Jesus & John
A look at John the Baptist’s relationship to the Messiah of Israel John the Baptist is one of the strangest, most unusual, and most interesting people found in the pages of the Bible. From the predicted forerunner of the Messiah who cried out in the wilderness (Isa. 40:3; Mal. 3:1; Mk. 1:2–3) to the baptizer of Jesus (Mt. 3:13–17) to the victim of a cruel death at the hands of Herod the tetGet More Articles—Subscribe Today!
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Mike Stallard was so right in pointing this out: This doubt appears to be far removed from John’s earlier assertion that Jesus was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” -Jhn. 1:29.
When John was in prison, and he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “are You the Coming One, or do we look for another,” was not John doubting that Jesus was the Messiah. The Holy Spirit had shown John that Jesus was the Messiah, for as Mike points out, when he saw Jesus coming he said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Also remember, when Jesus rose out of the water after being baptized by John, what John saw and heard, And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” – Luke 3:22
So then John’s message question was him kinda getting his Peter on by asking Jesus, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” This was showing what all the Jews understood about the coming Messiah, that being there was only 1 coming, and not 2. Recall every time Jesus said to His disciples that He was to die on the cross, that just did not compute with them. In fact, what they were often shown as doing was jockeying for position of authority in His soon to be Kingdom.
So then in that understanding and belief, the message question that John was in a sense really saying to Jesus was, “Hello. I’m in prison so giddy up and let’s get this Kingdom on the road!”