Matthew 11


Jesus and John the Baptist

¹After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.
²When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples ³to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
⁴Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: ⁵The 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. ⁶Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

Matthew 11:1-6

Explanation:

Greater Than a Prophet (11:1-19)
John was greater than earlier prophets (11:9), for he proclaimed a fuller message (11:10; 13:17). Yet John struggled with human weaknesses, including misunderstanding and doubt (11:1-6). Aware of our own frailties, we can draw encouragement from the struggles of our biblical predecessors; God uses imperfect vessels even while he is summoning us to greater maturity in him.


!The Questions of a Man of God (11:1-6)
Many scholars believe that the material in verses 1-15 has a good claim to historical reliability (see Davies and Allison 1991:244; Witherington 1990:42-43, 165; E. Sanders 1993:94). After Matthew rehearses for his own missionary church Jesus' instructions to his first disciples, he moves almost directly to Jesus' own ministry in the cities where disciples had prepared the way (v. 1).

John must contact Jesus through messengers because John is in Herod's prison, soon to face execution for his bold proclamation (14:3-12). Disciples of the kingdom who prepare Jesus' way in power (11:1) need to remember the first one to prepare the way for Jesus (11:10); those who receive Jesus' power (10:7-8) must also bear his cross (10:17-39).

God Does Not Always Act As We Expect (11:1-3)

John has already recognized Jesus' identity (3:14); now, in prison, he is undoubtedly discouraged and doubting, like many other men and women of God facing trials that seem greater than their power to endure. Pursued by Jezebel and finding that even the fire at Mount Carmel had not been sufficient to dislodge idolatry from the land, Elijah asked for God to take his life (1 Kings 19:4; compare Mt 17:12-13). Pursued by Saul and frustrated by continual obstacles to God's promises, David nearly committed an act that would have stained the rest of his career, had God not intervened through wise Abigail (1 Sam 25:21-35). Most of his life the only prophet of his generation speaking the truth, torn by the hatred and impending destruction of people he loved, Jeremiah cursed the day of his birth (Jer 20:14-18; compare 15:10). Dismayed by long delays in fulfillment of God's promises to Israel, the inspired psalmist protested his people's humiliation (Ps 89:38-51). All men and women of God are of like passions as we-that reminds us to always trust in God's power rather than our own (Jas 5:16-18).


Jesus' ministry had so far fulfilled none of John's eschatological promises; John had preached that the Coming One would baptize in the Spirit and fire, casting the wicked into a furnace of fire (Mt 3:10-12). It is no wonder that John doubted, and that John's questions arose when he heard of Jesus' deeds (11:2-3), not in spite of them. Thus when John asks if he and his disciples should look for someone else, this Greek expression is in an emphatic position and the specific term emphasizes "another of a different kind" (Gundry 1982:205). In contrast to the expectations of some of his contemporaries, John's expectations about the Messiah's future role were right; Jesus would baptize in fire, judging the world with justice and freeing the captives. But John did not understand that Jesus had another mission before the coming judgment. Jesus urged him to believe nonetheless.

Many Answers to Our Questions Are Already in the Bible (11:4-5)

Jesus might not yet have been baptizing in fire or even in the Spirit, but his signs showed that he was clearly the Spirit-endowed One who would baptize in the Spirit later (3:11, 16). As Jesus performed miracles, he alluded to a passage in the Old Testament, Isaiah 35:5-6, which mentioned some of the same signs he was performing. In so doing he reminded John's disciples that the works he was performing might be less dramatic than a fire baptism, but Isaiah had already offered them as signs of the messianic era (Goppelt 1964:77; Jeremias 1972:116; Borg 1987:165). Besides "seeing" Jesus perform the miracles of Isaiah 35, John's messengers could hear the good news Jesus preached to the poor (Mt 11:4-5), fulfilling Isaiah 61:1 (compare Lk 4:18). Jesus knew his mission, and John's doubts did not make him insecure; but he knew that John would recognize the words of Scripture.

Jesus Encourages a Broken Man of God (11:6)

This narrative teaches us how hard faith may seem when we are tested for our work for the kingdom (vv. 2-3), but it also demonstrates how Jesus lovingly strengthens his own to complete their task in faith (v. 6). While Jesus is in Isaiah (Is 35), he reminds John that God himself will be a stumbling stone to Israel and Judah (Is 8:14-15), but not to those who trust him (Is 8:13).

One could argue that this narrative criticizes John's unbelief. Does not Jesus' response to John's question in verses 4-6 constitute a rebuke? And does not Jesus diminish John's status vis-a-vis that of the disciples in the second half of verse 11?

But an argument that views John negatively misses the whole thrust of the passage. Jesus could confront John's question no more graciously than he does in verses 4-6, quite in contrast with how he addresses his opponents and even wayward disciples (16:23; 23:13-33). Unlike those who had seen much and believed little (11:21-24), John has seen little (vv. 4-5); Jesus pronounces a blessing on him if he will persevere (v. 6). He calls John his promised forerunner (v. 10), Elijah (v. 14); he further chides a generation for not receiving that prophet (vv. 18-19; compare 10:41) and makes John the greatest figure of history so far (11:11)-even if John does not get to hear all the compliments (v. 7). When Jesus announces that disciples of the kingdom are greater than John, he is exalting the disciples, not minimizing John; he uses John for the comparison precisely because he is so significant in God's plan (v. 11).

Matthew recorded John's struggle with doubt, not to condemn John, but to encourage subsequent disciples whose faith would be tested by hardships. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me could be translated "How happy will be the one who does not stumble on my account." In view of its serious use in the Gospel tradition (for example, 5:29-30; Mk 9:42-47; compare especially Mt 21:42-44), the language of "stumbling" here suggests that one's response to Jesus determines one's place at the final judgment (Witherington 1990:43-44).

Matthew 11


⁷As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? ⁸If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. ⁹Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written:
   " 'I will send my messenger ahead of you,
       who will prepare your way before you.' ¹¹I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. ¹²From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. ¹³For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. ¹⁴And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. ¹⁵He who has ears, let him hear.

Matthew 11:7-15

Explanation:

Receiving Prophets (11:7-15)
Those who received Jesus' prophets received him (10:41); most of Israel had accepted neither John the prophet nor Jesus (11:16-19) and hence invited greater judgment than wicked cities that had heard less of God's message (11:20-24). After encouraging John's faith, Jesus praises John's mission (vv. 7-15). Perhaps he does so only after the messengers' departure (v. 7; Lk 7:24) because it is not for us to know the magnitude of our service until the final day (10:26; 25:21), but in any case Jesus uses the event that has just transpired as an opportunity to provide the crowds with an object lesson about the kingdom (11:11-12).

John's Sacrificial Life Proves He Is God's Servant (11:7-8)

In parallel questions, Jesus begins by affirming what John was not. First, he was not a moral weakling, easily blown about by public opinion or human authority (contrast his persecutor in 14:5; compare 21:46; 22:46). People who proved too weak for the test that awaited them were compared to papyrus reeds, easily moved by the wind (1 Kings 14:15; 2 Kings 18:21; 3 Macc 2:22; compare Is 42:3; Mt 12:20). (On the banks of the Jordan, the site of John's baptism, reeds grew as high as five meters.) John was no easily bent reed.

Second, John was no pampered prince or court prophet who might be tempted to prophesy for hire. Some prophets had found a home in royal courts, but only in those few generations when kings were godly enough to welcome their counsel (or when rare kings themselves met the ideal of being prophetically empowered themselves: compare 1 Sam 10:1, 5-6; 2 Sam 23:2-3). In most generations false prophets outnumbered true prophets; even when they claimed to prophesy for Yahweh, they were really the king's prophets (1 Kings 22:22-23). In times when true prophets were severely persecuted, some of them lived in the wilderness, as in the days of Elijah (1 Kings 17:3; 18:13; compare 2 Kings 4:38-44; 6:1-3). John was a prophet in that mold, with nothing to gain from his prophesying except the approval of his God.

The Servant's Message Is What Makes Him Great (11:9-11)

Unlike Elijah and unlike the disciples, John had no signs (compare Jn 10:41), but what made him the greatest prophet until that point, even a new Elijah (see comment on Mt 3:4), was that he had the honor of introducing Jesus himself (11:9-10, 13-14). The greatness of John thus implies something about the greatness of Jesus. Because the text Jesus cites to prove his case refers to preparing God's way (Mal 3:1), and Jewish tradition usually viewed Elijah as preparing God's rather than the Messiah's way (compare Edgar 1958:48; Manson 1979:69), Jesus dramatically implies his own divine status here (Gundry 1975:214), although his disciples probably would not have dared assume he meant that.

Jewish people usually viewed the era of the prophets as ending with Malachi (see Keener 1991b:77-91); Jesus continues it until John, who becomes the pivotal first voice of the new order when those greater than the prophets (Mt 5:12; 10:41; 13:17; 23:34) will speak. But Jesus' concern here is hardly neat historical divisions to aid students memorizing time lines; instead he may allude to the Jewish recognition that the Law and the Prophets pointed to the coming messianic era (b. Berakot 34b; Sanhedrin 99a; compare Acts 3:24), which had now confronted them in his own ministry (12:28).


John's role was great because of the greatness of the One he introduced. If disciples of the kingdom have a greater role than John, it is not because we are more devout than he was; it is because we proclaim a fuller message of the kingdom than John could, for we can look back and understand what John did not (see above on 11:2-3): the kingdom is not only future but was present in Jesus (v. 12). Because such greatness is not dependent on us but on the roles God has assigned us, we must do his will humbly, seeking his honor alone. The least in the kingdom is greater than John in the sense that anyone in the kingdom has a fuller message than those who spoke beforehand. In another sense of the phrase, the least in the kingdom may also be the greatest in the kingdom, because God will evaluate us according to our faithfulness in deferring all honor to him rather than to ourselves (18:1-4).

The Kingdom Belongs to Those Who Contend for It (11:12-15)

Compare Luke 16:16. Our roles may be determined by grace, but grace does not erase human responsibility. Many people thought that God's kingdom would come by violent revolution against the Gentile nations, a view that Jesus clearly rejected (Mt 5:5, 9, 41); some think Jesus is rejecting such a program here, censuring revolutionaries or social bandits (for example, Cullmann 1956b:20-21). Others take the more likely approach that Jesus censures those who oppose Jesus, John and the kingdom (for example, Catchpole 1978).

But especially in Luke's form, the text does not read like censure, and it is not clear that Matthew intends the saying in this sense either. This saying may be a wisdom teacher's riddle (Stein 1978:18). Jesus regularly borrowed images from his society and applied them in shocking ways, and thus may speak favorably here of spiritual warriors who were storming their way into God's kingdom now (10:34-35; compare Vermes 1993:140). One second-century Jewish tradition praises those who passionately pursue the law; God counts it as if they had ascended to heaven and taken the law forcibly, which the tradition regards as greater than having taken it peaceably (Sipre Deut. 49.2.1).

These were the people actively following Jesus, not simply waiting for the kingdom to come their way. (Scholars frequently object that such language of violence is always used negatively, but Jesus' parables show that he did not hesitate to employ shocking images for the advance of God's reign, such as brutal tyrants, an unexpected thief, unjust judges and perhaps a naively benevolent landowner: Mt 18:25, 34; 24:42-43; Lk 18:2; Mk 12:6.) If John is Elijah (Mt 11:14-15; see comment on vv. 9-11), then he introduced the kingdom (Mal 4:5), a time of greater blessing and greater responsibility.

Matthew 11


¹⁶"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
    ¹⁷" 'We played the flute for you,
       and you did not dance;
   we sang a dirge
       and you did not mourn.' ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."

Matthew 11:16-19

Explanation:

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (11:16-19)
With a sharp parable Jesus pronounces judgment on his generation, which has rejected something greater than the Law and Prophets rejected by many of their ancestors (compare 12:39, 41, 42, 45; 23:29-36).
Jesus Teaches with Graphic Illustrations (11:16-17)

Probably he compares his opponents to spoiled children, but this is debated; the parable of complaining children (vv. 16-17) can fit this context (vv. 18-19) in one of two ways. Some interpreters suggest that the children represent Jesus and John, Jesus addressing the generation from the vantage point of joy and John of mourning; yet the generation rejects both witnesses (for example, Wimmer 1982:108; France 1985:196-97). On this reading, the children's complaint is true: Jesus and John approached the generation from two angles, but the other children would not play either game. Jesus scandalously paints the kingdom in terms of children's play. But this assumes an exact analogy that among other things would require two groups of children, one piping and the other mourning, a picture not explicit in this text (Dodd 1961:15-16; Schweizer 1975:264).

Another interpretation is probably more likely. Children in the marketplace complaining that others would not play their games would strike most ancient hearers as spoiled. These spoiled children thus resemble Jesus' opponents, who are dissatisfied no matter what (Dodd 1961:16; Jeremias 1972:160-61). They piped to John and he would not dance; they wailed to Jesus, but he refused to mourn (vv. 17-18). This interpretation makes the analogy between the parable and its application less exact, but makes more sense of the image.

In either case, the striking image of the parable is clear: the generation is committed to refusing the truth, even if fickle in their reasons for doing so (compare Is 29:11-12). The piping refers to weddings, and the dirge refers especially to women's role in funeral processions. Mourners expected all bystanders to join in funeral processions; rabbis might exempt their students from such duties, but only under special circumstances (ARN 4A; 8, 22B). On either reading, the generation rejects both John and Jesus.


The World's Dogmatic Disbelief Is Inconsistent (11:18-19)

John came leading disciples to fast over Israel's sin (Mt 9:14; 11:18), but Jesus came celebrating the kingdom like a wedding feast (9:15-17; 11:19). The charge that John the prophet has a demon may suggest a familiar spirit, such as those that belonged to magicians (Kraeling 1951:11-12), a capital offense. Likewise, the charge that Jesus was a glutton and a drunkard alludes to the "rebellious son" of Deuteronomy 21:20-also a capital offense (see Jeremias 1972:160).

God has different kinds of servants for different missions, but we need all the kinds of servants God sends (Mt 11:18-19). Neither Jesus nor John accumulated earthly resources for earthly pleasure; but Jesus accepted invitations to upscale banquets, while John was a wilderness prophet. Jesus came partly as God's ambassador to initiate relations with sinners (9:10-13), whereas John primarily took the role of biblical prophets in times of persecution (3:7); Jesus was a missionary within the culture, John a critic from outside it. Both models are biblical but suit different situations. When we can influence a culture from within without compromise, we should do so; when the culture becomes so hostile to our Master that we must stand as witnesses outside it, let us do so without regret. Thus Paul had friends who were Asiarchs (Acts 19:31); but a generation later, during widespread persecution from the imperial cult, believers had to "come out from among them" (Rev 18:4). Christians today need more sensitivity to both kinds of prophets; often each kind of prophet also needs to recognize the value of the other's call.

Jesus indicts his generation for the ultimate offense: they have consummated the sins of previous generations by rejecting God's ultimate agent (Mt 23:31-32, 35). Yet Jesus' and John's opponents were like many opponents of God's message today: while claiming intellectual integrity, they merely use whatever argument works against the gospel, giving no thought to its consistency with earlier arguments.

True Wisdom Is Vindicated in the Eyes of the Wise (11:19)

If some people choose to reject God's message, which he has confirmed by strong evidences, this hardly brings the message into question; it merely brings into question either the sense or the moral honesty of those who reject it. Wisdom's "deeds" (NIV actions) here alludes loosely back to Christ's "deeds" (NIV "what Christ was doing") in verse 2 (Meier 1980:124), paving the way for the identification of Christ and Wisdom in verses 28-30 (see also 23:24).

Matthew 11


Woe on Unrepentant Cities

²⁰Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. ²¹"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²²But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. ²³And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. ²⁴But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

Rest for the Weary

²⁵At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
²⁷"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 11:20-30

Explanation:

Judgment and Rest (11:20-30)
Whereas Jesus pronounces judgment on the arrogant and self-satisfied, including those who thought they had some greater claim on Jesus than others (11:20-24), he embraces the meek, the broken and the little ones, for they are most like him.




Judgment on Unrepentant Cities (11:20-24)
Jesus cries out laments against the Jewish cities most exposed to his miracles; none are known to have been particularly hostile to Jesus, but their reception was not close to commensurate with their opportunity. Following the ancient Near Eastern practice of judgment oracles against other nations, prophets like Isaiah (13-23), Jeremiah (46-51), Ezekiel (25-32) and Amos (1:3-2:3) denounced the sins of various nations in succession. Like the biblical prophets, however, Jesus also prophesies woes against those who claim to be God's people (as in Is 22; Jer 2-11; Ezek 24; Amos 2:4-3:8; Mic 1:9-15). Like the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:14-15, Capernaum thought highly of itself, but Jesus teaches that people's response to himself and his message will determine their standing at the coming judgment (Witherington 1990:167).
This narrative warns that God judges peoples according to the opportunities they have had to respond to his truth. This is not to say that anyone is without some light and therefore escapes punishment, but to say that those who know best-in our day perhaps those who grow up in loving Christian homes-yet reject the truth will be punished most severely (Lk 12:47-48; Rom 2:12-16; 12:19-20; Rev 9:20-21). Those who claim to be God's people are often the most hardhearted hearers of all (see comment on Mt 2:1-12). Tyre, Sidon and Sodom would have repented, but God's people took the signs for granted (compare 2:4-11).

God often judges corporately for corporate sin. Sometimes large groups of people lead others to starve or slaughter opponents in war; those who profit from or approve of the sins of their allies will suffer judgment along with the actual perpetrators of the acts. Sometimes entire cities or nations withhold God's truth from their children, perpetuating a hardness against God for generation after generation. In such cases, judgment may be God's primary means of gaining the people's attention (as in Ex 7:5, 17; 9:14; 10:2; Is 26:9-10; 28:9-13; 29:9-14).





Rest for the Little Ones (11:25-30)
Just as Israel was wrongly secure in its status before God vis-a-vis the Gentiles (vv. 20-24), so the wise and powerful failed to recognize that God favored the children, the meek (vv. 25-30). Jesus summons not the mighty or wise to follow him, but the humble laden with heavy burdens (v. 28; compare 23:4), the weary, like Israel in exile, hoping in God alone (Is 40:29-31).
God Favors the Weak, Not the Arrogant (11:25-26)

Before the Lord of heaven and earth, human wisdom and power are nothing, so no one can protest if it was the Father's purpose (compare 3:17) to hide these things from the wise (compare 10:26; 13:11; 1 Cor 2:6-10; Job 12:24-25) and reveal them to little children (literally "infants," but applied figuratively in Greek to the helpless in general), the "little ones" (10:42; 18:10; on the revealing, see especially 16:17).

The wise of Jesus' day had careful rules for interpreting the Bible (including many we would now consider wrong); they prided themselves on their knowledge of traditional interpretations and sayings of the wise who had gone before them; they emphasized practical piety. But human tradition is hardly a dependable interpreter of God's Word (15:6-9), and faith built on mere human reason rather than the pure revelation of an unapproachably infinite God is doomed to fail, as the following narrative suggests (12:1-14). Intellectual and spiritual pride defy the fear of God, for we make our own minds and lives, rather than God, the judge, the final arbiter of right and wrong (compare 7:1-5). We should take heed; Jesus' religious contemporaries stressed humility far more than do most of our own (Bonsirven 1964:157-58).

Jesus Alone Reveals the Father (11:27)

In contrast to the wise and learned (v. 25), Jesus alone is in a position to declare exactly what God is like (v. 27). The Father has given Jesus the sole prerogative of revealing him, so anyone who approaches God a different way will not find him. Although other images (such as of a new Moses) may also be at work, Jesus describes himself here especially in the language of divine Wisdom (Witherington 1990:227; Davies and Allison 1991:296-97). Many Christian scholars suspect that Jesus' identity is a stumbling block even today for many of the colleagues among the wise and learned who trust in scholarly tradition more than they fear the Lord.

Jesus Offers Rest for the Broken (11:28-30)

Jesus speaks here of a figurative bondage of unprofitable labor under an inadequate understanding of God's law (23:4; Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1; compare Sirach 40:1; Did. 6; 1 Clement 16). Other teachers in Jesus' day and afterward spoke of accepting the "yoke of God's kingdom," or God's rule, by submitting to the yoke of the law rather than merely human rule. Like a good sage, Jesus invites disciples to learn from him. Yet Jesus did not interpret the law, including the law of rest (Mt 12:1-14), the same way his contemporaries did; his yoke was lighter. In contrast to his opponents (23:4), Jesus interprets the laws according to their original purpose, to which he is privy (5:17-48; 11:27; 12:8)-for example, interpreting Sabbath laws in terms of devotion to God rather than universal rules (12:7) and divorce law in terms of devotion to one's faithful wife rather than a loophole to reject her (19:4-8).

By speaking of God's law as his own, Jesus implicitly claims authority from the Father greater than that of Moses himself (11:27); other Jewish texts would have spoken only of "God's" yoke here (Smith 1951:153), or of the yoke of Torah (Davies and Allison 1991:289). Jesus models his words directly after the invitation of Ben Sira in Sirach 51:23-27, but here it is Wisdom herself who speaks (compare Sirach 24:19-21). Obeying God will bring his people rest for [their] souls (Jer 6:16 MT).

They will find Jesus' yoke light because he is a Master who will care for them (Mt 11:29). Jesus' yoke is not lighter because he demands less (5:20), but because he bears more of the load with us (23:4). In contrast to unconcerned religious teachers who prided themselves on their own position, like some religious leaders today (23:4-7, 29), Jesus was going to lay down his life for the sheep (20:25-28).

When as a young Christian I first began to know what Jesus was like, I decided that no one could know what he was like and not fall madly in love with him; my new motive for obedience was not to disappoint the One who loved me as no one else had. When we learn of Jesus (see also Eph 4:20-21), we find the very Lord of the universe to be humble, preferring to dwell with the humble, the "little ones." If Jesus is meek, the people in whose lives he rules cannot be proud or self-centered either, for the kingdom belongs to the meek (5:3, 5).