On the upside, this saved me from the mistakes many of my peers stumbled into. I don’t have any adolescent rebellion stories that fill my gut with regret.
On the downside, this fear-based obedience turned my interaction with God into something transactional. If I wanted a good life and unconditional love, I needed to do everything the Bible says — front to back. If I failed, any complications were my fault. Two plus two equals four, always.
Except when it doesn’t. Sometimes the math doesn’t work, and no one can explain why it doesn’t.
This is what happened to John the Baptist.
Before birth, John had been marked as God’s chosen forerunner to the Messiah, a town crier who would get the people ready for the coming King. Prophets like Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3-5) and Malachi (Malachi 3:1; Malachi 4:5-6) foretold John’s life and messianic significance hundreds of years before he took his first breath.
Then there was the matter of his miraculous birth. His parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, were both descendants of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, Jacob’s third son. Those in the tribe of Levi were set apart as priests of God, mediators between the people and God’s presence in the temple. The same tribe of priests who carried the ark of the covenant across the Jordan River hundreds of years before.
One day, while Zechariah served as a priest in the temple, God appeared to him in a vision (Luke 1:5-25). In spite of his old age and his wife’s barrenness, he and Elizabeth would have a son. And that child would be precursor to the Christ.
A connection between the people and God’s promised salvation.
Knowing the significance of their son’s life, Elizabeth and Zechariah raised him accordingly. When he was a young man, he went off to live in the wilderness, set apart for his sacred purpose. He called God’s people to repent, to turn their hearts back to God, and he preached the good news to anyone who would listen (Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:1-20).
When Jesus was grown and ready to walk His hard road, He went to John to be baptized. John was the one to put his hands on Jesus, to lower Him and raise Him up again from the water. John saw the Spirit of God descend like a dove and land on Jesus, and he heard God’s booming approval of His presence in the flesh of His only Son (Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-22).
The math was adding up.
Until, a short time later, King Herod threw John in prison (Luke 3:20). Angered by John’s no-nonsense truth-telling about his illegitimate wife, Herodias, Herod locked him up, far removed from his wilderness preaching and the Messiah he’d spent a lifetime serving.
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And in the dark basement of his dungeon, John’s white-hot faith flickered.
Am I being punished?
Did I misread the signs?
I imagine he huddled on the filthy floor, both claustrophobic and cold after a lifetime in wide open spaces. Perhaps he ruminated over every word, rehearsed every decision, reexamined every step leading up to his predicament.
There must be an explanation. There has to be a reason why.
He needed reassurance, a black-and-white answer. I believe that’s why he sent his closest friends to find Jesus and ask Him straight up.
Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? — Matthew 11:3
You hear it, right? The shred of doubt. The ache for an answer to a prison-inspired question.
John’s question does not surprise me. Some theologians believe John’s question and errand were for his followers more than himself, that his faith was far too strong to experience doubt. And yet I know firsthand it doesn’t take long in a dark prison to turn the staunchest faith upside down. Expectation is a possessive lover, likely to choke you when her needs aren’t met.
While John’s possible doubt makes me feel less alone in my own, I find the greatest comfort in Jesus’ response.
Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by Me. — Matthew 11:4-6 ESV
Soon after John’s message and Jesus’ response, Jesus performed one of His greatest miracles: the feeding of the five thousand. An impressive miracle that appears in all four of the gospel accounts. And yet John ended up beheaded at Herod’s command.
Five thousand strangers fed with a prayer. One close friend neglected and dead.
It’s hard for me to understand, the seemingly random giving and withholding of miracles. Something in me stings with the injustice of it, perhaps because so many of my prayers remained unresolved. John had a need, and Jesus ignored it or, at the least, didn’t do anything about it.
Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me, He said.
The NIV translates the word offended as “stumbles.” The Amplified and NASB, “take offense.” The NLB, “fall away.” And TLB, “doubt.” But the Greek word here is skandalizo, from which we get the word scandalized. One source describes the meaning as “a trap, stumbling block… To throw someone unawares into ruin.”1
I read and reread Jesus’ words and wrestled with the translations, trying to understand the intention of His words and the emotion of His heart. Although my doubts tried to drown out truth, I could almost hear a whisper in my ear.
Blessed is she whose faith is not ruined by Me.
- Spiros Zodhiates, Warren Baker, Tim Rake, and David Kemp, The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, NIV Version (Chattanooga: AMG International, 1996), 4997.
Excerpted with permission from Relentless by Michele Cushatt, copyright Michele Cushatt.
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