Take Oil, Not Offence! 

Apart from a petroleum company desperately salvaging green credentials after their tanker buffeted at sea spills its load, it has been known to be a sensible thing to seek to pour oil upon troubled waters.

Even so, in the 11th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, just after Jesus sent his disciples out two-by-two like the assorted animals of Noah's Ark populating a fresh kingdom with newborn converts, the dovelike oil of God's Spirit is poured forth in answer to John Baptist's uncharacteristic doubts. That same Holy Spirit Who hovered over both the face of pre-Creation and post-Flood waters, broodingly seeking to birth God's grace, extends an olive branch of hope towards Jesus's cousin in his darkest despair.

The last time John had been enveloped in such darkness, he'd leapt a merry jig within his mother's womb in sensing the presence of his also unborn Lord he'd live to proclaim, but soon he'd be wrenched forth from the gloom of a prison cell to the tomb of losing his head for the dancing gyrations of a gruesome girl.

Before Salome's sinister request, all had been light, John broadcasting with searing vision, "Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world!" What then of sending two of his own disciples to beg the question, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” This was directly after he'd heard 'about the works of Christ', but the key context remains he'd heard 'in prison'.

Unlike the Apostle Paul, who in power of an abiding fellowship of the presence of the Holy Spirit, could songfully declare as in a Philippian gaol that he who was the prisoner of Christ and not Romans may be bound, but the Gospel remained unbound; poor John in the dying ebbs of an anointing that had been to prepare the way for Good News only saw pitifulness in his now diminishing view.

Perhaps Jesus was tactfully kind not to offer false hope in omitting the mention of gaol-breaking as in his local synagogue quotation of Isaiah 61 in Luke 4v18-19: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” In Matthew 11v4-6 Jesus answers John's disciples, '“Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”'

Notice the key difference that would unlock the prison door of offence? John just heard second-hand of what Jesus did, but Jesus said to tell of what they'd not only heard but 'seen'! Offence is a blindness that stops our ears from hearing what would free us, so the 'acceptable' year of the Lord marches forth in a glorious progression from recovery of sight unto walking in light; from cleansing from sin's separation unto hearing the tight-hugged heartbeat of Love incarnate's Jesusy embrace; from receiving the best raise ever of life unto the riches of Good News received in poverty of humble spirit.

Jesus said blessed are those who are not offended 'because of Me'...John saw the acts of mercy of Jesus ministering in the home towns of his disciples he'd sent forth as beneath the calling of the King he proclaimed, but this is Who Jesus Is... the One Who gathers up what is left behind. Before John's disciples could leave upon a note of needful rebuke, Jesus had these kind words concerning John, that he was like the bruised reed of Isaiah 42v3 whose soul He would not break though the smoking flax of his mortal life be quenched. Jesus pointed out that even John was not the kingly sort you'd expect to draw crowds but a prophet of repentance. The violent taking the kingdom by force is clearly not so much just the gentiles muscling into this new promised land but unlike Joshua's conquest purging those without, the followers of the Baptist did violence to themselves in seeking to cut out the heart of their own sin in the watery baptism of death. The sad thing was that like those Israelites who'd not mix with faith the words of those two faithful spies who spied out the land, the Pharisees not only would not enter in, but sought to prevent others from doing so too.

Jesus tells a parable some 14 chapters later relating to those He calls to hear the summons to the marriage of the Lamb. All who set out to attend are described as virgins who'd keep themselves unspotted from the world; all carry lamps for the feet, symbolic of our opened Bibles read for daily guidance to our immediate steps; and all fell asleep in weariness of waiting the bridegroom's return. What set apart the wise from the foolish is that the wise bought for themselves Isaiah 55's 'wine and milk without money or price', the free oil of the Holy Spirit enjoyed in day by day abiding communion with God. Even the wise suffered sleep, and the foolish had their lamps, but the wise mixed the reading of God's word with the faith which comes by hearing the sweet whisperings of ongoing familiarity with God's Spirit. The wise were not merely mean in not sharing last-minute their supply with the foolish, for no doubt we'd all very gladly spend and be spent for God in sharing the commission of the King of king's Good News, but the foolish cannot receive that which remains unfamiliar to them no more than the wise can impart something only continuously shared beyond initial revelation through ongoing fellowship.

Jesus's answer to those who knocked belatedly like the untimely tears of Esau bemoaning own loss more than realising what preciousness one has withheld from the Lord in spurning Him? "I do not know you."

May we all press on in to know and make known our more than acceptable Lord too many remain offended in in their fitful stops and starts of appreciation, oiling the clumsy cogs of each and every mind with the Spirit Who knows the mind of the Lord. Let us take oil, not offence.