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“And blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.”
– Jesus, to the messengers sent by John the Baptist (Matthew 11:6)

In prison, John the Baptist began to have certain questions about Jesus’ claim to be Messiah. Although he had earlier proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God, he now began to wonder if Jesus truly was the One all Israel had been waiting for. After all, Jesus’ way of life differed greatly from John’s aesthetic existence in the desert. Jesus told John’s disciples to report back to Him all the signs that were backing up His claims.

Sometimes, when followers of Jesus discover His teaching to be too difficult, they either refuse to keep following Him or they remodel His teaching to fit their own lifestyles. They either throw a blanket over the portrait of Jesus in the Scriptures, or they reshape it until they see their own reflection – a Jesus made in their own image.

The true Jesus, however, blesses the one who does not stumble over His hard teaching. Even the disciples considered it unthinkable that the King of the Jews, their Messiah would die a criminal’s death on a Roman cross. The Pharisees were puzzled over Jesus’ habit of sharing table fellowship with notorious sinners and were angered by His staunch criticism of their religious tradition. John the Baptist probably stumbled over Christ’s seeming rejection of the aesthetic lifestyle, even to the point of being labeled a “glutton” and a “drunkard.”

Jesus tells us to not be offended if our preconceived notions of what He should be like don’t always turn out to be true. John the Baptist had correctly identified Him as the Coming One, yet now he had to accept the different kind of kingdom Jesus was initiating.

God forbid we “soften” Christ’s sharp teachings and actions in order to make us feel good the way we are. He can either be the Stone that shapes us and our human ways of thinking, or we can (to our detriment) form Him in the way we want, only to be surprised to meet a different Jesus sitting in the Judgment seat.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2007 Kingdom People blog

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