John and Jesus show they are wise by their response to their message, by their repentance and discipleship.