Are you offended in Jesus?

And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me! [Mat 11:6]

There are times in the life of the believer that he is offended at God concerning His dealings
toward him. It has happened to the best of saints in the Bible and it cannot be denied that even
saints in our day get offended, become bitter and ask, “Why is the Lord treating me like this”?
The Patriarch asked, ‘Shew me wherefore Thou contendest with me” [Job 10:2]. The Psalmist
groaned, ‘Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean
gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in
anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah [Psa 77:7-9]

Strangely the men who thus questioned God were not the average run-of–the-mill believers.
Almost every one of them were greatly privileged by God in one form or another. John the
Baptist was one such prophet! To say that John was ‘unique’ is to put it mildly. He was a
Nazarite from birth and was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in the womb (Luke 1:15).
Consider his testimony concerning the Lord – “I saw the Spirit descending from
heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew him not: but He that sent me to baptize
with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and
remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare
record that this is the Son of God”! [Jn 1:33]

The Baptist’s Complaint

But now everything had gone wrong for the Baptist! He was rotting in Herod’s prison while
everybody else was enjoying miraculous help and deliverances through Jesus! For him
everything had gone wrong. He who had lived a completely open-air life from his childhood
was now shut up in an irksome prison from which there was to be no escape. The Lord had
completely forgotten him. This was not the Messiah John had expected Jesus to be. The Messiah
that John had heralded was one ‘Whose fan was in His hand, and who would thoroughly purge
His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire’. [Mat 3:12].

So John sends his disciples to the Lord with this frightening question – “Art thou He that should
come, or do we look for another”? [Mat 11:3]. This is the question of the man who beheld the
heavenly vision and gave record testifying – “This is the Son of God”! If you are saying to
yourself how could one so favoured ask such a doubting question, it only proves that you have
not yet gone through God’s furnace. Many a time God seems to go against His own Word and
act contrary to Hs promises in His dealings toward His children. Like it was with Abraham when
God demanded a human sacrifice, even that of his only son Issac whom he loved.

The surprising thing is not the Baptist’s question, but the rather astringent reply which was sent
back to him by the Lord. It is true that this reply contained a sort of promise of blessing, but it
was nothing personal for John, being stated in merely general terms. It certainly gave no
encouragement to self-pity. "Blessed is he who is not offended in me". Is that all that the Lord
had to say to His devoted servant in a time of acute stress? Apparently it was. And we may well
have to admit that we have passed through times of deep testing and looked for some token of
success or encouragement from the Lord to console us but have looked in vain. Just as John's
disciples were given no hint of a lessening of the pressure, so we may be left with little or no
indication that the Lord is paying any special attention to us.

Encouragement to the Sinner

In Luke's Spirit-led arrangement of Gospel incidents, the next section of this chapter deals with
the outcast woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee. The story is full of spiritual significance,
but in my present quest for comfort, what strikes me is the way in which Jesus went out of His
way to voice His praises of her. He spoke very appreciatively of what she had done, gave her a
personal blessing of peace and drew Simon's attention to the fact that this woman, whom he and
his kind despised, was outstanding for her great personal love for Him.

He not only did this, but He did it to her face: "Turning to the woman, he said to Simon..." (v.44).
"See this woman...?", He enquired of him. It was as though He wished publicly to vindicate her
as well as explain His own behaviour, and was glad for her to hear how she had touched His
heart. "Look at this woman", He urged the Pharisee, "See how she has compensated for all your
surly insults. One thing is obvious from it all and that is that she is a great lover of her Lord". For
my part I can conceive of no higher praise. If I could ever hear the Lord telling everybody that
He greatly appreciated my service and recognised that I was a man full of love to Him, I feel that
I could ask for no greater encouragement. And it is encouragement that I so greatly need.

He gave warm encouragement to the woman but He does not give it to me. Well, He did not give
it to John the Baptist. If ever a man needed reassurance and promise of help, John did when he
sent his messengers to the Lord. But he did not get any words of appreciation. There was no
message of that kind to help this great man, even though he was in danger of losing heart and
almost regretting his championship of Jesus.

Testing of the Servant

Some will object, 'Yes, but the Lord did say some most complimentary things about John. He
spoke to the people around Him about the Baptist in glowing terms'. That is true, but I have had
my attention drawn by Luke to when He did this: "When the messengers of John were
departed..." (v.24). He did not begin His eulogy of John until the Baptist's two disciples were
well out of earshot. It is true that the Lord had some wonderful things to say about His
Forerunner, speaking of him in superlative terms, (24-28), but so far as we know John never
heard these words and did not know how Jesus had praised him.

Here, then, is an extraordinary contrast. A grateful sinner, just beginning a new life by simple
faith in Him, receives public recognition and striking commendation, such as were calculated to
thrill her soul, whereas a most loyal and devoted servant who was unique in his faithful
obedience to his calling, was only warned that if he wanted blessing he must go on suffering
without question or complaint. In terms of human logic, this makes no sense; in terms of divine
wisdom, however, it is full of significance.
This is not only how the Lord dealt with John; it is typical of how He treats us all. Are we
penitent sinners? Then He has immediate comfort for us. Are we tested servants? He just
reminds us that it is not our part to understand, but to obey. At first this may sound harsh, but
on consideration we see in it an indication of how He trusts us. If we can only appreciate it, the
Lord was paying John the highest compliment of all.

Just as God boasted to Satan about Job - "Hast thou considered my servant Job? ...there is none
like him in the earth" - so the Lord Jesus glories in the virtues of John - "A reed shaken by the
wind? Far from it! A prophet? Much more than that. I say to you, Among them that are born of
women there is none greater than John..." - "I'm telling you", Jesus repeatedly insisted, "this is
the greatest servant that God ever had. There is nothing shaky or soft about John. He is
magnificent".

Naturally we think that it was a pity that Jesus waited until John's two emissaries had returned
before He said this. Luke makes it very clear that this is what He did. If only John had known!
For that matter, if only Job had known! Come to that, if only we could know. If we could receive
some marks of God's appreciation instead of being exposed to all the winds of adversity, how
much more bearable life would be. What a pity! we think, but no, it is not a pity but the greatest
compliment that our Master can pay us. If we need pats of encouragement and endearing
words of praise, we are still spiritual infants. We must grow up. We must learn to live without
immediate vindication and face the present trials or disappointments as those who are the blessed
unoffended. It gives me new dignity to realise that my heavenly Father trusts me not to need
spiritual petting any longer.

It is a matter of spiritual growth. John had had his moments of triumph, as we all have. He had
been acclaimed by the crowds. He had been thrilled by Christ's words about fulfilling all
righteousness. He had actually seen the Holy Spirit descend in bodily form like a dove upon the
Son of God. We, too, have had our thrills. We have seen marvelous answers to prayer. For many
of us our earlier Christian service was so manifestly blessed of God that it was almost as though
in our case the Lord were going out of His way to vindicate us. Just as long ago He had said:
"See this woman? ...she loved much", we felt that He was giving us the public recognition which
shows how pleased He must be with us. Well, no doubt He does find pleasure in owning our
ministry before men, though in fact He never promised to do so. What He did say was that He
would give us heavenly commendation: "Everyone who confesses me before men, him shall the
Son of Man confess before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8). If praise is due it will ultimately be
given, but not necessarily now or here. With some of His most favoured servants the Lord gave
little, if any, evidence of His appreciation at the time. He trusted them to trust Him.

God's servants must be men and women of faith. They must be spiritually adult, not expecting to
be constantly patted on the back or praised to their face, but content to persist in faithful devotion
to their God-given task without any outward evidence of the Master's approval. So I have found
it, and so you may now be doing. This, surely, was what Jesus wished to convey to John:
"Blessed is he who is not offended with Me".

Back to the Word of God

I realise that I have passed over the earlier part of the Lord's message to John which reads: "Go
your way, and tell John the things you have seen and heard..." (v.22). For one thing John had
already heard of the miracles - that was what provoked him to send his deputation - and in any
case it would be likely to aggravate his personal problem to be reminded that Jesus was doing
miracles for others and would do no delivering miracle for him, nor even promise one. If it were
not the Lord Jesus, I would imagine that this was about the most tactless and unhelpful message
that could be sent. How could it help a man in his predicament and with his grim prospect to
know that other people were being liberated and blessed?

Since, however, there can be no questioning of the wisdom of our Saviour, I look again to
discover what lay behind His words and realise that they were calculated to refer John back again
to the Scriptures. It was as though Jesus was saying, 'Don't be governed by your experiences but
rather by the Word of God'. This is excellent advice to us all. Now in John's case there is a
special sense in which his call and ministry were based on the prophecies of Isaiah, as he himself
disclosed (John 1:23). What he had to do was to go back again to those prophecies and in them
he would find described the exact events which the Lord Jesus listed. Isaiah 35:5 and 61:1
foretold the activities of the One whose way he had prepared. In them we find mention of the
blind, the lame, the deaf and the poor. God's Word, then, was being fulfilled. This seems to have
been the point of Christ's reply to his worried Forerunner. He needed to get back to the Word
of God.

The Lord's servant bases his life on the Scriptures. John did just that, and had no difficulty in
identifying himself in them. He was more than a prophet, for he himself was the subject of
prophecy. If he could accept that the works which Jesus was doing were exactly according to the
revelation given of the will of God, then that would silence his questionings and deal with his
personal grievances. What he had to do was to get back to the Word and in it find a sheet-anchor
for his storm-tossed soul. The same is true in our case. I know that my soul is more likely to get
into a tension if I begin to argue from what is happening - or not happening - in my own case,
than if I quietly meditate in the Word. This is especially so if, like John, I see God doing things
for other people that He refrains from doing for me. It is then that I am capable of taking offence.
The certain remedy, and the only one, is to get busy with the Word of God and there to "feed on
His faithfulness" (Psalm 37:3 R.V. margin). May we not, then, interpret the Lord's words as an
appeal to him to reconsider Isaiah's prophecies and to find comfort in them? This is a lesson
which we all need to learn. We can identify ourselves in the Bible, though not in the specific
way in which John was described. We can also find there a full revelation of God's Will in His
Son. In fact much more is said about us, and very much more about Christ, than ever John knew.
Why, then, do we tend to take offence? Simply because we pay more attention to things and
people around us than to God's speaking to us in the Scriptures.

Strange Answers to Prayer

A further factor in this story, though it is not dealt with by Luke, is that John was suffering
because of his own prayers. No doubt he might have considered that his prayers were not being
answered, but he needed to go back a little and think again of how he had prayed. Had he not
sought Christ's greater glory? Had he not asserted: "He must increase, but I must decrease"?
(John 3:30). It seems reasonable enough to suggest that his personal eclipse in Herod's prison
was the answer to his request that he might diminish in order that his Lord should grow in
greatness.

Fancy a man not recognizing the answer to his own prayers! Well, is that so very unusual? I, for
one, make no claim to be different from him in this respect and I often observe the same
phenomenon in others. Is it not a fact that in wondering why events take the course they do we
often fail to realize that God is allowing things to happen which represent the answer to our
prayers? Filled with love for Him, we have prayed for His glory "at any cost", only to start
complaining when even a little of the cost has to be paid for by us. What a blessing for John to
accept this and to determine not to take offence at the Lord's strange ways with him!

"He must increase, but I must decrease." "Blessed is he who is not offended in Me." Perhaps
these two Scriptures go together. Perhaps they apply to you and me as much as to John the
Baptist. So whatever your present trial may be, don't be offended!

[Much of the above is taken from an Article by Harry Foster, 1979]