And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the 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 11:2-6
During our study of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five, I never considered the possibility that this passage from chapter eleven included a bonus Beatitude. Jesus gave us another attitude for life to richly bless our life! While being utterly dependent upon God, being immensely strengthened through humility, being merciful, being a peacemaker, and hungering after righteousness while we mourn sin—these take us to another level in our walk with God. But this attitude is the icing on the cake. What is it? In a nutshell, it is:
“Blessed are those who live with the attitude that God’s ways and God’s thoughts are far above their own thoughts and own ways.”
We can only speculate as to why John the Baptist was questioning Jesus about His standing as the true Messiah. Perhaps John had been in prison for so long that he was in despair. Or maybe he had the mindset of many of the Jews of his time and had the expectation that if Jesus truly was the Messiah then He should deliver Israel from Roman oppression. There is no question that as John sat in prison—life wasn’t happening the way he thought it should. God wasn’t working John’s plan. His expectations were likely crushed.
Do you think John having HIS own expectations for Jesus is any different than our attitude today?
Jesus knew the focus of His ministry would be offensive in light of what the Jewish people EXPECTED. They longed for a Messiah who would give them political deliverance from Roman domination. In this context, Jesus’ response—“Blessed is he who is not offended by Me”—totally makes sense. Jesus explained there is a magnificent blessing for those who do not become offended because He does not meet their expectations. Interestingly, the verb “offended” in verse six refers to the act of triggering a trap by taking the bait.
Jesus does not want HIS people to be trapped by their own expectations.
The Jews were no different from people today. We have expectations about how WE think God should run our life. We think He should keep us healthy, happy, give us plenty of money, a prosperous career, and that nothing bad should happen to us or our children. In fact, our car should never break down and our furnace should never be struck by lightning. God should always rescue us—even from our own stupidity, right?
But this bonus attitude is a reminder from Jesus that HIS ways are higher than our ways:
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9
Jesus is reminding us that our life is better when we have the attitude that allows HIM to run our life the way HE thinks it should be run. Tomorrow, we are going to explore some remarkable stories from the Bible that strongly illustrate the wisdom of this attitude.
