"The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped"

The prophet Isaiah says in chapter 35:1-6, "They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God....Behold, your God ...Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy." 

There was another prophet some 800 years later, John the Baptist, who was the first to point to Jesus as the Messiah of Israel.  Jesus said of him, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist." If Jesus is the Messiah, then that is a high honor to be called the greatest among men.  And, John the Baptist was a man and like all humans, we can have a crisis of faith.  We can be raised with faith, we can come upon it later in life, we can even dip our toes in the water of it and not jump in fully.  But, at some point we are faced with the decision about what we believe, and no matter what the outcome or circumstance, we are going to stand in the stand we have taken.  That is true for an atheist or person of faith.  We die in the stand we've taken. 

So, doubt brought John to ask of Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"  And Jesus sent back an important response.  He said, "Go and tell John what you hear and see; the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." (see Matthew 11:2-7) The response is so important because Jesus used the words Isaiah prophesied.  And John had to either believe (again!) or not.  Isaiah's words told us that when we behold our God, He will come and save you (Is 35:4).   And Jesus is saying that He himself, is opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, and the lame man can now leap like a deer because they can walk!  John would receive this message while in prison - and would know the Word of God as spoken through the Torah and the prophets before him that Jesus was quoting Isaiah.  He still had to line it all up and decide for himself.  And, he had to do so in a hurry, because what we know from scripture is that John was beheaded shortly after that while in prison.

Jesus also added something to his response, "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me."  I believe He said that because either you are so grateful for what He did - 'save you' as Isaiah prophesied, or you are completely offended by the idea that you need saving.