The Genuine Article
”Luke 7:22 (NIV) - So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. -
John the Baptist heard that Jesus Christ was working nearby where he was working and wanted to know if he was the messiah (from Hebrew mashiah, “anointed”) whose coming was foretold in the scriptures, "the genuine article" if you will. So he simply sent some of his helpers to ask him if he was and Luke 7:22 tells us what Jesus told them. Many might ask "what does all the healing have to do with it?" or say "this is not what John asked". But I think we should remember that almost everything Jesus did was to provide us with a "teachable moment". By his power and authority Jesus could heal earthly maladies as he did in Luke 7:22 but the bigger picture and more importantly is he can heal our spiritual "blindness", "lameness", "leprosy", "deafness" etc. if we let him. Jesus often used sick people to describe the condition of the world and calls himself the doctor it needs (Mark 2:17 NIV - On hearing this, Jesus said to them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.) - It's natural for us to think (in a spiritual sense) that we don't need a doctor because we're not sick. That's exactly what the Pharisees (a Jewish denomination of Jesus's day) thought, but Jesus told them they were wrong. He is the only "doctor" that can treat our sins and we need his medicine. What About Jesus?
John the Baptist heard that Jesus Christ was working nearby where he was working and wanted to know if he was the messiah (from Hebrew mashiah, “anointed”) whose coming was foretold in the scriptures, "the genuine article" if you will. So he simply sent some of his helpers to ask him if he was and Luke 7:22 tells us what Jesus told them. Many might ask "what does all the healing have to do with it?" or say "this is not what John asked". But I think we should remember that almost everything Jesus did was to provide us with a "teachable moment". By his power and authority Jesus could heal earthly maladies as he did in Luke 7:22 but the bigger picture and more importantly is he can heal our spiritual "blindness", "lameness", "leprosy", "deafness" etc. if we let him. Jesus often used sick people to describe the condition of the world and calls himself the doctor it needs (Mark 2:17 NIV - On hearing this, Jesus said to them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.) - It's natural for us to think (in a spiritual sense) that we don't need a doctor because we're not sick. That's exactly what the Pharisees (a Jewish denomination of Jesus's day) thought, but Jesus told them they were wrong. He is the only "doctor" that can treat our sins and we need his medicine. What About Jesus?
Total Comments 0
