|
Blessed is he who is not
offended in Me. Luke 7:23
"WHY should I be treated like this?" Much as I regret to do so, I have
to confess that this has been the sort of question which from time to time
has simmered within me when I have been under pressure. I have no doubt that
many other Christians have had similar controversies with the Lord. For this
reason I draw your attention to what happened to John the Baptist. It may
throw light on our problem. At least it may comfort us to know that he also
had good cause to pose the same question.
The Baptist's Complaint
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 fearless and faithful herald of God's Christ was
seemingly forgotten by his Master. Everybody else was enjoying miraculous
help and deliverances through Jesus, but nothing at all was done for him.
No wonder he was despondent! No wonder he sent his disciples to Jesus to
enquire what had gone wrong with everything. So to me this question is no
surprise. In his place I might well have done the same thing. I, too, have
at times felt disappointed with the Lord because of His strange ways with
me.
The startling surprise is in 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 recognising 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 realise
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! Related articles:
He Must Increase
The Blessedness of the Unoffended
|
