Taking Offense Removes Us from The Presence of Jesus

At the height of his ministry John the Baptist was believed by some to be the Christ. Others thought he was Elijah or the Prophet promised by God that Moses spoke of in Deuteronomy 18. John, however, denied those claims. In response to questions about his identity and his role, John said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23). Of Jesus, John declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, ‘after me comes a man who is preferred before me: for He was before me’ (John 1:29-30).

John not only knew that Jesus was the promised Messiah, he provided witness of this truth to all that would hear him (John 1:31-36). But something happened along the way that seems to have shaken John’s confidence and conviction. Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great) threw John in prison because John had confronted him about marrying his brother’s wife (Matthew 14:34). While John remained locked up in prison, he began to have doubts about Jesus.

In Matthew’s gospel we hear the following: Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, “Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?” Jesus answered and said unto them,

“Go and tell John again those things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, who is not offended because of Me” (Matthew 11:1-6).

Have you ever wondered how John went from proclaiming Jesus as the Lamb of God, to questioning whether, in fact, Jesus was the Christ?

The Bible provides some insight. First, John lost sight of the works of Jesus, hence Jesus’ instructions to John’s disciples when He said, “Go and tell John again those things which you hear and see”. At one point John observed and believed in the great works of Jesus, and those works provided witness to John that Jesus was sent by the Father (John 5:36).

But John lost sight of the works, and thus lost sight of Who Jesus is. Once John lost sight of the witness, in other words he was not seeing the works, a second thing happened: he got offended. This explains Jesus’ comment in verse 6: “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

It’s very likely that John expected Jesus to do something to get him out of prison, and when Jesus didn’t, John took offense. His anger, hurt and disappointment caused him to take his eyes off the Lord Jesus and begin to have doubts.

This does not mean that John was a bad person because he may have had doubts; indeed, Jesus went on to praise John greatly when he said: But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, which will prepare Your way before You. (Matthew11:7-10)

Then Jesus went on to say in verse 11: “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Why did Jesus say this regarding the greatness of John? The reason is the fulness of the blessings of the Gospel of Grace; were not known until after Christ had been crucified, buried, and had risen from the dead. Now the least of anyone in the kingdom of heaven who have put our faith in the Grace Gospel, will be greater than John; because of the righteousness of Christ imputed or assigned to us.

We know this because of what was written in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. He also indicated that very thing in his Epistle to the Galatians when he wrote: “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)

Now, Justification is the declaring of a person to be just or righteous, or in other words, just as if we have never sinned. John did not live to see the abundance of the Grace Gospel, or the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We must remember that John was human, and when we, like John, allow ourselves to be offended, we, too, will lose sight of Jesus and begin to doubt Him and His plan for our lives. But, by the grace of God, we will get stronger in this area.

Sometimes we do take offense too easily. The truth is we allow small things, petty things, and unintended things to offend us.

Generally speaking, taking offense means allowing ourselves to get angry or bitter, usually over the way we’re being treated. From a biblical perspective, however, taking offense means being made to stumble or fall away.

When Jesus failed to meet John’s expectations, John stumbled over the truth he previously knew and declared.

He went from knowing who Jesus was to questioning who He was. Sometimes we feel let down by the situation we find ourselves in. Then we begin to doubt God, the people and the circumstances He has allowed to come into our lives.

If we do, then we are setting ourselves up to stumble over the truth that is right in front of us. That’s because an offended spirit always severs itself from the Holy Spirit. And since the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, being separated from Him means being separated from the truth.

As we read in St. John’s gospel Jesus said: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. (John 16:13).

We see this time and again in the Bible. For example, the Jewish leaders and many of their

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