Luke 7:26

But what went you out into the desert to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For the office of a prophet is to foretell things to come, not also to show them. John therefore is more than a prophet, because the one whom he had prophesied by going before, he also pointed out by showing. But since he is denied to be a reed shaken by the wind, since he is said not to be clothed in soft garments, since the name of prophet is declared to be inadequate for him, let us now hear what may worthily be said of him.

But what did you go out to see? After the Savior commended John with respect to the merit of his life, here he commends him with respect to the office of teaching, and in right order, because a good life ought to come before authoritative …

), than any of the prophets of the Old Testament; for they spoke of Christ as at a distance, he spoke of him as at the door. He was the harbinger and forerunner of the Messiah, and was himself prophesied of in the Old Testament (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation

But what went ye out for to see?....

Christ comforting a poor penitent that applied herself to him, all in tears of godly sorrow for sin, assuring her that her sins were pardoned, and justifying himself in the favour he showed her against the cavils of a proud Pharisee,

The first point that demands our notice in this passage — is the tender care which Jesus takes of the characters of His faithful servants. He defends the reputation of John the Baptist, as soon as his messengers were departed. He saw that the people around him were apt to think lightly of John — partly because he was in prison, and partly because of the inquiry which his disciples had just brought. He pleads the cause of His absent friend, in warm and strong language.

The first point that demands our notice in this passage — is the tender care which Jesus takes of the characters of His faithful servants. He defends the reputation of John the Baptist, as soon as his messengers were departed. He saw that the people around him were apt to think lightly of John — partly because he was in prison, and partly because of the inquiry which his disciples had just brought. He pleads the cause of His absent friend, in warm and strong language. He bids His hearers to dismiss from their minds their unworthy doubts and suspicions about this holy man. He tells them that John was no wavering and unstable character — that he was no mere reed shaken by the wind. He tells them that John was no mere courtier around king's palaces, though circumstances at the end of his ministry had brought him into connection with king Herod. He declares to them that John was "much more than a prophet" — for he was a prophet who had been the subject of prophecy himself. And he winds up his testimony by the remarkable saying, that "among those who are born of woman — there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist!" There is something deeply touching in these sayings of our Lord on behalf of his absent servant. The position which John now occupied as Herod's prisoner, was widely different from that which he occupied at the beginning of his ministry. At one time he was the best-known and most popular preacher of his day. There was a time when "Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him — and were being baptized in Jordan." (Matthew 3:5.) Now he was an obscure prisoner in Herod's prison — deserted, friendless, and with nothing before him but death. But the lack of man's favor — is no proof that God is displeased.