Have you ever had someone you highly respected and trusted and defended do something out of the ordinary?

Did their out-of-the-ordinary action cause you to waver just a little?  Did it lead you to question something about them?

Have you ever been made to suffer in some way, great or small, for your defense of someone else and then discovered others were questioning their validity?

John the Baptist was the forerunner prophet for the Messiah and a cousin to Jesus, who was the Messiah—because of his righteous stances against Herod, John had been put into prison.  Up till that time, John had been pointing others to Jesus.  But he was in prison awaiting a death sentence to be carried out.

Matthew 11:2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3 and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”  4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

John was in the press of trial.  His faith was undergoing incredible testing.  I cannot imagine what he must have been going through and the battle he faced in his soul.  I’ve never been unjustly imprisoned for taking a stand on righteousness.  So, I cannot say I can equally identify with John in that sense.  But I do know what it is like to be ostracized, misunderstood, and kept at bay, so to speak, because of one’s views concerning who Jesus is and what Jesus accomplished.

In such moments, the test comes to be offended with Jesus as though it is somehow His fault this inconvenience, distance in a relationship, or rejection from someone you care about has come into your life.  When John sent his two disciples to Jesus, you would have thought Jesus would have spoken way more compassionately than it seems He spoke here.  But John’s greater need is not identification with his weakness in the moment but a reminder of who he is by calling him back to the real core of what his ministry was to start with.  Jesus does not want John to lose sight of the wonderful calling he has and the significance of what his ministry has been.  For that to be real, Jesus had to lovingly but factually point John’s attention to the things that truly matter.

The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them.  Oh, the love Jesus has for his cousin, who is the greatest of all the prophets.  A man who is now suffering in a prison awaiting his moment of death.

Then Jesus says those famous words, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.”

Jesus was who He was and is who He is now.  He shocked the apostle John when He appeared to him in a different way on the Isle of Patmos.  So much so John fell as one dead before Jesus.  It was a Jesus, unlike the one whom John had walked with.  It was a glorious Jesus so different that He had to lift John up after falling and tell him not to be afraid.

There are many facets to who Jesus is.  He desires to reveal Himself as He is so we can be who we are on this earth.  I never want to be offended by Him because others do not like what I’ve come to know about Him and speak concerning Him.  Rejection from others due to representing Jesus is going to happen.  But it does not have to result in my allowing an offense to come into my heart toward Him because of it.  It also should never be allowed to silence me with others concerning Him so that the rejection is somehow avoided.  By His grace and in the power of the Holy Spirit, I desire to live outspoken, bold, and free of offense.