Why does Jesus answer John’s question regarding whether he is the Messiah by referring to his miracles?

In answering John the Baptist, Jesus does not offer a lengthy defense of his identity as the Messiah, but rather points them to what was happening—to the facts, that is, to what they saw (deeds) and heard (words). To those who were doubting precisely because of the nature of his deeds, Jesus, as it were, responds: Look closely! Have you not considered my works in an overly one-sided way?¹

The essence of Jesus’ answer to John’s question as recorded in Matthew 11:5 is No, you do not have to wait for anyone else. Jesus does not send the disciples back to John with an additional prophecy about someone still to come, but with the news about the One who has already come—whom they already knew. Everything that John might still be waiting for in prison is found in Jesus himself, for Jesus brings restoration of life and community to Israel, so that all may once again belong. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk alongside others, the leper no longer needs to live in isolation, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and through the good news that Jesus proclaims, the poor are lifted out of their hopeless condition. In this way Jesus portrays what is currently taking place in Israel (see also Luke 7:21), thereby emphasizing the renewal of the people through the gospel and the gift of new life.²

That the prophecies had in view, first of all, spiritual blessings does not diminish the truth of what has just been stated, since the miracles of Jesus depict those spiritual blessings and are themselves, in that sense, spiritual (Matthew 8:17,Matthew 9:6; see also Luke 4:18–21). All of the miracles mentioned here had already been performed by Jesus once or even several times. This may also be true of the raisings of the dead; for although they are only rarely recorded, the raising of Jairus’s daughter and that of the young man at Nain may well have taken place before this word of the Lord.³