JESUS And John The Baptist

"When John the Baptist heard in prison about the deeds of CHRIST, he sent a message by his disciples, asking him, 'Are YOU the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?'

JESUS answered them, 'Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the poor hear the good news; and how fortunate is the one who does not take offense at ME!'

As the messengers left, JESUS began to speak to the crowds about John: 'When you went out to the desert, what did you expect to see?  A reed swept by the wind?  What did you go out to see?  A man dressed in fine clothes?  People who wear fine clothes live in palaces.  What did you really go out to see?  A prophet?  Yes, indeed, and even more than a prophet.  He is the man of whom Scripture says: I send MY messenger ahead of YOU, to prepare the way before YOU.

I tell you this: no one greater than John the Baptist has arisen from among the sons of women; and yet, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.'" - Matthew 11:2-11

(The visit of the disciples of John will help us to understand what JESUS brings and what cannot be expected of HIM.

And the poor hear the good news...  JESUS' message includes a preferential love of GOD for the poor and for those who share with them in their poverty.  The Gospel is not for them also, but for them first.  This text is to be read together with Luke 1:52; 4:18; 6:20; 10:23.

It would be wrong to interpret this text as thinking that GOD only asks of us to catechize less instructed people, or those of lower condition in life.  In the time of JESUS the Pharisees already thought their duty was to teach simple and uneducated people; JESUS instead sent HIS apostles, poor among the poor, to enable them to discover the presence and working of GOD the FATHER.  The concrete life of the rural and urban poor is the context in which fundamental experiences occur that will renew the world and the spiritual life of everyone.

No one greater than John the Baptist has arisen.  This verse refers to a prophet or to a political leader.)

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