Offended 4

Matthew 11:6 “… Blessed is he who is not offended in Me.”

The subject on “offended” interest me for further study of Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 13:2b “… because of the word, by and by he is offended” (KJV).  I believe what Jesus has to say about being ‘offended’ would be an important study.

It was about John the Baptist who was offended because he had thought that the Messiah was going to overthrow the Romans’ reign and set up Israel as a free nation. Notice something here: John thought … the Messiah would free him from prison. So John sends two disciples to find out what’s up? Did John announced the right Messiah which is Jesus Himself or should he find another Messiah?

What did John thought about the Messiah? What John had heard was that the works of Christ were works of love. He knew that the Messiah was to baptize with both the Spirit and fire—the Messianic (Messiah’s) fire of judgment. To John, it seemed that Jesus was fulfilling only half of the Messianic prophecies. John was puzzled, but he still believed in Messiah because he asked, “Are you the one or do we look for another Messiah?” John did not fully understand Jesus, but he trusted Christ anyway.

Jesus understood John and gave assurance to John that He was the Messiah. Jesus demonstrated the power and gave five assurances to John. Jesus gave sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, cleansed the lepers, opened the ears of the deaf, raised the dead to life and preached the gospel to the poor. Jesus did not just profess to be the Messiah, He proved it by ministering to people in the power of God (Jn.14:10-11).

Jesus encouraged John not to be offended by Him just because John did not see Messiah’s fire of judgment against the Roman Empire. But Christ assured John: “Blessing is coming; and judgment is coming. Do not be offended because you do not understand everything about Me.”  

Jesus encourages all of us not to be offended by Him, but to believe and trust Him. When we see things are happenings every day and we wondered why Jesus did not come soon as we “thought.” Just as Jesus Christ assured John, He assured us that blessing is coming and judgment is coming so …

Let us trust our Messiah today!