"Offended by Jesus"

​3rd Sunday in Advent – A                                                                              LSB #’s 338, 524, 333
Text – Matthew 11:6
 
And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
 
OFFENDED BY JESUS
 
 
In the childhood I experienced, the time leading up to Christmas totally revolved around expectations.   We eagerly looked forward to family parties, many prior to the great Christmas Day celebration that everyone attended.   We anticipated multitudes of delicious Christmas cookies at every event, & hours spent playing in the snow that was normal back then. 
As students, we could not wait until Christmas break began, because it brought the end of the early bed times that ‘school nights’ required.   And yes, what gifts were inside   all of those carefully wrapped presents? 
Growing up in a rural farming community meant that fall was hyper busy with the stress & the difficult labor of the harvest.  That was usually past, once the days of December began to roll by, & a certain calm would settle in for the gradually building excitement of Christmas. 
Parties, presents, friends & family, cookies, snow & Christmas lights, all topped off by Christmas vacation.   It was a magical time to be alive.   And at the age of 8 or 10 it never occurs to you that Christmas will not always be that way.   Far more of the people who made those childhood Christmas memories of mine are now in heaven than are here on earth. 
For many in this nation, & certainly around the world, Christmas was never that way to begin with.   Harsh conditions exist for Christians in many nations.  Even if people believe in Jesus, families are fractured, people don’t have time, or know how, to make multitudes of Christmas cookies, & it almost never snows before Christmas   in Michigan anymore. 
No matter how amazing God’s blessings are in this life every last one of them is temporary.  Each blessing, as with every life, has an expiration date attached to it.  We easily get used to, & take for granted, the blessings our Lord showers upon us.   It is much more difficult for us to adjust when any specific blessing, or loved one, expires.   Last Sunday, John the Baptist confidently cried, “…Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.”  (Matthew 3:3 ESV)  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit & fire.”  (Matthew 3:11b ESV) 
Today, the victim of earthly power, might & wrath, the Baptist meekly sends word to Jesus from prison, “…Are you the one who is to come, or   shall we look for another?”  (Matthew 11:3 ESV)   John was ready to welcome a God of power & might & wrath, but Jesus came to be the victim of God’s power, might & wrath. 
All Christians, saints but still sinners, at one time or another, struggle with doubts.  “Why did that happen to me?”  “How could God allow this?”   “Where is Jesus when I need Him?”   “Does God hear my prayers?”  “Does my faith make any difference in this world?” 
People find themselves stuck between a rock & a hard spot, imprisoned not by Herod, but by the world, by our flesh, & by the works of Satan.  Evil still thrives in our day.  Terrible things happen & God does not prevent them.  There are the silent struggles of long & lonely days at nursing homes.  Illness & disability take their toll on our bodies & on our mental health. 
At times, God does not provide the support & strength we so desperately ask of Him.  The resultant doubts are real & pressing.   Like John, we are tempted to wonder if Jesus is ever going to get around to bringing true justice to the weak & the downtrodden of this life?  The rich & famous, politicians & billionaires, never get held to account for their lies or their greed. 
John’s doubts & frustrations revolved around his expectations.  The same is true in our lives.  Learning that Jesus is not a genie, who is come to grant all our wishes, is one of the difficult transitions of faith.  When we struggle to understand how Jesus is working through the brokenness of this world, rather than looking at our doubts as adversaries, God would have us see our doubt as an invitation to prayer.  During prayer, the Holy Spirit will guide us to reflect on our lives, our faith & how Holy Scripture can educate, strengthen & comfort us.   Reading through the Psalms is especially helpful in that regard. 
We see it all through our culture, that human beings naturally assume power & control are the way to make things happen.  Despite all the rhetoric, our political elections are not about democracy.  They are a crass struggle for power & control.  Every side wants to have the winnowing fork in their own hands to weed out what they define as evil. 
After last year’s elections, the current Democratic party is offensive to many of its own constituents because they see it as weak & totally ineffective.  Their people are demanding that their leaders fight for power & control.    Maybe that’s what John the Baptist was expecting from Jesus, the destruction of earth’s evil rulers & to bring about God’s earthly kingdom. 
As Isaiah wrote in the OT reading, “Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.  He will come & save you.”  (35:4bc ESV)   It sounds like a human version of power & control.  Yet, the heavenly Father interpreted that verse in a very different way.  He sent His Son to be the victim of holy vengeance. 
In that way, it would not be just like the days of Noah, when everything was destroyed.  Instead, all the evil the universe has ever seen, or will see, has already been punished in the death of God on the cross at Calvary. 
However, hanging on that cross, to human eyes, the Son of God looked totally weak & ineffective.  People were demanding that He show some power & might by coming down from the cross to save Himself.   Yet, Jesus remained there even as His father in heaven abandoned Him to die, alone.   It can be seen as a ghastly act of horror, or as an act of supreme love. 
If your heart revolves around power & control, the death of your messiah is a ghastly act
of horror.  If your heart revolves around repentance & humility, the death of your Messiah is an act of supreme love.  And in love, Jesus says to you, “…blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”  (Matthew 11:6 ESV)   Jesus recognizes that He is not acting according to human standards, nor human expectations.  The ways of God are not the ways of men. 
However, this is not the only time Jesus encounters a follower struggling with doubts.  Historically, the name Thomas has been connected to doubt because of one man, doubting Thomas.  And what Jesus said to him closely parallels what Jesus said to John the Baptist: “Blessed are those who have not seen & yet have believed.”  (John 20:29b ESV) 
It’s one of the most difficult transitions of faith, that of moving from seeing & believing to believing without seeing.  When we doubt God’s plan, as we see it in our own struggles of life, we are blessed if we do not take offense at what appears to be the weakness of Jesus.  When we doubt God’s plan, as we see it in our own struggles of life, we are blessed if we believe anyway. 
Christmas is almost here & a song you may be hearing tells us, “Once again, as in olden days   Happy golden days of yore   Faithful friends who are dear to us   Will be near to us once more.     Someday soon, we   all will be together   If the fates allow.   Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”[1] 
The lyrics are rather weak, as theology goes, but one point is valid.  Someday soon, all God’s children will be together, & it will be even better than the happy golden days of yore.  “And blessed will be all those who were not offended by Jesus.”  (Matthew 11:6 ESV)  Amen. 
 
 
 
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!  It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, & drives away our fear.     It makes the wounded spirit whole & calms the heart’s unrest; ’Tis manna to the hungry soul & to the weary, rest.  Amen.  LSB 524:1-2. 


[1] Written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane