Advent Season · Third Sunday of Advent · Year A
Matthew 11:2-11
Jesus and John the Baptist
December 14, 2025
Overview & Insights
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:3)
This passage begins a two-chapter account of various responses to who Jesus is and to his kingdom message among the Jewish people of Galilee. Beginning with John the Baptist’s wonderings about Jesus, the reader hears of various responses, from the very negative responses of Jewish leaders in Galilee (12:1–45) to the positive responses of those who do “the will of [Jesus’] Father” and so are considered Jesus’ family (12:46–50). The proper response to Jesus is outlined at the end of chapter 11, where Jesus calls his fellow Jews to come to him as they would to the Torah and to Wisdom itself (11:28–30). The motif of rejection by “this generation” (11:16) will recur in subsequent chapters (12:39–45; 16:4; 17:17; 23:36). Centrally, Matthew highlights Jesus as the Messiah, who comes to enact Isaiah’s restoration message (11:3–5; cf. 8:17; 12:18–21; 20:28).
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Commentary
Commentary on Matthew 11:2-11 workingpreacher.org
Argues Jesus's reply to John's prison question neither flatly confirms nor denies messiahship, pointing instead to kingdom deeds as the answer, with special weight on verse 11's reversal of greatness.
Matthew 11:2-11 Commentary cepreaching.org
Reads John's doubt from prison as an Advent invitation to sit honestly with our own unfulfilled expectations of who Jesus is and how he saves.
Visible Joy: SALT's Commentary for Advent Week Three saltproject.org
Frames the passage as 'Visible Joy,' tracing how Jesus's answer to John (healing, good news to the poor) fulfills Isaiah's promised age and centers rejoicing as Advent's third-week theme.
Third Sunday of Advent, Cycle A loyolapress.com
Catholic Sunday-wide overview connecting Isaiah 35, Psalm 146, James 5:7-10 and Matthew 11:2-11 to the Gaudete Sunday theme that salvation is already present yet still to be fulfilled.
Answer, Advent 3 (A) episcopalchurch.org
An Episcopal Sermons That Work preaching text built on Jesus's non-answer to John, exploring how the church still answers doubt with acts of mercy rather than certainty.
Background & Word Study
JTB: Faithful Inquirer leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com
Greek-level exegetical notes on Matthew 11:2-11, working through the vocabulary and syntax of John sending his disciples to ask Jesus the question.
The paradoxical invitation of Jesus in Matthew 11 psephizo.com
Argues the lectionary's truncation of the passage obscures its setting, and reads Jesus's answer as redefining greatness against John's own expectations.
Matthew 1-13 (Overview Video) bibleproject.com
Overview video mapping the literary design of Matthew's first half, situating the John-the-Baptist doubt scene within the Gospel's larger argument for Jesus's identity.
The Church Fathers
Sermons & Reflections
Questions preachers ask
Why does John the Baptist doubt the one he announced?
John is in Herod’s prison, and the winnowing fork and unquenchable fire he preached have not appeared. Jesus answers with a different list, the blind seeing and the poor hearing good news, and lets John decide whether that is enough.
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