Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard. Actions speak louder than words. This seems to have been the principle employed by Jesus as he sent back the disciples of John the Baptist who had come to deliver a message from their master. John’s move to send his disciples to inquire as to whether Jesus was the much awaited one (Messiah) sounds a bit odd to our ears. It sounds odd in our ears because we, in all fairness, would have expected John to know the answer. Wasn’t the Baptist the one who introduced Jesus to the crowds by the bank of the Jordan river? Because of John’s understanding of his ministry and the role he had come to play, we might be inclined to ask: was it a re-directed inquiry? Was it a coerced question? Was John being bombarded by questions from his disciples (who came to visit him in prison) whether Jesus was the Messiah? In the Gospel according to Matthew, we are informed that John was in prison by this time (cf. Matthew 11:2) and so it has been suggested that John’s disciples (and even John himself) might have thought that Jesus would have done something to get John out of prison (for John was falsely accused and righting the wrongs that had been done was one of things the Messiah was expected to do [cf. Isaiah 35:4: ‘Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God, vengeance is coming, divine retribution; he is coming to save you.’) It would be highly unlikely that John bad bowed under pressure and had also come to doubt Jesus’ Messiahship for he was the one who pointed out Jesus to the crowds (cf. John 1:29-31). Whatever the reason for the inquiry, Jesus told John’s emissaries to go and describe to John what they had seen. And what they had seen was the unfolding of the kingdom.
Jesus’ response to John was an apt one, for the unfolding of the kingdom can only happen under the watch of the Messiah. The signs that Jesus was working as he ministered to the people (the blind regaining their sight, the lame walking, lepers getting cleansed, the deaf hearing, and the dead being raised to life) were the concretization of the good news that was to “announce” the presence of the Messiah. As we prepare ourselves to commemorate the birth of the Messiah, may we open our eyes into experiencing his presence into our lives. May we become the recipients of the good news that the Messiah’s presence proclaims.