Luke 7:19 - Meaning and Application

All this teaching about John the Baptist came after John sent people to ask whether Jesus was the Messiah. We have the same account more fully in (Matthew 11:2-19). Here we see John’s message to Christ and Christ’s answer.

The first thing to ask about Christ is whether he is the One who was to come to save sinners, or whether we should expect someone else (Luke 7:19, Luke 7:20). God has promised to send a Savior, his anointed King, and we can trust him to do what he has promised in his time. If Jesus is that promised Messiah, we should receive him and look for no other. If he is not, then we should keep waiting, even if he seems slow to come.

John the Baptist himself, or at least John’s disciples, still needed more assurance about this. Christ had not yet openly declared himself to be the Christ, and he did not want his disciples to speak of it until his resurrection gave full proof. The Jewish leaders had not owned him, and he did not seem like the kind of ruler people expected from David’s line. Nothing about his outward life showed royal power or splendor, so it was not strange for them to ask whether he was the Messiah. If he was not, they expected him to point them toward the right one.

Christ let his own works speak for him. While John’s messengers were with him, he healed many people in that same hour, which may mean they stayed only a short time. He cured diseases, cast out evil spirits that troubled people’s minds with frenzy or deep sorrow, and gave sight to many who were blind. He did many healings at once so no one could think it was a trick.

Then he told them to go and report to John what they had seen (Luke 7:22). Even ordinary people could reason this way, as in (John 7:31): when the Messiah comes, will he do more miracles than these? These miracles did more than prove his authority, they also showed what his mission was. The Messiah came to heal a sick world, give light to those sitting in darkness, and overcome evil spirits.

Christ added that same work in the kingdom of grace, the kingdom where God rules in people’s hearts. He said that good news was being preached to the poor (Luke 7:22). That was known to be one of the Messiah’s works, for he was anointed to preach good news to the humble (Isaiah 61:1), and to save the souls of the poor and needy (Psalm 72:13). So they should judge whether they could expect anyone else who matched the Messiah’s marks and purpose better than Jesus did.

He also warned them of the danger of taking offense at him, even with these clear proofs that he was the Messiah (Luke 7:23). “Blessed is anyone who is not offended by me,” means blessed is the person who does not stumble over Christ or reject him. We live in a time of testing, and that kind of testing includes enough truth to satisfy honest seekers, but also enough stumbling blocks to expose careless and worldly hearts.

Christ’s upbringing in Nazareth, his life in Galilee, the lowly standing of his family, his poverty, and the plainness of his followers all became obstacles to many people. Even the miracles could not get them past these prejudices. But the person is truly blessed, wise, humble, and rightly disposed, who does not let such things turn him away. It shows God’s grace at work in him, and he will be blessed in Christ.

Then Christ spoke highly of John the Baptist, but he waited until John’s messengers had left, so it would not sound like empty praise (Luke 7:24). He wanted the crowd to think about what they had gone out into the wilderness to see, and who John really was.

John was a man of steady character. He was not like a reed shaken by the wind, changing with every pressure. If he had bowed to Herod and agreed with the court, he might have won favor there, but nothing could move him from his duty.

He was also a man of great self-denial, a strong example of putting aside worldly comfort. He was not dressed in soft clothing, and he did not live in luxury (Luke 7:25). Instead, he lived in the wilderness and dressed and ate in a way that matched that life. Rather than pamper his body, he kept it under control.

John was a prophet, with his calling and instructions coming directly from God, not from man. He was born a priest, but Jesus does not mention that here, because his work as a prophet was greater. In fact, he was more than a prophet (Luke 7:26), greater than any of the Old Testament prophets, because they spoke about Christ from far away, while John spoke of him as already near.

He was also Christ’s forerunner, the one sent ahead to prepare the way. The Old Testament had already spoken of him in (Luke 7:27) and (Malachi 3:1): “I send my messenger before your face.” Before sending the Master himself, God sent a messenger to announce his coming and prepare people to welcome him. If the Messiah had been coming as an earthly king, as the worldly Jews expected, his messenger would have come with military display or royal ceremony. But John came preaching repentance and a changed life, which shows that Christ’s kingdom was not of this world.

For that reason, John was so great that there had never been a greater prophet born of women. Prophets were among the highest and most honored of people, above kings and princes, and John stood above them all. The nation did not realize what a priceless man it had while John the Baptist preached and baptized.

And yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. The humblest gospel minister, if the Lord has shown him mercy to make him skilled and faithful in his work, or the least of the apostles and first preachers of the gospel, serve under a far better arrangement than John the Baptist did. The least who follow the Lamb far outshine the greatest who came before him. So those who live under the gospel have more light and more privilege, and therefore more to answer for.

Christ then gives a fair judgment on the people of that time, who were not moved by the ministry of either John the Baptist or Jesus himself. He first shows how John was treated with contempt while he preached and baptized. The people who did honor him were only the ordinary crowd, who seemed to the proud people of the world more like a shame than a credit to him (Luke 7:29). The common people, the crowd who were often looked down on, and the tax collectors, men with a bad reputation because of their loose morals or because people thought they had them, were baptized with John’s baptism and became his disciples.

These people were shining proofs of God’s grace, but they did not make John look impressive in the eyes of the world. Yet by their repentance and changed lives, they justified God, that is, they showed God’s wisdom and right way in sending John as the Messiah’s forerunner. Their response proved that John’s ministry was the best possible way, even if others did not benefit from it. What was wasted on others was not wasted on them.

The great men of their nation, the religious leaders and educated experts, who might have honored John in the world’s eyes, did all they could to dishonor him. They heard him, but they were not baptized by him (Luke 7:30). The Pharisees, who were highly respected for religion, and the lawyers, who were known for their learning and their knowledge of Scripture, rejected God’s purpose for themselves. They made the grace offered through John’s baptism useless in their own lives. God sent that messenger with a kind purpose for their good and with their salvation in view. If they had accepted God’s counsel, it would have been for their own benefit. But they refused, and so it became against them, to their own ruin.

They missed the blessing meant for them, and more than that, they turned away the grace of God. They put a barrier in their own path, and by refusing the training that was meant to prepare them for the Messiah’s kingdom, they shut themselves out of it. They did not only keep themselves from entering, they also kept others back and stood in their way.

Christ also shows the strange stubbornness of that generation in the way they complained about both John and himself. They treated God’s efforts to do them good as a kind of game (Luke 7:31). “What shall I compare the people of this generation to?” he asks. “What picture can I use for people like this?” They are like children sitting in the marketplace, caring for nothing serious and full of play. It is as if God were merely amusing them in all the ways he tries to help them, the way children play with one another in a public square (Luke 7:32). They brushed everything off with jokes and were no more moved by it than by a child’s game.

This is the ruin of many people. They never learn to take the care of their souls seriously. Even grown leaders, sitting in the council, were like children in the marketplace, unmoved by the things that belonged to their lasting peace. What amazing dullness and emptiness there is in the blind and godless world. May the Lord wake them from their false security.

They kept finding something to criticize. John the Baptist was a withdrawn, strict man. He spent much time in solitude, and he should have been admired as humble, sober, and self-denying, and listened to as a thoughtful man. But what should have been his honor was turned into blame. Because he came neither eating nor drinking in a free and open way like others, they said, “He has a demon.” They called him gloomy, strange, even possessed, like the demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs, though John was not nearly so wild.

Our Lord Jesus was different in his manner of life. He came eating and drinking (Luke 7:34). He would dine with Pharisees, though he knew they did not care for him, and with tax collectors, though he knew they brought him no honor. Still, he spent time with both in hopes of doing them good. This shows that Christ’s servants may have very different temperaments, and very different ways of preaching and living, and yet all be useful. There are different gifts, but each one is given for the good of others. So no one should make himself the standard for everyone else, or speak harshly of those who do not act exactly as he does.

John the Baptist bore witness to Christ, and Christ praised John, even though their way of life was so different. But the common enemies of them both attacked them both. The same people who said John was mad because he came neither eating nor drinking said Jesus was morally corrupt because he came eating and drinking. “He is a glutton and a drunkard,” they said. Bad hearts never speak well. See the malice of wicked people, how they give the worst possible meaning to everything they see in the gospel, and in the preachers and followers of it. They think they are lowering them, but they are really ruining themselves.

Still, God will be honored in saving the chosen remnant (Luke 7:35). Wisdom is shown to be right by all her children. There are some who belong to wisdom as her children, and by God’s grace they are brought to submit to wisdom’s guidance and rule. In that way, they prove wisdom right in the methods she uses to bring them into that submission, because those methods work in them and show themselves to be well chosen. Wisdom’s children are united in this. They all take pleasure in the ways of grace that divine wisdom uses, and they do not think less of them because some mock them.