wednesdays...umm, thursday with luke : )

this week has a been a whirlwind of politics. on tuesday evening, election night, i was able to have a lovely dinner with the women of my bible study at church & we discussed luke 7.

luke 7:18-33 recounts a story of John the Baptist who dedicated his ministry to proclaiming Christ's arrival. John was ministering during the same time that Jesus was traveling, healing & teaching the good news of God's kingdom.

At one point John hears of Jesus' healings & he sends his disciples/messengers to find Jesus where he is teaching & tell him that John has sent them to ask him directly, "are you the one that is to come or shall we look for another?" now mind you John has dedicated his life to telling the people that a Savior is coming, but helloooo... this man is healing the cripled & raising the dead right in front of your face & he's basically asking. "should we be looking for someone else?" man if i were Jesus, i'd be pissed. ha! i'd want to smack john upside the head & be like "is raising the dead not enough man? that stuff just doesn't happen everyday" but i'm not jesus (thank goodness) & i love how he responds to john's disbelief...

he doesn't scold him, he doesn't rebuke his messengers, he simply goes about his business of "healing many of diseases, plagues, evil spirits, & many who were blind he bestowed sight. & he answered them, "go & tell john what you have seen & heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, & the deaf hear, the deaf are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. & blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

jesus basically reiterated to john's messengers what they already knew of the Savior that had been prophesied by Isaiah. all these things were what the Savior would do, how we would know, but yet... john questioned what he knew so well. questioned if this was the Savior that he had devoted his life telling the people about. john ultimately had his moment of weakness, his doubt of who Jesus was consumed him & he wavered in his faith.

john was a great man in his time, but he had his weaknesses. even great men have their own weaknesses... even our presidents have their weaknesses. in fact all great men & women have their weaknesses.

we have to take them off the pedestals we have put them on & extend grace & mercy to them to allow them to be on a journey of their own... just as Jesus did.