If I answer your question directly, do you really know the answer? This is one of the great quandaries that haunt the dedicated Teacher. You’ve known someone like that in your life: A person that is wise, that is patient, that – you know – loves to teach; probably always ready with encouragement and an answer. But have you ever thought how much trepidation there may be behind that answer?
You see, if I am your trusted Teacher then there is the danger that you will accept my answer based only on the fact that you trust me. At first, it might seem that there is nothing wrong with that, as long as I am trustworthy and knowledgeable. But we should consider the kind of question we are talking about: Is it a question that can be answered by data or is it a question that must be answered with action? Is it a trivial matter or is it a matter of life or death?
If the question is really a request for useful knowledge: for information that is foundational enough that I can use it to make other decisions… can such a question be answered simply and directly?
If the question is a request to be taught how to find the right answer when faced precisely with such and such a problem… can such a question be answered simply and directly?
This is the typical situation in a classroom in college: Most students in the class are there because they have to be: they have to pass the class, to get the right grade, so that they can progress on to the rest of their program of study, so that they can progress from there to whatever was their ultimate goal in mind when they got started.
But then there are a number of students that are there because they want to know how that subject matter works, how to think about it. Yes, they also started their journey with some goal in mind, but part of that goal was to be transformed: from not understanding to understanding.
The students of the first kind mostly want data, the right answer to the problem questions. And if they are conscientious, they want to know where to find that answer again in the future should they need it. They would be content, at the end of it all, with having a bookshelf full of what I call “cookbooks”: namely, an index of problems A through Z, with their indicated answers.
The problem with that is, what happens when they are faced with problem Ξ ? (Greek letter Xi). If it is not in the cookbook, how do you solve it?
That is the danger of answering questions “directly”. The listener may accept that the answer makes sense, may even think that he understands how the answer makes sense and why it is right. But they will never find out if they really “got it” until a similar – but not identical – problem comes up and they are stumped: Then they realize that there must have been all sorts of subtleties and background knowledge behind the original answer that made it right in that original case but somehow doesn’t make sense now.
There is a difference between answers that just provide data and answers that change me.
The well-known proverb about teaching a man to fish rather than giving him a fish, puts this truth in a nugget. Both Socrates and Søren Kierkegaard agonized over this truth. Both obsessed over giving “indirect answers”: answers that force the questioner to think for himself so that in the end he can find the answer himself… and know, deep inside, that it is true.
John’s disciples, sent by John (who is in prison)
The (disappointed) question: Are you the one that was to come or do we still wait for another?
The answer: (a) Go, report to John what you hear and see. The blind see, the lame walk; lepers are cleansed, and deaf hear; and dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them. (b) Blessed is he who is not offended in me.
The background:
Most of us are familiar with this scene. John the baptizer has been put in prison by Herod:
Mark 6:17-20 For the same Herod had sent and seized John, and had bound him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of Philip his brother, because he had married her. For John said to Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have the wife of thy brother. But Herodias kept it [in her mind] against him, and wished to kill him, and could not: for Herod feared John knowing that he was a just and holy man, and kept him safe; and having heard him, did many things, and heard him gladly.
John’s and Jesus’ ministry overlapped briefly. We see it in the Gospel of John, where Jesus and His disciples are baptizing at the same time that John and his disciples are too. But during that time, it appears that Jesus did not go about making His own ministry public. Most people must have then looked at Him as one of John’s disciples; albeit, one attracting huge crowds.
John 3:25-30 There was therefore a reasoning of the disciples of John with a Jew about purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, he baptises, and all come to him.
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it be given him out of heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before him. He that has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices in heart because of the voice of the bridegroom: this my joy then is fulfilled.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
This passage is interesting in several ways. First, the motivating incident is an argument that John’s disciples had with someone, that must have been a religious leader in their community, about baptism. We deduce that, from the object of the argument: John’s disciples are baptizing people in water for the remission of their sins but the Jews of that time already had an analogous rite, a purification rite.
The Law prescribed such purification in the case of particular sins but it also appeared as a rite for the conversion of Gentiles into Judaism. Proselytes were baptized in order to make them clean and able to enter the Temple. So, it appears that this learned Jew was challenging John’s disciples’ use of the rite, or their interpretation of what it accomplished. And from their reaction when they get to John, we can deduce they ended up on the losing side of that argument.
They are bugged, and complain to John about Jesus and His disciples because they are “having it easy:” more people are coming to them and they are not getting challenged. John’s reply puts it all into perspective. He essentially is telling them:
“Your loyalty to me and your chagrin are misplaced. I did not come to gather large crowds or to win acclaim for myself. I came to prepare the way for the Messiah: the One I testified would bring the real baptism to the world. That was my job, and I told you so from the beginning. When He succeeds, I know I have done my job, and I rejoice; and I know the time is coming for my job to be complete, to end, so that all eyes focus rightly on Him.”
He must increase, but I must decrease.
That statement summarizes John’s life-work and spirit. Oh, that all of us who call ourselves followers of the Messiah could live that way! It is never about us. It is never about us being right, or being famous, or being powerful… It is not about us accomplishing great things for the Kingdom of God. No. That is God’s job! We are here to serve in the role, the ministry, that He has given us.
Our job is to do that; to do it with kindness (the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians), to do it not for our sakes but for the sake of all those that are lost and cannot see the way. Our job is to do our duty; God does all the saving, all the world-changing that needs to be done.
When John was put in prison, Jesus began His public ministry, and He did so by proclaiming exactly what John had been proclaiming; because what matters is that the Plan of Salvation go on:
Mark 1:14-15 But after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn nigh; repent and believe in the glad tidings.
Over 2000 years later, Jesus is no longer physically in this world, that means the job has been passed on to us. What is our greatest obstacle?
When things don’t go the way we thought they would.
In Luke chapter 7 we read about the time that Jesus brought back to life the son of the widow of Nain, right in the middle of a funeral procession. Word of that miracle spread everywhere, even to the ears of John the baptizer, in prison:
Luke 7:18-35 And the disciples of John brought him word concerning all these things: and John, having called two of his disciples, sent to Jesus, saying, Art *thou* he that is coming, or are we to wait for another? But the men having come to him said, John the baptist has sent us to thee, saying, Art *thou* he that is coming, or are we to wait for another?
In that hour he healed many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and to many blind he granted sight. And Jesus answering said to them, Go, bring back word to John of what ye have seen and heard: that blind see, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised, poor are evangelized; and blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in me.
John is in prison, and he knows it doesn’t bode well for him. Having come in the spirit and the power of Elijah, he knew well the story of the life of that prophet. That prophet too had rebuked a King of Israel (Ahab) and likewise had incurred the hatred of the King’s wife (in that case Jezebel of the Sidonians).
Jezebel decided to kill Elijah and it was because of that that Elijah fled to the wilderness. That is one of those passages in the Old Testament that remind us how human (how like us) those servants of God were. That was the Elijah that a couple of days earlier had brought down fire from heaven and presided over the destruction of over 800 priests of Baal and Ashtoreth on Mount Carmel. And yet, he feared certain death at the command of Jezebel.
I have often wondered if what happened was that the first Elijah, being a prophet, saw into the future, to the life of the Elijah that was to come after him: John the Baptist. And having seen into that life, saw how he ended: beheaded at the command of the King’s wife. And thus, he feared for his own life.
Any way it happened, it is evident at this point that John, in prison, has started to lose hope and therefore faith. (Kind of like the first Elijah.) So, he sends his disciples to Jesus to make sure that he did not read the signs of the times wrong… “Are You, the One that was to come?”
That is quite a question from someone that knew Jesus needed no baptizing, that knew he saw the Holy Spirit descending from Heaven and abiding on Jesus at his baptism, that knew that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, that knew that Jesus was the One whose sandal strap he wasn’t even worthy to untie for He would be the one to baptize with fire. And now, he doubts?
Haven’t we all been there before?
We have believed… and then things go wrong, not the way we had hoped; and doubt creeps in. And how does Jesus answer?
He doesn’t say, “Yes” directly. Before answering, while John’s disciples are there seeing Him with the crowd, he acts:
In that hour he healed many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and to many blind he granted sight.
He does this right in front of them. And then he tells them:
Go, bring back word to John of what ye have seen and heard: that blind see, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised, poor are evangelized…
He tells them to relay not only what they have just witnessed, but also to remember the very word that they themselves brought to John in prison, about the fact that Jesus raised a dead man back to life. And the point we cannot miss is that the way Jesus says it, emphasizes another witness that they could certainly not doubt… for He is quoting from the prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 35:3-8 Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the tottering knees. Say to them that are of a timid heart, Be strong, fear not; behold your God: vengeance cometh, the recompense of God! He will come himself, and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf be unstopped; then shall the lame [man] leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing…
And from Isaiah 61:1-2, the way He read it in the synagogue:
Luke 4:18-19 [The] Spirit of [the] Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to [the] poor; he has sent me to preach to captives deliverance, and to [the] blind sight, to send forth [the] crushed delivered, preach [the] acceptable year of [the] Lord.
That is Jesus’ answer.
A simple “Yes” would not have sufficed because it would have required nothing of them.
They could just have taken that “Yes” at face value and returned with it to John – as it were – taking no responsibility for its veracity or lack thereof.
But Jesus has essentially told them: You tell me… You come up with the answer.
The way Jesus answers, forces them to think, forces them to evaluate the evidence: the evidence before them and the evidence of Scripture; and then it forces them to come up with the answer themselves. They must be fully convinced, themselves, that this is indeed the answer, that this is the will of God, of the God who keeps all His promises and never fails. Because that is the answer that John needs, an answer that is based on a foundation that cannot be shaken: the Faithfulness of God.
For as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews put it: Faith is the underlying reality of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
On receiving that answer, I imagine this is what John really heard: “Is not this what God promised? Was it not His voice that led you to the wilderness to prepare to do His will? Was it not His hand that brought the crowds in response to your preaching and that stirred their hearts into recognizing their sins when you offered them forgiveness? Isn’t this the work you accepted and carried out well, you good and faithful servant?”
“Isn’t this what I promised? Why would you doubt now?”
Blessed is he who is not offended in me
If I were John the Baptizer, would that answer have been enough? Or would I have been tempted to reply: “But I’m in prison… This isn’t part of the Plan.” Or worse, would I have been upset enough to retort: “Well, how about that part of the promise about setting the captives free?”
What bothers me is that I can see myself in danger of reacting that way.
How about you?
I mean, after all the work you and I have done for the sake of God’s Plan, is a “little break” too much to ask?
But that second retort would have been a low blow. For John knew, as well as you and I know, that that is not the kind of freedom the Promise is about. Physical freedom from physical chains is not why he came preaching. He came baptizing to set all of us free from the bondage of sin.
And if in the process of carrying out that mission, my mission that I accepted, I encounter opposition, persecution, tribulation in this world… I am going to be faced with exactly the same question that drove John to send his disciples to Jesus. I can see myself raising my voice in the middle of that pain and crying out: “Jesus, wait a minute… this isn’t what I was hoping.”
What is Jesus’ answer going to be?
I think His answer, cold as it may seem, will essentially be: “So what?”
Blessed is he that is not offended in Me.
“But it hurts…”
And He most likely will say, “I know… But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.”
Is this enough for me? Is it enough for you?
He is calling me to accept life as it is, for the sake of the Father’s Plan, regardless of how I feel. Because what I feel cannot possibly compare to what is truly at stake here.
And yet… and yet… aren’t we all in danger, all tempted, to react in anger and say: “Well, if this is the way you are going to treat me, then what was the point?” That is the danger of being offended: being angry at God because He doesn’t do things the way I want Him to do and, therefore, turning away.
I really believe that when we are faced with that fork in the road: To be offended or not to be offended, the one thing that will make the difference is whether or not we are fully convinced, ourselves that this is indeed the will of God, of the God who keeps all His promises, and never fails.
If that is where I want to be, where you want to be, then we need to stop looking for simple and direct answers. We need to invest the time and energy to dig into His Word ourselves, to dig, pray, wrestle with it until we understand His purpose, His Love, His Plan and what is ultimately, truly, at stake.