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   As I was rereading the 7th chapter of the Gospel of Mark recently I couldn't help but notice how Jesus seemed to press and provoke those around him, including his own disciples, toward taking offense,  if they were so inclined.  As it turned out none of them seemed to want respond, or shall I say, react that way.
   In the first instance he chides his disciples, "are you also without understanding?" merely for asking him to explain a parable.  It would seem commendable on their part that they cared enough to ask, but Jesus didn't respond that way.  He seemed to be testing them by his reproof to see how badly they wanted to know, to see if they would humble themselves still further.
  Similarly when a Gentile woman approaches him seeking a deliverance for her daughter, he calls her a dog unworthy of priority when it came to healing which he referred to as "the children's bread" that is, especially and primarily for the Jews.  She, however, amazes Jesus with her answer that even small dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.  She refuses to take offense!
  Lastly Jesus employs a very unorthodox means of healing a man who is deaf and can hardly speak.  He applies his own spit to the man's tongue!  Not everyone could likely have tolerated that process, but the man submitted to the Great Physician's strange treatment and was instantly healed!  In all three of these cases offense could easily have been taken, but all persevered and received needed revelation, and deliverance and healing.  They had to be willing to take another unexpected step in humbling themselves to receive the blessing they were seeking.  Jesus was testing them to see how badly they wanted what He had for them.  "My Son, -----do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes (or scourges) everyone he accepts as a son."  (Hebrews 12, v.5-6)  "Blessed (happy) is the man whom God corrects-----For he wounds,  but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal."  (Job 5, v.17-18.)  I believe many of us are undergoing this kind of testing today.  Will we choose to take offense rather than to enter into what God has for us, knowing that love is described in the 1 Corinthians 13 as not being easily offended.  Remember also what it says in psalm 119 v 165 "great peace have they that love Your word and nothing shall offend them. "  If we love His Word as much as the early disciples did our peace will be great and deep, if we are as desperate for healing and deliverance as the people who followed Jesus when he walked this earth, then we will be determined not to be offended no matter what.  If there's something in us that is inclined to be offended, it will be found in this hour.  Let us be ready as those times come, for come they surely will if they haven't begun already!