John The Baptist Asks If Jesus Is The Messiah (Mt. 11:1-6)

When Jesus finished giving these commands to his twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.  2 When John heard in prison of the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to him 3 with this question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” 4 Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. 6 And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

John’s divine mission was to be the herald of the Messiah (Jn. 1:23; Is. 40:3).  John was imprisoned and beheaded on the orders of Herod Antipas because he told Herod it was unlawful for him to have the wife of one of his brothers (Mt. 14:3-4; Lv. 18:16).  When he was imprisoned, John already knew that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah (Jn. 1:29-34).  Also, when John was imprisoned Jesus left Galilee, went to Capernaum, and began his Galilean ministry (Mt. 4:12-14).  When John heard about Jesus’ works, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another (v. 3)?” Since John knew that Jesus was the Messiah it is likely that he sent his disciples to Jesus for instruction and for them to get confirmation that Jesus was the Messiah.  John most likely knew what would happen to him when he said, “He must increase; I must decrease (Jn. 3:30).”  Jesus describes to John’s disciples the signs and wonders he was doing.  Jesus’ work was the fulfillment of what the OT prophets said would be signs of the Messiah and his kingdom (Is. 26:19, 29:18-19; 35:5; 61:1).  Jesus said that anyone who accepted his works as signs of the Messiah would be blessed.

Almighty God, grant us the grace to follow the teaching of your Son, no matter the cost, as your plan of salvation unfolds.  This we pray through Christ our Lord.  Amen!

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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.

                Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.