What Is Life All About?
“And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Luke 7:20-23
The Old Testament predicts what it will be like when Jesus comes. Isaiah 35:4-6 and Isaiah 61:1-2, for example say that when the savior comes “the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy” and “good news will be preached to the poor,” “to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom for the captives”. They are specifically told what they will witness so they know when the savior comes.
Jesus is doing that. He is doing all of that. Of course He is the one to come! Of course He is the savior! Jesus is saying, “Yes John, I am exactly who you know I am.”
Only in Luke, Jesus did not include, “proclaim freedom for the captives.” John sent men to ask Jesus because he was in jail. He was captive. He wanted to make sure that he was certain it was Jesus. John wanted “freedom for captives” to be quite literal.
Instead Jesus includes, “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Jesus is saying, “Yes I am who you know I am to be, but I am not going to do what you want me to do right now. Can you be okay with that?” Jesus basically told John, “I am not freeing you from captivity right now but I am still the one to come.”
Jesus is telling US, “I am not going to fix your little circumstance right now and you have to be okay with that.”
Our mission and kingdom as Christians is not about what we want and that’s scary. Jesus’ mission and kingdom is about God and HIS plans only.
That is what the gospel is. Life is fundamentally about God and not me. I don’t know about you but that is not always fun to realize or to swallow for me. I so often get caught up thinking, “Okay God, I’m doing a lot of small stuff for you, when are you going to give me what I want?”
The tough reality is that Jesus does not owe me my dream and it is not guaranteed that it will ever happen. If God had told you up front that following him would mean that any dream you’ve ever had would never happen, would you still follow him?
The great news is, HE IS GOOD. Whether or not your circumstances are. We have to trust Jesus more than we trust our dreams and desires. What hope we have in such a constant savior!