In Luke’s gospel, 718 Disciples of John the Baptist are sent to Jesus and told to ask of him; “Are you the one john said was going to come, or should we expect someone else?” When they came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask if you are the one he said was going to come, or if we should expect someone else.” This shows that John the Baptist – who was sure that Jesus was the messiah at the baptism, is now doughting whether Jesus is actually the right guy. This is why he sends his messengers to ask Jesus. The fact that John has lost faith in Jesus shows that Jesus was not what John had expected, maybe he expected a conquering hero to defeat the Romans, or some other messiah figure. However, Jesus’ response shows that he is quite sure of himself, as at that time Jesus cured many people of their sickness, disease and evil spirits, and gave sight to many blind people. Jesus also said; ”Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard; the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean (healed), the deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is preached to the poor. How happy are those who have no doubts about me!” By this Jesus is saying that he has no doubt about the fact that he is the chosen one. The writer of Luke’s gospel also makes it pretty clear that Jesus has performed great miracles, and lists a string of miracles that Jesus has performed. This shows that the writer of Luke thinks that Jesus has performed many miracles and is therefore a great man. It is also to be noticed that the writer of Luke’s gospel, given the benefit of hindsight was able to make his conclusions about Jesus after knowing the entire story, and could therefore write in any changes to the story after knowing the ending, whereas the characters in the gospel, for example John the Baptist, would not have had this view of the ‘full picture’ and therefore any doubts that he might have had concerning whether or not Jesus was the chosen one will be based on his knowledge at that time, and the writer of Luke’s views would be based on his knowledge of the entire story.
In Luke’s gospel, 918 Jesus has a conversation with his disciples on the subject of how Jesus is perceived by the population. They reply; “ Some say that you are John the Baptist,” “Others sat that you are the prophet Elijah, while others say that you one of the prophets from long ago has come back to life.” Then Jesus asks his disciples what they believe him to be, and Peter answered without hesitation, “You are God’s Messiah.” Then Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. He also said to them: “the son of man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will be raised to life.” - This is a piece of information that is unlikely to be known by Jesus at the time. It is likely that the writer of Luke’s gospel has edited this back into the story, after knowing that it would happen at the end. This could have been done to simply enhance the story, or to make Jesus look like an even greater man, by being able to read the future. The writer of Luke’s gospel may have wanted Jesus to do this because he believes that Jesus is the son of God and wants to make the reader agree with him by making Jesus look better.
