Luke 7:18-35
“Notice what you notice.” Luke’s account of John the Baptist, in prison, asking about Jesus… I wasn’t going to do a comparison of Luke’s account of this incident with Matthew’s, but two items jumped out at me. First, however, I had something wrong yesterday. As I had noted, Jesus answered John’s question with His “what you have seen and heard” comment (v. 22). But then John’s disciples departed before they heard Jesus lauding John with His “no one greater than John” comment (v. 28). So John was affirmed in his doubt, but was not made aware of Jesus’ further comment lauding John. Just that…
As to those two items that struck me today… The first is verse 21, In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. This sentence does not appear in Matthew’s Gospel. John had asked for confirmation from Jesus as to Who He was. Matthew simply has Jesus replying about “the blind…”, etc.), while Luke has Jesus demonstrating His healing powers before replying. I always had in mind Matthew’s text, so Luke’s additional sentence surprised me. I had to go back and double-check Matthew’s account.
The second item is that verses 29 and 30 also do not appear in Matthew’s Gospel: (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.). So Luke writes that tax collectors have already received John’s baptism, but that the Pharisees and lawyers had rejected it (not surprising). So when we see tax collectors coming to Jesus and “receiving” Him, it’s less surprising in that they were already prepared for Jesus’ message of the Kingdom since they had surrendered to John’s message of repentance. Reminds me of Paul’s comment, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (I Corinthians 3:6). John had no idea that he was planting a seed that would see full growth in Jesus’ ministry. Likewise, we never know how our words, simply spoken, can have greater meaning well down the road.
Finally, one other small item on these verses – it’s further surprising that the ESV has these verses as a parenthetical expression. Not so in the NASB or NKJV. Why, I wonder…?
Slava Bohu!