John the Baptist was a rising star on the religious scene. He proclaimed to the nation of Israel that its long-awaited King was about to come. He was fearless. The nation recognized him as a prophet, and crowds of people came to the wilderness to hear him. His message was that they needed to turn from their sins and believe in the One who was to come. If they didn’t, the Christ would judge them,

John’s preaching landed him in hot water. He was arrested by a corrupt ruler whose wife was determined to kill him. Eventually, she succeeded.

From prison, John heard what Christ was doing. He heard that Christ was performing miracles, but not that He was judging the nation, though it was clear that the nation had not turned from its sin. God had sent a prophet to them, and they had arrested him. If the Christ was going to defeat all His enemies, why was His forerunner in prison?

This caused a crisis of faith for John. Had he misunderstood certain things about the Christ? From his cell, he sent two disciples to the Lord to ask Him if He was the Christ or if they should look for another (Luke 7:19).

John comes across as a vacillating follower of Christ. How could John have gone from such a bold witness for the Lord to wondering if He was the Christ? At the Lord’s baptism, John had even seen the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit coming down upon Him. If we were reading this passage in Luke for the first time, we might expect Christ to strongly rebuke John.

But that is not what we see. Instead, we see His great compassion for him. First, He teaches him. He tells John’s disciples to go back with a message for him. They were to tell him the things they saw Christ do and the things He taught (v 22).

The Lord then told the people that John was not a weak, vacillating disciple. They might have thought he was like a reed shaken by the wind. That would be a picture of a man who changed his position based on outward circumstances. Jesus assured them that John was not like that at all. He then told the people that John was the greatest prophet who had ever lived (v 28). This was high praise for a man who was struggling in His commitment to what the Lord was doing.

Jesus had not forgotten the service John had done for Him. He said that John had not come to Israel dressed in luxurious clothes and had not spoken to them from a palace (v 25). John dressed in rough clothes and lived in the wilderness. He was willing to suffer in order to be obedient to what God had told him to do.

In other words, John was a faithful servant of the Lord. He was simply going through a difficult time. I love how the Lord deals with him. He understands the weakness of His servant.

The author of Hebrews tells us that God does not forget what His children have done for Him (Heb 6:10). We see that in the Lord’s dealings with John. He reminds people that John is not a vacillating reed in the wind. John is His loved child and servant who was going through a difficult time. John was a man, like the rest of us.

The Lord deals with us in the same way. If we faithfully serve Him, we will still fail at times. We will have moments of doubt. But the Lord does not give up on us. He continues to reach out to us, just as He did with John.

I find a lot of comfort in these verses. Sometimes we can think the Lord is so great that when we have moments of weakness we can expect nothing but His coming down hard on us. That is not what I see in Luke 7. I see an understanding Savior who roots for His servant. He knew what John was going through. Instead of rebuking him, He sent a reassuring message to His prophet.

We serve an infinitely powerful and holy King. But let’s not forget—especially when we stumble—that there is nobody who desires our spiritual well-being more than He.