Matthew 11:5
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Jesus spoke these words to answer John the Baptist when, imprisoned by Herod for denouncing his unlawful marriage and perplexed that Christ had not set up an earthly kingdom or freed him, John sent two disciples to ask if He was the Coming One. Instead of answering at once, Jesus let them watch Him give sight to the blind, strength to the lame and paralyzed, cleansing to lepers, hearing and speech to the deaf and mute, life and health to the dying and the dead including Lazarus, and words of eternal life to poor peasants and laborers despised by the rabbis. Those works were unmistakable proof that He was the divine Messiah clothed in humanity, fulfilling the prophecies of His mission and revealing the Father's mercy, goodness, and power to save fully from both disease and sin. Preaching the gospel to the poor was itself a chief token of His Messiahship, for as King of heaven He chose a poor life to honor poverty, bless the poor as heirs of the kingdom, and find His greatest welcome among the humble. That healing and preaching ministry is the pattern and highest honor for all who follow Him, and remembering it still strengthens faith that the same Saviour has power to help believers in present trial.
John's Question in Prison
The verse belongs to the imprisonment of John the Baptist, who after heralding Christ's kingdom was confined by Herod Antipas for faithfully denouncing Herod's unlawful marriage. From Herod's dungeon John watched Christ's work in disappointment and perplexity and sent two disciples to ask whether Jesus was the Coming One who should come. He expected the Messiah to take David's throne, establish an immediate temporal kingdom, overthrow the Roman oppressors, judge the wicked by fire, use power to free John from prison, and display arms. Jesus' work of healing the sick and teaching the poor contrasted with that expectation, but it did not mean the promised Deliverer had failed to appear.
Jesus did not answer at once but let John's two disciples spend the day seeing and hearing His work for the afflicted, then bade them go tell John what they had seen and heard. That report was enough to help John better understand Christ's mission and yield himself to God in faith whether to live or die. With the answer Jesus added that a person is blessed if he is not offended in Him when He does not act as expected, including when He does not deliver John from prison.
John was not privileged to witness these miracles or to learn from Christ's teaching in person, nor did he live to witness later displays of Christ's wisdom and power. Those who saw and heard Christ were more privileged to receive clearer light about Him, His kingdom, and the prophecies, for His words and works revealed God's wisdom and mercy and helped explain and illuminate the prophecies and the character of His kingdom. These acts were part of a three-year mission of mercy, described elsewhere as three and a half years of going about doing good and bringing help to all classes, before He went to Jerusalem to be betrayed, condemned, and crucified as the Good Shepherd giving His life for the sheep.
Healings and Raisings Listed
The verse lists restoring sight to the blind, enabling the lame and the paralyzed to walk, cleansing lepers, and enabling the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. Before John's two disciples the deaf heard His voice, fever left the afflicted at His touch, and a word and a touch opened blind eyes to behold daylight, nature, the faces of friends, and the face of the Deliverer. Paralyzed demoniacs obeyed His word and were left free from madness to worship Him.
The verse lists the dead being raised up. His voice reached the dying and they arose in health and vigor. Those awakened from the sleep of death included Lazarus, raised after his body had lain in the grave in corruption to full strength of manhood.
The verse lists the poor having the gospel preached to them. Poor peasants and laborers shunned by the rabbis as unclean gathered about Him while He spoke to them the words of eternal life. These were poor people shunned as of low estate, and He gave encouragement, comfort, and help where most needed.
Together these deeds show a healing, life-giving ministry of mercy that broke Satan's power over suffering people oppressed by the devil. He rescued those held by Satan, freed people from suffering, and brought bodily healing, health, joy, hope, renewed strength and reason. He comforted the weak, sorrowful, and despondent, fed the hungry, enlightened minds, and uplifted souls. His words gave life to the ignorant, health and happiness followed His path, and the blind and deaf rejoiced in His presence. This brought praise to God, especially benefiting those who believed in Him.
Evidence of Messiahship
Jesus pointed to these works as His answer when John questioned whether He was the Coming One, telling the messengers to report what they had heard and seen, with the fruit borne in His life — restoring sight to the blind, making the lame walk, cleansing lepers, giving hearing to the deaf, raising the dead, and preaching the gospel to the poor — standing as unmistakable proof of divinity and testimony that His mission was to restore people and plant truth. The afflicted were healed, the dead were raised, and the poor received the gospel, and that report was meant to gently correct impatience and the mistaken expectation that He would at once establish an earthly temporal kingdom, overthrow Roman rule, and free John from prison. The signs helped John better understand Christ's mission and yield himself to God in faith whether to live or die.
The preaching of the gospel to the poor is itself a token and evidence of His divine mission and Messiahship. The poor may have little worldly wisdom or theological learning, yet they can know and love Jesus, trust Him as personal Saviour, and serve others according to the light and ability they have. That credential supports giving people of every social class opportunity to understand present truth, so that reaching the higher classes does not mean neglecting the poor.
These miracles displayed divine power, mercy, goodness, and the light and healing character of His mission, showed His true character, represented the Father's love for the human family, and proved He had clothed His divinity with humanity as the Father's representative. Disease fled at His touch, the blind saw, the deaf heard, the dead were raised, demoniacs were restored, lepers and paralytics were made whole, the dumb spoke, the diseased were given health, little children were freed from disease and suffering, and the poor received the gospel with comfort, peace, and relief. He bent over the poor, suffering, and afflicted with tender pity like a mother over a suffering child, as when those left in the temple courts cried to Him for pity because they had heard of His compassion.
Among Israel these acts expressed His care for His people and His efforts to save, heal, free, serve, and call them to Him. They belonged to His three-year mission of mercy, healing people oppressed by the devil and bringing help to all classes. The bodily healings showed He had power to save fully, including power to take sin from the heart.
The disciples remembered these miracles of healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, restoring hearing to the deaf, and raising the dead as strengthening their belief that He was the Son of God, though they still expected Him to use His power to escape His enemies and reveal Himself as King of Israel. Judas also witnessed these works among the afflicted as evidence of Christ's power, and he was himself given power to heal the sick and cast out devils.
Prophecy Fulfilled and Rejected
The works named in the verse fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah, including the specified signs of the Messiah and the prophecy Christ read at Nazareth, fulfilled the promises of prophecy, and helped explain and illuminate the prophecies and the character of His kingdom. The sick and disabled were healed, sight and hearing were restored, demoniacs were restored to reason, lepers and paralytics were made whole, the dumb spoke, the deaf heard, the dead were raised, and the poor received the gospel, and these works showed His true character as evidence of God's power. John the Baptist did not live to witness these later displays of Christ's wisdom and power, which gave clearer light about Him than John had received.
Christ's words and works in this ministry revealed God's wisdom and mercy. His choice to take the gospel to ordinary people, rather than seek the highest place among Jewish teachers, fulfilled this pattern of ministry to the poor as well as healing to the sick.
Each miracle convinced some, and the merciful deeds gave people personal evidence of His healing and life-giving power leading many to believe. He restored sight and hearing and speech, healed the sick, fed the hungry, and comforted the weak, sorrowful, and despondent, yet these acts of care took place amid persecution and rejection. Many witnesses still rejected Him because of pride, prejudice, hatred, and attachment to worldly honor, and even such works and His teaching could not overcome the prejudice and hatred of those who refused the light. The Jewish rulers in pride and prejudice misapplied prophecies of Christ's second coming to His first coming and rejected the evidence, the people of Nazareth rejected Him despite evidence witnessed by many, and those who rejected heaven's light resisted the evidence more determinedly.
Having taken human nature upon Himself, He would not use divine power to gratify curiosity, to prove before a crowd He was not an impostor, to save Himself pain and humiliation, or to procure His own release or profit. When Herod authoritatively commanded Him to heal maimed, crippled, and deformed persons in his presence, Jesus refused to do that work of remarkable cures reported in the verse.
Christ's Mission to Poor
Christ was the great missionary to the poor, the sick, and the suffering, and preaching the gospel to the poor was His chief work. Though He was King of heaven who could have lived in wealth among the wealthiest, He chose poverty and consecrated Himself to a poor life. By making poverty His lot He honored poverty, lifted its humiliation, removed its reproach, and blessed the poor as heirs of God's kingdom. He took the words of truth to people in many places, including public spaces where ordinary people and Gentiles could hear Him. He chose to minister to the needy and the ignorant, opening before them in simplicity the blessings they might receive so as to awaken their soul's hunger for truth, the bread of life.
Poverty shared with Christ, sanctified and blessed, is riches of the highest value. He has honored poor believers by blessing them forever. The poor may have little worldly wisdom or theological learning, talents, or cultivated mind, yet they can know and love Jesus, trust Him as personal Saviour, and serve others according to their light and ability. The gospel is intelligible to those hungering for salvation, so its preaching should tell what Jesus has done for them and what He is to them, lifting up Christ crucified, His life, character, and righteousness rather than relying on dry human theories. He met with His greatest success among the poor and humble, who welcomed His message and found consolation in Him, despite the contempt and neglect of the poor by the rich, learned, and rabbis. Preaching to the poor is the highest credential of gospel ministry and proves the gospel is not of men, for had it been of men it would have been popular with the rich and mighty, but it pours contempt upon the rich and mighty and calls all who accept it to help those destitute, despised, forsaken, and afflicted.
The poor need the gospel just as much as people in good circumstances, including poor families with little of this world's goods who embrace the truth. Their interests must be carefully protected because of Christ's friendship with them, with sacred loving care, comfort, sympathy, encouragement, and help shown by ministers and believers where most needed. Without a helping hand they will never recover themselves. The gospel is to be preached to the poor in ways suited to their circumstances, without imposing dietary restrictions they cannot adopt, including practical teaching about health and how to care properly for the body.
Pattern for His Followers
Preaching the gospel to the poor joined with healing the sick is the work to be connected with the gospel message. That work belongs to all who are connected with Christ, not to a few, and includes lifting up the oppressed, comforting the feeble-minded, blessing and elevating people, and restoring God's image in them. Doing this work in the name of Jesus represents Christ and fulfills the commission to follow Him and do what He did. It is the highest honor given to human beings. Christ's chief work of preaching to the poor, choosing to minister to the needy and ignorant and opening before them in simplicity the blessings they might receive so as to awaken their soul's hunger for truth, the bread of life, is an example to all His followers, making it the duty of everyone who has learned the way of life to teach others what it means to believe in the Word of God.
This healing and preaching pattern continued through the early Christian church and the apostles after Pentecost. Endued with power from on high and constrained by the love of Christ under His last command to teach all nations, scattered believers carried the bread of life for a famishing world. Wherever they went the Lord wrought through them so that the sick were healed and the poor had the gospel preached unto them. Giving themselves to the control of His Spirit, they proclaimed the gospel to the poor from place to place, and miracles of divine grace accompanied their work. These signs accompanying the proclamation show that God can work mightily through people who give themselves to the control of His Spirit.
The preaching of the gospel to the poor is evidence of Messiahship and supports giving people of every social class an opportunity to understand present truth. Reaching the higher classes does not mean neglecting the poor. The mention of the poor does not limit its reach, for the gospel should also be presented attractively to people of intelligence and ability, including men of means who may accept its message when approached with suitable effort. Christ took the words of truth to people in many places, including public spaces where ordinary people and Gentiles could hear.
The work means calling the poor to come to Jesus and carrying the good news of God's grace to poor people, including the aged and sick, widely. It is the pattern for taking the glad tidings of God's grace to people in their homes and throughout the country. It means giving the gospel now through field service and house-to-house labor, calling those who do not know the truth to come to Jesus, cheering the sorrowing, strengthening the weak, and comforting the mourners, a work requiring thousands more workers who realize the time in which they live and the work to be done. It requires investing means to send the gospel to the poor, aiding those who by faith take their stand on eternal truth when doing so leaves them in embarrassment, with ministers prepared to relieve poverty suffered for truth's sake in cases of especial need, while not spending means carelessly and not tying money up where it cannot be used when needed.
The signs were displayed as living trophies around Him when He rode into Jerusalem. The blind to whom He restored sight pressed on leading the way, the dumb whose tongues He loosed shouted the loudest hosannas, the cripples He healed bounded freely and broke and waved palm branches before Him, the lepers He cleansed spread garments in His path, widows and orphans exalted Him for His mercy, and those He awakened from the sleep of death were in the throng, including Lazarus raised from corruption to full strength of manhood guiding the beast He rode. Their joyful praise showed the effects of His loving deliverance from Satan's power. The mention of the poor receiving the gospel is not illustrated in that triumphal scene.
That same Jesus remains Saviour today and is as willing to manifest His power for believers hedged about by adverse circumstances and seemingly insurmountable difficulties as He was for John. Recalling His mighty works before John's disciples — the deaf hearing His voice, the blind receiving sight to see nature and their compassionate Restorer, fever leaving the afflicted at His touch, and demoniacs healed to worship Him — as proof He is the Saviour with power to help in present trials strengthens faith. Believers are not to murmur or cloud the mind with unbelief but to remember past loving-kindnesses, look to Jesus, and endure as seeing Him who is invisible.