Jesus follows John the Baptizer as substance follows shadow, as antitype follows type. Jesus is the glorious fulfillment of John’s prophetic ministry in every way. John’s miraculous conception to a barren woman is announced by an angel. Jesus’ more glorious conception in the womb of a virgin is also announced by an angel. John’s birth is followed by the prophetic singing of his father, Zechariah. Jesus’ birth is followed by the angelic singing of the heavenly armies. Everything that happens in the life of John typifies what is to come in the life of Jesus. The difference is that what is fulfilled in Jesus will have greater glory than in the life of John.
This makes sense when you consider whose relationship John and Jesus reflect from the story of Scripture. John comes in the “spirit and power of Elijah” (Lk 1.17). Jesus says unequivocally that John is “Elijah who is to come,” that is, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi (cf. Mal 4.5; Mt 11.14). If John is Elijah, then who is Jesus? Elisha, the prophet anointed by Elijah who receives a double portion of Elijah’s spirit (2Kg 2.9). Jesus’ ministry is a continuation and glorious fulfillment of John’s life and ministry.
This, it seems, is why John is a bit puzzled while he sits in prison after confronting Herod about his adulterous relationship with his brother’s wife. John sends two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Coming One, or do we wait for another?” (Lk 8.20) What would provoke such a question of seeming doubt from John? The mercy of Jesus.
Just before John is thrown into prison, he is out by the Jordan river telling the “brood of vipers” to flee from the wrath to come. Bear fruits, he says, that are in keeping with repentance. The ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Lk 3.7-9). This is preparation for Jesus, God’s Lumberjack, who follows on his heels, fulfilling the prophecy of John’s words and actions.
But John hears what Jesus is doing, and he is puzzled. Jesus isn’t hewing down trees and throwing them in the fire. He is healing them! Fire is not falling from heaven in Elijahic fashion consuming people. Instead, like Elisha, Jesus is healing and feeding people. John is tempted to stumble or be offended because of the mercy of Jesus. But Jesus says, “Blessed is the one who doesn’t stumble (or ‘is offended’) by me.” (Lk 7.23)
I’m sure that after Jesus’ words got back to John, he understood what was going on. Jesus is fulfilling, not only the prophecies concerning healing found in the prophecy of Isaiah, but he is fulfilling his “Elisha” role in relation to John’s “Elijah.”
The temptation to stumble over God’s mercy is not new with John. Remember Jonah? He didn’t want to go to Nineveh because he knew God would be merciful to the Assyrians. He was preaching that they would be destroyed in forty days (much like John), but then God showed them mercy … just like he knew God would (cf. Jonah 4.1-4). (Jonah knew God showing mercy to the Gentiles meant bad news for Israel, but that’s a story I don’t have time to dive into here.)
John and Jonah aren’t the only ones who are tempted to stumble over God’s mercy; to get all tripped up, wondering what is going on. Faithful Christians continue to wonder at God’s mercy. Why? Because we want immediate judgment in our favor. We want the wicked to be judged and the righteous—us!—to be liberated from the oppression of the wicked.
John may have been thinking something along these lines, “I’ve been a faithful prophet. Jesus is going to come, take an ax to Herod and his ilk, and I’ll be freed.” Jesus isn’t swinging axes like John thought he would, and there John sits in prison, waiting to die a martyr’s death. Jesus’ mercy toward others is signing John’s death warrant.
But in this John is still blazing the path for Jesus. The ax won’t be taken to the bad trees until Jesus himself hangs upon a tree as the supreme display of the mercy of God. God’s mercy means his own suffering in the person of Christ Jesus.
The delay of judgment is the display of mercy. That mercy is the gift of God that gives the wicked space to repent. (Rom 2.1-5) Yes, it means the delay of punishment for the wicked and the continuing suffering of the righteous. We have a difficult time with that. But Jesus says, Blessed is the one who does not stumble because of my mercy. Delayed punishment does not mean “forgotten punishment.” Mercy will come to an end one day. Until that day, God will continue to give the wicked space to repent, and his people will suffer to one degree or another. However, because we suffer in Christ and with Christ, our suffering is the display of God’s mercy. Our lives are being given for the life of the world.
