Jesus wanted the crowd to think again about the man they had gone out to see. John's question from prison (Matthew 11:3) could have made him look unsure of himself. Barnes says John's inquiry "might have led some to suppose that he was changing and inconstant, like a reed." Gill likewise says Christ spoke partly to remove any wrong opinion the people might have conceived, "as if he had retracted his former sentiments concerning Christ." Gill adds that Jesus waited until John's messengers had gone before He praised John, so that His words would not be taken as mere flattery. The first question asks what drew the crowds into the wilderness; the second offers an answer they would know was wrong.

The crowd's answer is not recorded. Jesus answers His own question by asking two more (Matthew 11:8-9) and then giving the true answer: John is a prophet, "and more than a prophet," the messenger of whom it is written, "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face" (Matthew 11:9-10). He goes on to say, "there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11). The man the crowds had seen was no reed.

John preached "in the wilderness of Judaea," and people from "Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan" went out to him (Matthew 3:1, 5). Barnes explains that the land along the Jordan, overflowed every year, produced great quantities of reeds or canes "of a light, fragile nature, easily shaken by the wind." So a reed was, in his words, "an image of a light, changing, inconstant man." Gill offers two readings: the picture may describe John's gestures as he preached, or it may concern the people's opinion of his constancy, and he explains both.

The verb "to see" is theaomai, which Thayer defines as "to behold, look upon, view attentively, contemplate." When Jesus spoke, John was "in the prison" (Matthew 11:2) because he had told Herod, "It is not lawful for thee to have her" (Matthew 14:3-4).

Jesus defends a servant whose faith others might question. John had asked an honest question, and Jesus answered him with evidence (Matthew 11:4-6). Then, instead of letting the crowd think less of John, Jesus honored him in public. Matthew Henry notes that what Christ said concerning John "was not only for his praise, but for the people's profit."

The question also turns the crowd back on themselves. Many had gone out to John, yet Jesus asks what they had really gone to see. A few sentences later He describes a generation that heard John and said, "He hath a devil" (Matthew 11:18). Going out to see a prophet is not the same as receiving his message. Gill sums up the true answer to the question: John "was firm and stable in his sentiments and ministry."