What Jesus Did! 'The Proof Is in the Messenger's Life' — Luke 7:20-23

I used to remind preaching students, "God could use a donkey to speak his will, so simply having a message from God doesn't make us all that unique." I was referring to Balaam's donkey, ^[1] of course. What makes the messenger important for God is when the message and the messenger's life line up. In today's verses, Jesus reached back and used the language about the Messiah and his service to the lost, forgotten, and needy ^[2] to remind John that he, Jesus, is the Christ of God. To help reinforce his claim, he asked John's disciples to report to John what they saw him do and heard him say. Jesus was what he said, and Jesus did what the prophets proclaimed he would do. John's words were right when he had talked about the Messiah, ^[3] even if his personal expectations of all that the Messiah would do were not quite what Jesus did. In our weaker moments, we may want a Messiah who is a little different from Jesus — one who is not so straight talking about obedience and not so demanding about discipleship. But, Jesus did the will of God, doing and saying what God wanted him to do and say. It is not Jesus who needs to change, but our expectations and our behaviors!