Luke-The Person and Power of Christ (Page 2)
Many of Jesus’ followers were first disciples of John the Baptist. John played a unique role in the pronouncement of the coming Messiah—the Christ. John had been preaching that the kingdom of heaven was coming soon, but even he did not fully understand what that would look like. Having been thrown into prison by Herod the tetrarch (Luke 3:19-20), John was unable to go to Jesus himself. When he heard all that was happening through the ministry of Jesus, John sent some of his disciples to Jesus to confirm that He was truly the promised Messiah. We should remember that John was the one who proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” when he saw Jesus approaching him to be baptized in the Jordan River (John 1:29). But just like any other sinful man, John was having some doubts about this because Jesus’ ministry was not what he (or anybody else) expected. John the Baptist needed confirmation from Jesus to help alleviate any doubts he might have about the ministry of the Messiah.
Jesus, having just given His ministry manifesto in Luke 6 in the Sermon on the Plain, is now demonstrating His love and power to those who were beginning to follow Him. In this passage, there are two miraculous healings that take place—first was the servant of a Roman centurion and second was the only son of a widow. In each instance, Jesus demonstrated His authority thereby confirming His authority to teach as He did in Luke 6, but the motivation to perform these miracles seems to be two-fold—the first miracle happened because of the faith of the centurion and the second because of Jesus’ compassion for the plight of the widow. We learn a lot here about Jesus’ character in this passage.