Jesus, are you the one?

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”  Luke 7:2-6 (English Standard Version)

John the Baptist
 by Leonardo da Vinci

John the Baptist had staked his whole life on obeying God's call to be the forerunner, the herald, of the Messiah. He'd never shirked speaking the truth as God revealed it to him, whether to the despised local soldiers and tax collectors, or to the respectable and respected Pharisees, or to the powerful King Herod. He'd pointed repeatedly to Jesus as the coming Messiah, and humbly acknowledged his own inferior status. Now he sat in a dark, stinking cell in Herod's prison. It was unlikely that he'd ever leave that cell alive.

He could have followed his father into the temple service, an honorable and respectable occupation, with the opportunity to marry and have a family. Instead he'd gone off into the desert, living rough with only his disciples for company. While not making any claim himself that he was the expected Elijah, sent to call the people to repentance, he'd lived with the same fierce determination that Elijah had to do God's will and turn God's people back to him. He was a prophet like the prophets of old.

John the Baptist
by Guido Reni

Not long before his arrest, he'd met Jesus by the banks of the Jordan and recognised him as the one he'd been telling people about. Jesus had come to him and asked to be baptised. It must have been an awe-inspiring experience for John. What made him so certain, at that moment, that Jesus was the messiah? Did he receive some prompt from God? (John 1:32) He certainly appeared to be in no doubt that all that he had predicted about the one who was to come was fulfilled in this man Jesus.

Yet now, in the prison cell, he seems to have had a crisis of belief. He's heard rumours and reports about what Jesus is doing, but they don't seem to encourage him. He sends his disciples to Jesus to ask him "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"