How did Jesus handle a question from His cousin, His forerunner, that indicated a shaken faith? When John the Baptist wondered if Jesus was indeed the Messiah or if there was another he should look for, Jesus had a dilemma. He could answer directly and say “Yes,” and the crowd would know He was declaring Himself to be the Messiah. Or He could “humble” Himself and say, “No, I’m not the one” to draw attention away. But Jesus did something else: He said, “Look at the evidence.”
Jesus then gave a tribute to John calling him a prophet who lived the calling of Elijah, and yet he was, for the most part, rejected. When both John and Jesus came, the people thought both were crazy. John was considered a demoniac and crazy because he did not eat or drink as everyone else did. Jesus was considered a drunkard and a glutton because he ate and drank with the people. It didn’t matter what they said, they could not please anyone, nor did they try.
Jesus had the opportunity to prove Himself once for all to the people that He was who He said He was and was given a direct question. And if we have seen anything out of Jesus, He so rarely gave direct answers. He was not going to get caught in a trap to say what He was not going to say. Jesus never answered the question. He never said if He was “the one” or not. He instead explained that the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the lame walk, the sick are healed, the dead are raised, and the Gospel is being preached. What more could one ask for? All the evidence was right there in front of them. So Jesus didn’t have to say it plainly and clearly. He gave them the evidence and let them decide what they thought about it. These were Jews; they knew their Old Testament, they knew their prophets. This was the moment everyone was waiting for. Jesus simply was saying, “What was prophesied all along?” And then just in case anyone was not sure, Jesus identified John like the prophet Elijah, the one who made the way for Jesus.
Jesus was not into straight answers. He always tended to leave things vague enough so anyone who wanted the truth would come get it and those who didn’t had no reason to chase Him. Jesus so rarely directly answered the Pharisees and here, He didn’t directly answer His own cousin who knew full well who He was. But John realized his time was coming short, and He wanted to be sure he didn’t live his life for nothing. He is asking one last time to confirm if he believed rightly or in vain, because we never hear from John again in the Scriptures. And Jesus doesn’t answer him directly. Why? I believe Jesus knew precisely how John would respond, and He wasn’t going to let the audience know directly either. Jesus, by giving this answer, believed that John would have died with peace knowing he had passed the torch to the one who would complete the mission.
We all have doubts as we go about our lives, but the question is what do we do with them? One of the most frustrating things we tend to get from God is a lack of straight answers. Even though we are honest and genuinely want the answers, we simply do not see Jesus give a straight answer unless He needed to hammer the point down right then and there. And that only happened when Lazarus died and at the Last Supper discourse. Jesus is not into spoon feeding. He is not into just giving everyone the answers. He wants people to think and process and wrestle with things.
I am the kind of person that very easily learns and memorizes things. While there are advantages to such a learning style, there are disadvantages, too. One thing I learned from all my schooling is that the only thing I learned was the facts I was told. I cannot say I truly began understanding things until 10 to 15 years later. I knew physics equations, I knew concepts, but I could only tell you what they were. I could not tell how they truly worked and operated. It took teaching to do that. I look back and I kind of wish I could learn things all over again and take things more seriously than I did in my youth.
With teaching today, the students are so used to being spoon fed, it is near impossible to get them to think. I realize, looking back to my college days, that I didn’t know how to study or learn then either. I want my students to be able to think, process, and reason. It is one of the reasons I love teaching AP Physics, because it forces that level of thinking. But even AP Physics, the hardest of all the AP courses, does not force one to think the way Jesus will make us think and wrestle. In physics, we are dealing with a finite set of laws and concepts, but with Jesus, we are dealing with eternal, spiritual matters from a finite, physical perspective. It’s not easy. These are things that cannot be merely spoon fed. It has to be taught by thinking and training how to think. It won’t come instantly. Jesus did this and practiced this. He taught the indirect way to give pictures that gave clear images of the message, but He forced people to wrestle and think and practice with the truths to truly grasp. Those who wanted the truth would wrestle with it, and those who didn’t would wrestle against it.
God is not afraid of an honest seeker. John the Baptist was an honest seeker. But God does not just give away answers to honest seekers; rather, He gives them evidences and questions that an honest seeker will wrestle with. In that wrestling, the answers will be so much clearer than had they been spoon fed. The answers will be so deeply rooted that they will remain and will be something that you can truly get a good grip on.
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