The One Who is to Come
- Edwin O'Hanlon
- Apr 14
- 7 min read
‘Summoning two of his disciples, John the Baptist sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are You the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?”’
- Luke 7:19 -
Picture greatness. What do you see? An athlete? An actor? Maybe that rare politician who actually keeps their word for once. Well, Jesus Christ had a very different picture of greatness, and his name was John. John the Baptist, to be precise.
Jesus said of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s miracle child that “among those born of women there is no one greater than John” (Luke 7:28). High praise indeed, and it wasn’t because John wore soft garments or lived in sumptuous palaces. No. John was great in Jesus’ eyes because John was “even more than a prophet” (7:26). Moses and Isaiah were surely great messengers of God, but why did Jesus put John the Baptist heads and shoulders above the rest? Let’s find out...
Jesus said there were none greater before John the Baptist as he not only prophesied Messiah’s coming, but he announced (and even baptized) the One Who was to come. Jesus reminded those saddened by John’s imprisonment that he fulfilled Malachi 3:1, saying John was “the one about whom it is written, “Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way before You”’ (Luke 7:27). But while John aligned with Messianic prophecy, he was still so mystified by Christ’s ministry, that he sent his own disciples to Jesus, asking: “Are You the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?” (7:19).
Why did John ask this when it was he, who upon seeing Jesus, said: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who has been ahead of me, for He existed before me’…And I myself have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29-34). These were major claims to Christ’s eternal divinity and salvific power. Yet it’s easy to see why John wavered when we compare his inspired claims about Christ with the reports John got about Jesus’ ministry once he was behind bars.
You see, with Messiah on the scene, John preached against none other than Herod Antipas, son to Herod the Great and ruler of Galilee. Antipas had visited Rome, fallen for his brother’s wife, and married her while his brother yet lived. Whether Antipas was personally peeved at John or feared full-blown rebellion, Herod Jr. imprisoned John at Fort Macherus. Left to rot in a dungeon, Messiah’s herald had time to compare news of Christ’s compassionate healings with his earlier fire and brimstone preaching. How, John wondered, could the One Who is to come and punish sinners with fire (Luke 3:17) abandon a true prophet into the hands of a tyrant? Nothing seemed to make sense.
Now, before we throw too much shade at John, let’s bear two things in mind. One: had we been jailed and severed from Christ’s ministry, we too would have succumbed to doubts. And two: John had a right to feel lost given the grandiose Jewish notion of Messiah vs. Jesus’ first coming in humiliation and service. We must commend John for sending his concerns to the top of chain. John didn’t gossip with his disciples. He didn’t snipe about Christ or worm his way into Herod’s good books. No, John sent loyal followers to Christ, and His reply permanently cured John’s concerns. Let’s see what happened.
John asked the most compelling question a doubter can ask at their darkest moment: “Are You the One who is to come, or should we look for someone else?” (Luke 7:19). In other words: Are You the One prophesied to free Your people from sin? Are You Israel’s strength and consolation? Are You the hope of all the earth? Are You the dear desire of every nation? Are You the joy of every longing heart? Are You – Jesus, son of Mary, the lowly carpenter – the One we look for, or do we hope in vain? Sure, John had divine evidence that Jesus was the One Who was to come, but His lack of regal splendor and military might didn’t jive with Jewish expectations.
His questions didn’t end there. John’s concerns weaved down many roads. He worried why Jesus hadn’t ascended to David’s throne. Why He hadn’t overthrown the Romans. Why Israel’s leaders were rejecting him. So how did Jesus answer John and his worried disciples? It was simple yet genius: ‘At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and He granted sight to many who were blind. And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me”’ (Luke 7:21-23).
Jesus worked the works of Messiah and quoted Isaiah to direct John back to Scripture. As all-knowing God in human flesh, Jesus knew John longed more than ever to see the righteous freed and the wicked repaid for their evil deeds (Is. 61:1-2). Jesus didn’t rebuke John’s earlier preaching against the “brood of vipers” (Luke 3:7) who fled to see him baptize in the Jordan like some circus act. No, Jesus wanted His prophet to realize that redemption and judgment wouldn’t be fully completed yet. All the innocents wouldn’t be released as Isaiah had said, at least not yet.
Jesus was “winnowing,” just as John said Messiah would. But Jesus’ present winnowing was sorting God-followers from God-rejectors. It wasn’t time to haul righteous wheat into heaven’s barn and burn unrepentant chaff with unquenchable fire. So the ministry seen by John’s disciples confirmed Christ as the One Who is to come. They could return to John with eyes opened to Jesus’ present fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, certain He would fulfill the rest in due time. But as Christians, we enjoy an even fuller joy than they. We read the Old Testament and enjoy a fuller picture of the One Who is to come, seeing Christ the entire time. So let’s briefly (and joyously) do just that.
Messiah is first promised in Eden after Adam and Eve fell for Satan’s ploy. Curses are leveled on our first parents, yet God pledges to “put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel” (Gen. 3:15). Messiah’s saving death is then foreshadowed by God clothing Adam and Eve with an innocent animal. The Coming One is seen in Noah’s ark, a lifeboat in which the saved ride above the waves of righteous judgment. Messiah is hinted at again when Jacob sees a stairway to heaven on which the angels tread. The stairway is Christ, the One to bridge the chasm from holy God to fallen man.
Through Abraham’s line, we learn Messiah will rule as eternal King: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Gen. 49:10). Messiah’s priesthood is introduced by Melchizedek who is ‘without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest continually’ (Heb. 7:3). We glimpse the One Who is to come when Abraham climbs Moriah to slay the son of his love, only for God to stay his hand and give a ram in Issac’s place. Joseph, rejected by his kin but raised up as savior, pictures Messiah. Then comes the Passover lamb, with its blood splattered to stop the heavenly destroyer from slaying the firstborn. All these look ahead to the One Who is to come.
At this point in a study of Old Testament Christology, it’s easy to feel like the author of Hebrews who asks, as if out of breath: ‘What more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, as well as David and Samuel and the prophets...’ (11:32). Christ is the manna in the wilderness, the split rock that watered wandering Israelites, the High Priest and his Day of Atonement offering, the brazen serpent raised up, and on and on we go. Returning to Isaiah and his prophecies of Messiah, we learn that Jesus is the true Immanuel, God with us, not only in His saving incarnation, but right here, right now, in the very Bibles we are blessed to possess.
The message and meaning of John’s doubts, his need to know if Jesus was the coming One, are twofold. On the one hand, we read the Gospels and journey beside Jesus to see for ourselves that He truly is the One Who is to come. And on the other hand, we ought to give thanks every day that Scripture can never be fully plumbed in this life. We live with Christ in the New Testament and rejoice. Then we turn back to the Old Testament, see Jesus everywhere, and rejoice even more!
And so once John’s disciples beheld Christ’s miracles and left with the good news, Jesus faced the crowd and solemnly said: “Among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28). So was John the Baptist great? Without a doubt. The herald of Messiah stared down sin and lived a life few men could dream. But as those who possess the fullness of Scripture, confess Christ as King, and dwell in His kingdom, are we greater? Well, Jesus seemed to think so, and best of all, we will celebrate that reality with John when we meet him in glory.
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