(Mt 11:2-11)

Matthew 11:2 Now John, who was in prison, heard about the works of Christ, and sent his disciples to ask him,

Matthew 11:3 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?'.

Matthew 11:4 Jesus answered, 'Go and tell John what you hear and see:

Matthew 11:5 The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them.

Matthew 11:6 and blessed is anyone who does not take offence at me."

Matthew 11:7 As they were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?

Jesus' answer to John the Baptist's question is not a theoretical answer, a simple explanation, or a classic retort. There is nothing to explain. It is not as if someone explains the truth of lunch to us at midday: it is better for them to feed us, otherwise it means they are leaving us hungry. The truth is the reality that nourishes us. Abstract truth and reflection are one thing; these are all good things, but we cannot live without reality. Truth is the reality we experience, and that is why Jesus' answer is not theoretical, but says: go and report what you hear and see.

Here, then, the works of Christ begin to take shape: 'The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them' (v. 5). No one can bear witness to himself. Not even Jesus Christ can bear witness and affirm the truth about himself. He can say it, but it must always be confirmed by other witnesses. In this case, Jesus does not ask for confirmation from men. He asks that Scripture itself bear witness to him.

His words are taken from the prophet Isaiah, to whom Jesus refers the disciples of John the Baptist, because in them lies the key to understanding his work. Only the Word, therefore, is able to reveal and make understood the mystery of Jesus Christ. In Jesus, the prophecies that Isaiah pronounced about the Messiah of God are fulfilled. Jesus is truly the one who was to come, the herchómenos.

The healing of the blind speaks of man's openness to the light of faith, it is enlightenment; man's problem is seeing reality. We do not see reality, we see our hypotheses about reality. And the reality is that we are children of God, created to be children, and to recover our sight and be enlightened is to have understood this. Then life has light, otherwise life is dull.

The healing of the deaf speaks of the ability to receive the Word; the lepers, a metaphor for a humanity degraded by sin, are healed by the proclamation they receive; the lame, with their limping and uncertain gait, are a metaphor for the doubtful, the uncertain, the weak in faith, who are restored to the firmness of their belief; just as the dead, a symbol of the pagan world and of sinners far from God, are also called to follow, and are also made participants in divine life. Finally, all the poor are given the gift of the good news: God has returned among men and reaches out to them, drawing them to Himself. The latter does not seem to be a miracle, and yet it is perhaps the most specific and decisive sign: that Jesus is God's envoy is proven by miracles, but it is his predilection for the poor that reveals the novelty of his messianic choice. A new creation is taking place; God is generating new men. This is the good news announced to all the poor, that is, to all situations of affliction, deprivation, need, and waiting.

"And blessed is he who is not scandalised by me" (v. 6). In the Beatitudes, Jesus declares blessed the poor, the afflicted, the meek, the merciful, the pure of heart, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the peacemakers, the persecuted, etc. Now Jesus says blessed is he who is not scandalised by me. Why? Because he is the poor, the afflicted, the pure of heart, the peacemaker, the meek, and for this reason he is persecuted, afflicted, rejected, insulted: he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and whoever does not take offence at me is blessed, has understood all the Beatitudes. So the crucial point is to understand who he is, through what he does and says. This is how he responds to the Baptist. Accepting Jesus means entering into a new way of understanding our relationship with God and our relationship with others - and for many this means scandal. Jesus says that for those who are not scandalised by the novelty of his message, he will be a source of blessedness, a way of feeling truly happy.

"What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?" Jesus' questions, while highlighting the figure of the Baptist, also constitute an indictment of the Jews' inability to grasp his true significance. Two basic attitudes towards the Baptist emerge, which mirror those towards Jesus; in this way, John is not only the precursor of Jesus in that he announces him, but also in that he anticipates him, becoming a sort of prefiguration of him: a) there are those who rush to see and listen to John, driven mainly by curiosity, but without grasping the greatness and meaning of his preaching and his mission; b) there are those who had a true understanding of him, but one that was limited and incomplete.

The first two questions asked about the Baptist are intended to disapprove of superficial behaviour and, precisely for this reason, incapable of grasping the Mystery hidden in that man, who is wholehearted and far removed from compromises and palace intrigues, shunning comforts and focusing entirely on the herchómenos. 

Jesus asks: What did you go out to the desert to see? The crowds went out to the desert. The Baptist is the man of the Exodus. Those who are not willing to make the exodus, to go out into the desert, to embark on a new journey, will never meet the Lord. The Baptist is the prototype of the man who meets the Lord because he is the first to go out into the desert. What did you go out to see? A reed swaying in the wind? Obviously, the answer is no. What is a reed swaying in the wind? It is the man who tries to please in order to be liked. The Baptist has something to teach us; he is not a reed swaying in the wind of opinions, but he is the one who is steadfast before God. The reed bends with every wind, small or large. John is not a reed swayed by the wind, bent by the thoughts of men. He does not follow the fashions of thought. He follows the thoughts of God. John is firmly rooted in the thoughts of God. This is his credibility. If his preaching is credible, it is compelling. Uncredible preaching can never compel a person.

A man who wants to preach and teach, if he accepts other thoughts, attests that God's thought is not everything to him. By accepting other thoughts, he relativises God's thought, making it imperfect, since it must be made perfect by the addition of human thoughts. This is the folly of those endless reeds blown by the wind that are Christians who allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the thoughts of the world. 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Apocalypse – exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, true God and true Man in the mystery of the Trinity

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants in comparison – In defence of the faith

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul – Romans 9-11

(Available on Amazon)