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"Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me"
Matthew 11:6 While in prison, John the Baptist heard of the works of Jesus and then sent some of his disciples to ask Christ, “Are You the coming One, or do we look for another?” (11:3). John was in a very distressing situation and was likely experiencing some doubt and confusion regarding his understanding of Jesus’ public ministry. John knew of God’s last revelation to His people some 400 years before through the prophet Malachi, who wrote, “Behold I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple… But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap” (Malachi 3:1-2). As such, John knew himself to be the herald of this coming One, even the Lord, and his message therefore was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). He proclaimed the Lord will, “gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (v.12). As such, it’s not surprising that John during this time of extreme duress would be confused about the works of Jesus. Are these works he had heard Jesus doing the kinds of things the great coming Messiah would do? But instead of this Coming One immediately exercising final judgment as John supposed, Jesus confirmed in His answer to John that His present works were such that, “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” And so, as would be the case for Jesus’ disciples, it seems John did not yet grasp and come into a full understanding of the nature of Christ’s present humiliation and condescension in His earthly ministry. He expected Christ’s coming to be the final ushering in of the kingdom when God would gather His people and punish His enemies. This kind of reaction to the Messiah was foretold by Isaiah, who wrote that God’s Servant, “shall be exalted and extolled and be very high” (52:13), but then asked, referring to Christ’s humbling of Himself in His earthly ministry, “Who has believed our report?”(53:1). Previously John had proclaimed regarding Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). But apparently, John did not yet see clearly that this Lamb of God must first become “the Lamb who was slain” in order that He might take away sin. He must first bear our sicknesses, carry our sorrows, be stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, be chastised for our peace, and finally be led as a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53). John indeed was a believer, and has since entered into the fullest understanding of that which he knew dimly and weakly held by faith in this life. Now, he who heralded the coming of the Lamb of God has joined that heavenly host who at Christ’s ascension sang, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12). John’s faith is now sight, and all confusion and doubt are no more! But we who remain are as the Apostle Paul was when he wrote, “Now we see in as mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Oh yes, we see more clearly then did John Christ’s atoning work on the cross. We see His righteousness as ours, and we believe He paid in full the debt of our sin and has purchased new life through His resurrection… and yet, as believers, we are often offended at Jesus. You might be asking, “Who me? I’m a true believing Christian. How could I be offended at Christ?” Let me answer by saying every time we complain about our circumstances, an affliction, or a cross we must bear, or when we bristle from the rebukes that come from His Word, or when we refuse to actively submit to His ordinances in public worship, prayer and preaching, or when we are ashamed of standing up for Christ in our conversation and actions, or when we resist being humbled by circumstances He brings into our lives, or when we doubt His many great and precious promises, or when we hesitate to confess our sins… then we in effect show we are offended at Christ. Beloved, as disciples of Jesus, let us be assured that we have a faithful High Priest who suffered, bled and died that we might be reconciled to God as His children. He has already accomplished all that was necessary for our greatest good and we are now objects of His favor. And therefore, let us not question the ways that Jesus Christ continues to administer and rule His kingdom, which He so dearly purchased with His precious blood. Let us not allow ourselves to be tripped up by any preconceived notions and ideas of how Jesus orders our lives, nor how it pleases Him to work out His will in the course of human history. Indeed, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me”.
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Local newspaper columnist Mr. R. began his column with, “No one is above the law, but sometimes one can be exempted from obeying a law, sometimes on religious grounds (“freedom of religion.”) He then provided several “notable examples” of these exemptions including the exemption from military service for an individual on the basis of their conscientious objection. Mr. R. would probably agree that it is a horrendous form of moral abuse to force someone to violate the strong dictates of their conscience.
But apparently his declaration above doesn’t apply to Bible-believing Christians who also are abiding by their conscience on religious grounds. He ended his column with, “Those who invoke religious freedom to justify denying services, benefits or rights to certain people have, I think, too narrow a concept of both freedom and religion.” Christians believe what God says in His word about gender and marriage. They have a love for and holy fear of God, and they seek to live their lives in ways that please God. But exposing his own apparent bias, Mr. R. falsely and erroneously accuses them of “social discrimination” in their refusal to offer certain services. In fact, they are conscientiously objecting because of their Bible-informed conscience. They are like the Apostles Peter and John who said, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) when they were ordered to stop preaching. The Apostles were willing to suffer the repercussions for their civil disobedience. There are numerous service providers who would be happy for the business of those who are protesting. No one is stopping anyone in seeking them out. Actually, these provoking incidences are purposeful and insidious efforts to get Christians to retreat and stop standing for the truth in the way they live and in what comes out of their mouths. That’s simply not going to happen with true believers. At least Mr. R is honest in his concluding remark that what he wrote is only the result of what he thinks (“I think”), meaning, I take it, that its only his opinion, which has no absolute basis of moral authority other than himself. |
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