Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1398
“And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Matthew 11:6.
THE connection of the passage assists us in feeling its force. John had sent his disciples to ask the Master whether He was, indeed, the Messiah. The Savior, after giving abundant proof that He was the Sent One who had long been promised, then adds, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Had John begun to suspect a stumbling block in reference to the Nazarene? Did he question if so lowly a Person could, indeed, be the promised Christ? Had he expected Messiah to be a glorious prince with an earthly kingdom? Was he staggered to find himself in prison under Herod’s power? Was John, himself in doubt and did the Savior, therefore, say, “Blessed is he who is not made to stumble concerning anything about Me”?
There have been many suggestions as to why John sent his disciples and, perhaps, we shall never know why. And we need not wish to know, seeing it did not please God to leave it on record. Some have said he sent the messengers for his own sake, for he was then under a fainting fit of unbelief. I hardly think so and yet, it is possible, for John was an Elijahlike man—a man of stern iron mold—and such men are apt to have occasional sinking of a terrible sort. With most of the children of God, their weakness is most seen where their strength lies. Elijah failed in courage though he was one of the most courageous of men! After he had slain the priests of Baal, he was afraid of a woman—afraid of Jezebel—and fled to hide himself. He said, “Let me die! I am no better than my fathers.”
It seems to be a law of Nature that the strongest men should have the worst fits of weakness. Martin Luther’s life is remarkable as illustrating this. He fainted as few men ever fainted—his despair, on some occasions, was almost equal to his confidence at other times! So it is possible that John, being of that class of men, after having boldly confronted Herod and declaring, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife,” may have fainted in spirit when he found himself shut up in prison with no known and manifest token of Messiah’s kingdom coming. Prison may have been a severe trial to the Baptist—we are all affected by the atmosphere in which we dwell.
Today has been a very heavy day to many a spirit because the atmosphere has been loaded with damp and smoke. I believe that there is more than a little truth in the rhyme—
“Hea viest the heart is In a heavy air, Every wind that rises Blows away despair.”
Now John the Baptist, after living in the wilderness in the open air by the riverside, must have felt a strange difference when he was shut up in the close, oppressive dungeon of Herod—and the body may have helped to act upon the soul. And so the mind, after its extraordinary tension in the great service to which John was called, may have been dragged down by the half-stifled body till faith began to tremble. And so it may be that John, for his own satisfaction, found it necessary to ask, “Are You He that should come, or do we look for another?” If so, the Savior well said, “Blessed is he that is not offended because of Me,” for, after all, notwithstanding his severe trial and deep depression, John was not really offended because of Christ. He was not actually scandalized because of the Lord whose forerunner he had been, but he held on to his testimony and sealed it with his death. Blessed is his memory as that of one who was not offended because of Christ!
Others, however, think that John sent these disciples not at all for his own sake, but for theirs. That strikes me as being the more probable. He wished to transfer them from himself to his Lord and he, therefore, bade them go and enquire for themselves. He felt that the answer which Jesus would be sure to give would be the best means of convincing them that they ought to follow the servant no longer, but cast in their lot with his Master. Our Lord, after showing that
He was, indeed, the Messiah, by working miracles in their presence and preaching the Gospel, then said to them, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me. You see Me here despised and rejected of men, notwithstanding that I work miracles. You see that I am called Beelzebub and treated with the utmost scorn. You shall be blessed if, believing Me to be the Christ of God, you follow Me without being staggered at anything you see, or annoyed at anything you are called to bear for My sake.”
Whatever may have been John’s motive, the text will, I trust, serve us for a useful purpose. May we be among the number of those who are blessed because we are not offended because of Christ. And let us now look at various characters that we may know to which class we belong. First, there are some who are so offended because of Christ that they never accept Him as their Savior at all. Secondly, there is another class of persons who, after professing to accept Him and apparently casting in their lot with Him, are, after all, scandalized. They find stumbling blocks and go back and forsake the way which they professed to tread. But then, thirdly, there are others who, by the Grace of God, take Christ as He is with all their hearts and are not offended because of Him. These are they that are blessed in very deed and shall enter into eternal blessedness in Heaven!