Misreading Intent

In the opening verses of Matthew 11, the reader is confronted immediately by John the baptizer who has been imprisoned since 4:12. John poses a question to Jesus, inquiring from prison as to whether or not he is Israel’s awaited Messiah or if they should anticipate another: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matt 11:3 ESV). The response of Jesus is fascinating. He responds by instructing John’s messengers to report back what they have witnessed: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Jesus, then, concludes with a message emphasizing the importance of not being offended (σκανδαλίζω) by him.

Since readers are prone to read Matthew’s gospel alongside the other synoptic gospels, questions naturally arise about why John suspects Jesus might not be the promised Messiah. After all, they were relatives (Lk 1:36), and it’s easy to think that relatives within small towns outside of big cities know things about each other. Jesus being the Son of God or Israel’s Messiah would probably be a memorable family conversation at some point in time, leaving it difficult to imagine John not knowing somehow. But such meanderings through other synoptics miss Matthew’s literary point: John seeks public confirmation of Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. Modern suspicions of his personal doubt are misplaced and outside Matthew’s focus.

Wilderness Setting

Preceding this exchange in Matthew 11, Jesus had just called his twelve apostles (10:5–42), instructing them to focus their efforts on “the lost sheep” of Israel (10:6), proclaiming the imminence of the kingdom of heaven and performing miraculous acts:

Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay (10:5–8).

In the preceding discourse (ch. 10), the twelve apostles (ἀποστόλων, 10:2) are portrayed like the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel in the wilderness, sent (ἀποστέλλω, 10:5, 16) into the promised land to spy it out, and Jesus, like Moses, is the representative of Israel throughout this mission (Num 13:1–2, 17–20). The twelve apostles are then sent into the land starting in chapter 11 with the unique authority of Jesus resting on them. It is before the twelve begin their mission that John sends his disciples to confirm whether or not Jesus is the one promised to come.

Jesus doesn’t answer John’s question with a direct “yes” or “no.” Instead, he points to his deeds from chapters 8–9 before choosing and sending his twelve apostles into the land. In chapters 8–9, Matthew documents ten marvels of healing and restoration performed by Jesus, and the only explanation we are given for such compassionate deeds is because the people were like “sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36).¹ This echoes Moses’ concerns for the Israelites in the wilderness (LXX Num 27:17). The works speak for themselves. John’s curiosity is evidently satisfied.

Messianic Proof

Although Jesus’s answer to John’s concerns might remain enigmatic for readers today, I’m convinced that these echoes of Israel’s life and story are essential for understanding the placement of John’s concern about Jesus as the “coming one” and deciphering Jesus’s response, including his beatitude, “blessed is the one not offended in me” (Matt 11:6). In the narrative section of chapters 8 and 9, which Jesus references in chapter 11, the people of God are wandering in a wilderness of barren spiritual leadership, and Jesus is in their midst to restore them to fullness.² There, in chapters 8–9, Jesus is quenching their spiritual thirst and bearing their infirmities so they can walk on the path toward holiness which John the baptizer preached about (3:1–3). Within that wilderness setting, Jesus gives sight to the blind, strength to walk for those who are lame, as well as the ability to hear for those who were previously deaf. And lest we forget, such signs of authority are the credentials that Jesus presents to John when asked if he is “the coming one” (11:2–5).

This wilderness imagery aligns almost too well with John’s ministry spoken of by the prophet Isaiah (Matt 3:3; cf. Is 40:3). In Isaiah 35, the prophet foretells a transformation of the wilderness into a flourishing landscape where God himself would be made known as the one to come and restore the desolation of his people (35:4). In that proclamation, Israel is fatigued like a man with weak hands and knees wandering around (35:3–4), and when their Lord comes to save him, the blind would receive sight, the deaf would hear again, the lame would walk upright, and the thirsty would find water in abundance, all of which signified Israel’s promised restoration to the “glory” and “majesty” of great cities and even the glory and majesty of God himself (35:2). Isaiah describes pools of water that would cool the scorching heat of burning desert sand and streams of water to quench the thirsty ground they walked on. Even the places where wild jackals used to lie down and wait for their prey in this wilderness would become inhabitable because of the great flood of salvation promised to come (35:6b–7). A highway to holiness would be paved for the people of God (35:8), and the redeemed ones, the “ransomed of the Lord” (35:10), would walk on this highway while singing with everlasting joy on their way into the city of Zion.

Barriers to God

When Jesus begins his public works ministry in Matthew 8, three distinctive accounts of healing occur in order: Jesus heals a leper first, a Gentile second, and a woman third. Some scholars suggest that these three categories share similarities with the three artificial boundaries of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem which limited access to those who wished to draw near to God (as Josephus tells it, J.W. 5.5; Ant. 15.11). Outside of Herod’s temple there was a court for women surrounded by a court for Gentiles surrounded by another outer court. A leper was not allowed within the temple walls at all, a Gentile was not allowed access beyond the court of Gentiles, and women were not allowed beyond the court of women. In Matthew’s gospel, the first objective of Jesus’ ministry is to restore access to God. By addressing this issue in this manner, Jesus’ healings signal the fulfillment of the messianic promise to remove barriers to God, thereby prompting John’s question from prison about whether Jesus is the “coming one.” Matthew portrays John’s question not as doubt but as a plea for Jesus to publicly confirm he is their Messiah.

The good news proclaimed by Isaiah was that God’s people would draw near to Yahweh in the city of Zion. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus draws the people near to him. Yahweh’s prophetic message through Isaiah was that he would come to save his redeemed ones and there would be credentials to show for it. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus comes and is saving them and not just with a promise of eternal life but in the most practical, humane ways too by attending to both physical and spiritual ailments. The credentials he offers are evident, so much so that by the time John reaches out through his own disciples, Jesus has already called twelve of his own apostles to open the floodgates of healing and restoration. Such was a scandalous offense to those who idolized Jerusalem’s temple or trusted the Judaean authorities more than their God dwelling in their midst.³ John was indeed the one of whom Isaiah spoke as “the voice of the one crying in the wilderness” straightening a highway through it for Israel’s God (Matt 3:3; cf. Is 40:3). John called for a paving of the way to the Christ that was necessary for the great ingathering of God’s people thereafter.

Mission Accomplished

Although Herod’s temple drew people from across the empire to learn of Israel’s God, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, the “coming one,” redirects this flow like an avulsion in a river’s course: the main channel to Herod’s temple is suddenly disrupted, and the waters of discipleship surge toward Jesus instead (chapters 8–9). He then commissions twelve apostles to help sustain this mission (ch. 10). Imprisoned and nearing death, John the Baptizer hears about “deeds of the Christ” (Matt. 11:2) and requests public confirmation that his own cry in the wilderness about the Messiah’s arrival was not in vain. Jesus then points to his own deeds in chapters 8–9, fulfilling Isaiah’s vision of wilderness restoration (Isa. 35:3–7). By doing so, he affirms he is Israel’s Messiah without making a direct claim, and he assures John that his preparatory mission is accomplished. “And blessed,” Jesus says, “is the one who is not offended by me.”⁴

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Jonathan E. Sedlak is a graduate of the Theopolis Institute. He is an independent scholar based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the author of Reading Matthew, Trusting Jesus: Christian Tradition and First-Century Fulfillment within Matthew 24–25.

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NOTES

1. Matthew’s literary structure for these ten pericopes of healing and restoration is arranged in three triads:
   
   1: A leper (8:1–4)
   2: A Centurion’s child (8:5–13)
   3: Peter’s mother–in–law (8:14–17)
   Narrative interlude about disciples that “follow” either the scribes or Jesus (8:18–22)
   4: On the sea with his disciples: Calms the sea (8:23–27)
   5: Across the sea in the city: Casts demons out of men (8:28–34)
   6: Back across the sea in his own city: Comforts and heals a paralytic (9:1–8)
   Narrative interlude about disciples that “follow” either the Pharisees or Jesus (9:9–17)
   7 and 8: A dead daughter and bleeding woman (9:18–26)
   9: Blind men (9:27–31)
   10: A demon–possessed, mute man (9:32–34) ↩︎
2. Most scholars identify chapters 8–9 as a narrative section surrounded by sections of discourse. For an outline of Matthew’s literary structure, see my post on the Theopolis Blog, “Reading Matthew, Identifying Discourses: A Closer Look at the ‘Six–Discourse’ Proposal”, June 26, 2025. ↩︎
3. Matthew records the term to “offend” in multiple places across his gospel. The verbal form is σκανδαλίζω from which we get our word “scandalize.” Matthew’s repeated use of this word occurs in a variety of forms, painting a richer picture than our modern and vague interpretation of “offense” from someone or something. The verb σκανδαλίζω denotes snaring, tripping, stumbling, causing one to fall down, slow down, or be stuck (and left behind). It is frequently interpreted into English euphemistically as causing “offense” (Matt 11:6; 13:57; 15:12; 17:27) or committing “sin” (Matt 5:29, 30; 18:6, 8, 9) when its natural meaning pertained to tripping and falling (Matt 13:21; 24:10; 26:31, 33; cf. 1 Cor 8:13; 2 Cor 11:29). Due to the repetition of σκανδαλίζω and its variations across Matthew’s gospel, I think it’s helpful to prioritize each occurrence in its sense of stumbling, falling, causing to stumble, fall. On the use of repeated words and phrases like σκανδαλίζω across Matthew’s gospel and how they shape its plot and characters, see Janice Capel Anderson, Matthew’s Narrative Web: Over, and Over, and Over again, JSNTSup 91 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993).
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4. In response to John’s question, Jesus connects “stumbling” (or being “offended”) to John’s concern. But what does John’s question truly express? Is he doubting Jesus, or is he urging Jesus to publicly declare himself as the Christ? I believe it’s the latter. Jesus’ response is undeniably cryptic, as Matthew intends. This cryptic nature reflects Jesus’ reluctance at this point in the narrative to openly proclaim himself as Israel’s Messiah. Instead, he demonstrates his authority through miracles and teachings which are sufficient to inspire trust. However, certain rulers and their disciples in Israel are clearly offended by his refusal to affirm his messiahship publicly. This theme of “stumbling” intensifies across Matthew’s narrative and remains significant through chapter 18, a discourse entirely about “stumbling” caused by the misuse and abuse of the keys given to Jesus’ apostles. This discourse follows Jesus’ instruction not to reveal his messiahship to anyone (16:20) before he enters Jerusalem in Matthew’s account. ↩︎