Narrow Way with Steve Phillips This Same Jesus
Blessed is he who does not stumble over Me –Matthew 11:6
John descended into Herod’s dark and dank dungeon. The blaze of heaven’s light bursting forth from him was then plunged into obscurity. Multitudes who once rejoiced in this burning lamp [John 5:35] thronged to him no more. The voice that had cried in the wilderness was silenced behind the confines of cold castle stone. John is alone. And the heralded Messiah of the coming kingdom sends no relief.
Jesus the Christ makes no visit to his cell. No word of cheer reaches his ears. Christ, the One that John’s whole life had been prepared for and was devoted to, does nothing, says nothing. Confusion reigns.
John sent to ask: “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” -Matthew 11:3. Multiplied anxious thoughts race through fevered imaginations in Herod’s dungeon. Rarely do such tumbling thoughts receive a satisfactory resolution. Prolonged suspense is one of the soul’s greatest disturbances.
No, this same Jesus left John in his cell until his head was “brought on a platter” –Matthew 14:11.
It is a blessed condition to not be offended when the Lord Jesus does not perform according to our expectations. We are blessed when His Word alone is sufficient to sustain us in the midst of distressing and grievous afflictions. Blessed are you when you trust what you know is true in the unrelieved grimness of Herod’s dungeon. The Word of God may be the only cheer ever received by the downcast.
Does that suffice for us? You say, “Yes,” but the heart still yearns for explanation: But when shall this end? When will He come to this, my dungeon? And to this, silence may be the only messenger sent.
The fact is that it may not be in this life at all that your distress is visited and relieved. Perhaps not until the day of vengeance will all of your woes, grievances, sorrows, and injustices be rectified.
By faith the servants of the Most High “escaped the edge of the sword” –Hebrews 11:34. By faith others, equally His servants, “were put to death with the sword” –Hebrews 11:37. Same faithful servants, all of whom had glowing faith: some perished, some did not. Yet it was this same Jesus for both.
Elijah was ushered into glory in a fiery chariot sent from heaven [2 Kings 2:11]. His faithful companion, Elisha, possessing a double portion of his spirit, slowly expired in sickness [2 Kings 13:14].
By the mercies of God Epaphroditus was healed of his deadly ailment [Philippians 2:27]. But Paul’s beloved co-worker was left sick at Miletus [2 Timothy 4:20]. “God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them” -Acts 19:11,12. But Timothy, Paul’s beloved son, his closest and dearest co-worker, had chronic bodily afflictions that were not healed in that way [1 Timothy 5:23].
God’s notable prophet, Jeremiah, was delivered and raised from a pit of certain destruction by the hands of merciful men [Jeremiah 38:4-14]. Yet the stalwart and fearless Micaiah was cast into prison and fed sparingly with the bread of affliction at the hands of merciless men [1 Kings 22:27].
Wicked men “laid hands on the apostles and put them in the common jail. But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out” –Acts 5:18,19. But this same Jesus informed equally faithful brethren: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life” –Revelation 2:10.
In days of famine, one desolate widow was miraculously fed while others foraged about searching for crumbs. The explanation from this same Jesus? “Elijah was sent to none of them” – Luke 4:25,26.
Dear Reader, lonely vigils night and day passed in the Baptist’s miserable cell in Herod’s dungeon of death before he was released. The prisoner was eventually set free. The prison doors finally burst forth from their squalor into the brightness of eternal day. It was the Lord’s doing.
At the malicious demand of Herod’s wanton consort, “he sent and had John beheaded in prison” –Matthew 14:10. And thus the captive was set free by Herod’s murderous sword; yet not even one hair of John’s head perished [Luke 21:18].
“‘Lord, and what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If I want him to remain, what is that to you? You follow Me!’” –John 20:21,22. And blessed is he who is not offended because of this same Jesus.