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When John the Baptist was still in his mom’s womb, Mary visited his mom Elizabeth, with Jesus in her womb. At the voice of Mary’s greeting, John lept for joy in his mother’s womb.
What an amazing confession of faith created by God through His Word in children, even before they’re born.
What an amazing confession of life in the womb.
John saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove rest on Jesus in His Baptism. He heard the voice of God say, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
John pointed to Jesus and said Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of world. One time he said this, two disciples who were following John immediately started following Jesus.
Jesus says that among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.
And, yet, John has his doubts now – Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Jesus, “Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
Or maybe John didn’t have his doubts, Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Jesus, “Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
The Christian Church for milenia has preached both.
John had his doubts.
John was stalwart of the faith.
And really, both have been preached for the joy and edification of God’s people.
John had his doubts. Christ be praised that His saints are not called saints because they are perfect, but because He declared them perfect through His blood.
Christ’s saints don’t often lead successful lives in the way the world would often define success and that suffering, hardships, rejection –
John’s in prison because he was preaching to a powerful government official Herod that he couldn’t sleep with his brother’s wife –
often lends itself to some questioning of God and His ways and kingdom.
The Christian cries out with the father who brought his suffering child to Jesus I believe as well as pray help thou my unbelief.
And, the Christian does well to follow the lead of John the Baptist and bring those doubts to Jesus – to know that the preaching and Words and deeds of Jesus will strengthen the faith in the midst of suffering. He is the One to come, we look to Him for the all good things even in the midst of evil.
Or John was firm in the faith. Even in the midst of suffering, hardships, and rejection, he didn’t waver or doubt.
Faith is a gift of God and God kept John firm to preach to us His kindness and mercy.
Suffering hadn’t produced doubt, but had produced endurance in John.
And endurance had produced character.
And character had produced hope.
And John knew, even in the midst of suffering, hardship and rejection, even in prison, that hope in the Christ would not put him to shame.
John had preached that he must decrease and Christ must increase. What better way to decrease than to suffer, especially suffer for the name of Christ.
John knew that that it was better for his disciples to become disciples of the Christ, so he did what every Christian should do, he sent them to Jesus.
So which is it?
I think it’s ok to choose your own adventure on this one.
Both preach Christ and His kindness and goodness.
Both strengthen faith.
And faith needs to be strengthened by God and Jesus loves to help those who realize they can’t help themselves
Jesus answered John’s disciples, 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 one who is not offended.”
How gentle and kind and gracious to us poor, miserable sinners, and how needful for us to hear, in order to strengthen our faith, Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
The world, the devil, our sinful flesh is preaching to us to be offended by Jesus.
Offended by the preaching of His Law – which tells us what to do and what not to do. That’s offensive when we just want to do what we want to do. Our world is very offended that God would know better than them what would be good for them to think, say, and do.
We could be offended by God’s gospel – how could God be merciful to them? How could Christ forgive that?
We could be offended by the way God’s kingdom is coming right now.
Christians and the Church seem so weak.
The Lord’s Word is so easily rejected.
The Christian still struggles with sin in themselves despite the desire to change.
Suffering is frustrating for the Christian who knows that God is powerful and merciful, so why is this happening to me?
From the John the Baptist God wants and produces in us firmness in the faith in the face of many reasons it would seem to be offended by Him. And in the end, we know we won’t be put to shame.
Or, from John the Baptist, we learn that everyone is suffering and has some doubts. It’s sinful, but we come here to receive the forgiveness of our sins and the comfort of God.
We rejoice in the Lord by faith, until we rejoice seeing the Lord face to face. Amen.