Jesus had sent the disciples out, and continues to do His own teaching and preaching, this time in the towns of Galilee. So while the disciples were out working, so was the Lord. We do well to remember this, for we easily get so obsessed with what we are doing, forgetting that God is doing a whole host of other things as well. Isaiah 9 tells us that God would honour Galilee, and we see an example of that here. Indeed Jesus did much of His work in Galilee, an area counted as second rate by many Jews because of the high Gentile population.
John the Baptist had been put in prison by Herod. When we are in difficult circumstances because of our faith we can easily begin to doubt, as John did here. He needed reassurance that Jesus was indeed the Christ, and that his efforts were not in vain.
Jesus sends John disciples back, not with a theological argument, but with the evidence of what He was doing. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had said that you can recognise a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:20), and He applies this to Himself.
Often when a sportsman or sportswoman is out of form there are all sorts of silly debates about whether they are good enough or not, or should be back in the team. Most of these debates are pointless. Alastair Cook demonstrated this winter in Australia the best way to answer an argument about whether or not he is good enough. Similarly, there is only one way for Andy Murray to answer the question about whether or not he will win a grand slam event. So it is with the gospel. We need to produce fruit. So Jesus pointed to the miracles that He was doing, and also that the good news was preached to the poor. The evidence of God at work is that those in need are hearing and receiving the Good News.
Things do not always work out the way we expect, God does not always work in the way we expect. We need to make sure that in those times we do not blame God, saying that He is doing things the wrong way!
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