One of the sadder words in scripture comes when John the Baptist is jailed, mere hours I suspect from his death by beheading. He, so sure of his cousin before when they came together one day at the Jordan River, is now questioning everything. It is a crisis of faith that John is dealing with.
The Bible tells the story like this in the seventh chapter of Luke ..."19 Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else?” 20 When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are you the expected one, or do we look for someone else?’ ” 21 At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. 22 And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. 23 “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
Wow. John the Baptist, Greatest human of them all according to Jesus, was questioning his own belief structure, his own faith. "Are you the expected one or did I mess all this up," John is saying. I believe he's thinking, "hey, I'm in prison and my cousin, the Lamb of God who came to save the world as I proclaimed him, is not running Romans out of town, is not acting the way I think Messiah's are supposed to act. And did I say, I'm IN PRISON? Did I back the wrong horse in this race?"
Notice that Jesus never answers the question directly, but simply gives his resume as if to say, is there someone else who could do all this? Isn't this the way a messiah would do things? Isn't this the way Isaiah said the Messiah would operate? Did you not read the prophecy?
In his book “Disappointment with God” Philip Yancey helps put a voice to the questions expressed in a crisis of faith that many believers are afraid to ask and takes us through to the stunning conclusion that despite the appearance of things God can be trusted with the end results. He quotes a man named Douglas: “We tend to think life should be fair because God is fair. But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life – by expecting constant good health, for example – then I set myself up for a crushing disappointment.”
But what does Jesus mean by that last statement? Jesus is saying, I think, happy are those who are not scandalized by me, happy are those who are not repelled because of me. Or to put it another way more clearly, I think: Just because I’m not doing what YOU think I should be doing, does not mean I’m not the Messiah. Happy are those who don’t get shoved away by who Jesus is.
Wow. You mean God doesn't meet our own expectations? Maybe ever? Then what's this Christianity all about?
John thought Jesus was going to be some sort of version of him -- outspoken, brash, coming to plow the fields of the sinners, making them repent on the spot by his guilt-producing statements. Jesus was a lot of things, but another John was not one of them.
Ultimately, Jesus’ identity as the son of God is not dependent upon us calling him that. He IS the son of God whether you or I or John the Baptist or Pilate or the sinner Saul before becoming the saint Paul recognizes it. Happy are those who don’t stumble over their own expectations of who Jesus is in light of what Jesus is doing.
Happy then are those who join the Kairos ministry and help prisoners feel the freedom that is belief in Jesus Christ. Happy are those who serve in soup kitchens or nursing homes or in schools or anywhere the poor, the helpless, the least of these exist because they recognize that doing so is serving Christ himself. Beyond self-righteous church-goers with their white-picket fences and prayers that go no further than their own ceilings and their less than helpful religion lies Jesus on the mount or on the plain.
I've gotten in trouble before with alcoholics devoted to the very worthy Alcoholics Anonymous program because I have said from the pulpit that one doesn't get to worship the deity of one's own choosing, as the program declares. Jesus is the son of God no matter what we think or believe. God is Jehovah, no matter what we believe. We do not get to choose our own deity, for God is God. Or more rightly said, we can choose our own deity, but that doesn't make him, her or it God. We can worship a chair, but that doesn't make the chair capable of giving us peace.
A crisis in faith does not change who God is, nor what his word is saying. In fact when you step out of the boat and begin to walk on the muddy water that is a crisis in faith, it is Jesus who we must look toward. He doesn’t change, He doesn’t waver, and He is the Almighty God in the flesh. He has fulfilled hundreds of prophecies to prove it and nothing we fear or experience is going to change that.
So the question becomes, when you are in crisis (of faith, finances, relationships, health) where do you turn? I believe there is only one place, and that is the man known as Jesus. I further believe that is what Christianity does for the Christian along with giving him or her eternal life (what a bonus). Turning to Jesus in times of crisis is the only way to survive the crisis peacefully. That's the only way, that's the only truth and that's the only life I know.
I tried it other ways. It didn't work. Only Jesus.
TC Black writes, "I have been there, I have sat in fear and trembling even hating the questions in my mind thinking them to be unspiritual, and fearing them to be some secret proof that my faith was either not real in the first place or at least not as strong as it ought to be. Worst of all, I have feared that it was only me – and that no-one else has ever encountered a crisis of faith. That is a lie. The Bible’s pages and history’s record of saints is filled with men and women who struggled with faith but who found victory when they took their struggles to Jesus and immersed themselves in His word.
Blessed are those who don’t take offense in who they find out Jesus really is."
To that we must proclaim from prison cells, and hospital beds, and retirement homes, and work places, and school yards, and even from government halls a health and well-earned AMEN.
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