What’s going on? Why does he say it like that? Because the campaign is already under way, and if John is the “preliminary messenger” of Malachi 3–4, this can only mean one thing. John had sent messengers to Jesus to ask if he was indeed “the one who is to come,” and the answer, given cryptically but plainly enough for those with ears to hear, is an emphatic yes. Jesus was well aware that what he was doing didn’t fit with what people were expecting. But he believed that he was indeed launching God’s kingdom campaign. He was the one in whose presence, work, and teaching Israel’s God was indeed
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