When John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” (Matthew 11:2-6, NASB)
Back in the day, I carried a Walter Hagen Blade 1-iron. This was before perimeter weighting made millions of golfers think they could make the PGA tour. The head on this 1-iron was so thin you could use it to cut a well-done Porterhouse, and the sweet spot was the size of an eraser on a No. 2 pencil.
I was playing golf once with Doug Sanders, winner of 20 PGA Tour events when he looked in my bag and saw my 1-iron. He said, “Never bet against a man with a flat belly who carries a 1-iron,” but I think he thought I was crazy. Even he didn’t carry a 1-iron.
Lee Trevino once said if you want to avoid getting struck by lightning on a golf course in a thunderstorm, you should hold up a 1-iron because “not even God can hit a 1-iron.” Of course, we know that’s not true. God could hit a 1-iron off a skinny, downhill, hanging lie . . . . or in a thunderstorm. God can do anything. But sometimes, He chooses not to.
John the Baptist had prepared the way for Jesus. God had previously told John that Jesus was the Messiah (John 1:32-34), and John had announced it to others (John 1:29, 36). But then John was arrested by Herod and left to rot in prison
While John was in prison, he heard Jesus was performing miracles. However, Jesus didn’t do anything to free John—his cousin and, by Jesus’ own admission, the greatest of prophets. So, John sent two disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah.
Jesus responded by healing the sick and the blind and casting out demons (Luke 7:20-21). Then He gave John’s disciples a quote from the messianic prophecy in Isaiah 61:1. He ended with some advice for John: “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” (Luke 7:23). Jesus was saying, “Yes, I am the One, and I can do anything but don’t get offended if I choose not to do what you think I should do.”
Jesus could have set John free from jail, and John could have ridden off into the desert with a bag of locusts and a jar of honey, never to be heard from again, or maybe after being freed, John would have continued to challenge Herod and unintentionally interfered with the ministry of Jesus. Who knows? Only God knows.
What we do know is that God, in His sovereignty, allowed Herod to behead John and for John to become part of events we still talk about 2,000 years later.
God can hit a 1-iron, but He may choose not to. It is His prerogative. And if He chooses not to, we are blessed if we do not take offense at Him.
Prayer: Lord, help me always to be satisfied with Your sovereignty. Amen.