22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
John the Baptist has sent two of his disciples to Jesus to find out the answer to a simple question: Was I correct when I said you were the Messiah? Jesus doesn’t give these two disciples a sound bite for the evening news. Words just can’t prove anything. Look at all the words of promise spoken during the recent election, many of which have already been broken. Politics is about broken promises. When will we ever learn! But I digress. Jesus knows a simple “yes” won’t do it for John or for these disciples. Instead, Jesus demonstrates who He is by what He does. The blind, lame, leprous, deaf and the dead all receive what they need. Their need seems obvious and the connection to what they get makes sense. But look at the last set. The poor don’t get money, they get good news preached to them! What? That doesn’t make sense! A blind person needs sight and he gets it. Wouldn’t it make sense for a poor person to get what he needs, a provision to take away his poverty? But instead he gets good news. On the surface it doesn’t make sense. Maybe a winning Lottery ticket would meet the need. Maybe a government bailout, or a welfare check. I think the answer lays in the real need being addressed. The poor need physical provision, but even more than that, they need hope. They need a sense of good news in their world of bad news. Their heads need to be lifted up so that they can see the provision that God wants to provide. I am certainly not saying that we should not help the poor. The Scriptures have ample admonitions concerning our need as the rich to help the poor, not because they need it, but because we need to part with our wealth so that it does not corrupt us. But Jesus recognized their greatest need, the need for hope. Our problem today is that we put our lens on what we expect God to do, but God meets the real need. We box God in, but He breaks the boxes.
The Arnold Journey 