When Jesus Offended People, He Targeted the Proud, Not the Weak

By Tom Gilson Published on December 10, 2019

Some readers took issue with my article last week, “Preach the Whole Truth? Yes. Toss a Grenade In Your Sanctuary? Not Wise.” In one case, Shane Idleman’s, it was a simple misreading of what I wrote. I appreciate his correction and apology. I’ve been guilty of the same, so that’s all well and good.

Some other readers’ answers, though, concerned me. Maybe some of them were reacting reflexively. They’ve seen too many other Christians going off the rails over homosexuality and transgenderism. Now they’re worried we’re back-pedaling the same here at The Stream. They need not fear. Our commitments aren’t changing one bit.

There was the claim that I was saying “you must walk on eggshells,” in the words of one reader, “even when preaching to the saved in your own church building.” Apparently this person thinks everyone who listens to a sermon is saved. That’s way too optimistic. Most congregations are a very diverse group, ranging from the questioning, to the committed, to kids and spouses who are only there because someone dragged them.

Another reader thought my advice was a sad failure to follow Jesus, who didn’t spend “a lot of time worrying about offending people.” Actually, Jesus didn’t spend any time worrying — but He did very carefully target his offense, when He gave it, and He did very little of it in sermons. The same goes for Peter and Paul.

Someone else wrote that “the entire ministry of the church pre-Gentile shift was entirely confrontational to the Jewish religion and culture … and it still is!” Sure — but we have few recorded sermons to show just how the apostles carried out that confrontation with unbelieving Jews, and most of our congregations aren’t Jewish anyway. What we do have in detail (with the exception of one verse, Acts 2:23) lacks personal offense to everyone except the religious leaders. You’ll see how important that is in a moment.

Jesus’ Mission Was to Reach People, Not to Offend Them

One reader complained, “I find it hard to believe that we have to go to these extremes to please everybody.” No, it’s not to please them. It’s to reach them. And if following Jesus’ example is “going to extremes,” then let me be guilty of extremes! Because I was specifically following Jesus’ example in that article.

Maybe I didn’t unpack that as far as I could have, though. Maybe they didn’t see that it was about following Jesus’ model. Maybe they haven’t seen how Jesus tailored His message to people’s needs. Yes, He offended some people, but He targeted that offense very specifically, and He almost never did it in a sermon. So my advice, which was to avoid causing unnecessary “casualties” in the Sunday morning sermon, is perfectly consistent with Jesus’ model.

An Exception in John 6?

Someone is bound to point out that Jesus offended the crowds in a sermon in John 6:61. The Greek word from which “offense” comes has multiple meanings, though, including (quite frequently) “to cause someone to sin, or stumble, or fall away.” People fell away from Jesus in John 6; they weren’t angry or insulted. So this is no exception to the model I’m putting forth here.

We dare not miss the context in which Jesus offended some people. He had a mission, and it wasn’t to offend; it was to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world, but so the world might be saved through Him (John 3:16-17).

He always adjusted His approach according to His audience. In Matthew 13, He leaves the crowds confused and wondering what His kingdom parables meant, but He pulled His disciple aside to explain it. He refused to condemn the woman taken in adultery (John 8:1-12), but issued “woes” to the scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the Law (Matthew 23).

Jesus Only Offended the “Smug Religionists”

One group certainly needed offending but it was a very specific, focused set of people. Jesus was careful not to break the “bruised reed,” but He didn’t hesitate to tell off the scribes, Pharisees, and teachers. Read the Gospels and you’ll find it a virtually unbreakable rule. Jesus comforted the weary, healed the sick, brought good news to the poor, taught the truth unflinchingly, and corrected sinners gently — see how He did it with Zaccheus in Luke 19!

But He really laid into the proud, smug, hypocritical religionists. He called them children of the devil (John 8:44). In Matthew 23 He excoriated them as children of hell, whitewashed tombs, and more. In Matthew 12:34 they’re “a brood of vipers.” (John the Baptist called them the same in Matthew 3:7, focusing his aim on them as tightly as Jesus would do later on.)

You don’t see Him treating any other group that way. You don’t even seen Him answering the Pharisee Nicodemus that way, in John 3:1-15. Instead Jesus confuses him with his remark about being born again. Nicodemus practically sputters his objection, “What? You mean climb back into the womb and do it that way?”

So why did He tell off the rest of the scribes and Pharisees the way He did? Because they had God all figured out. They had all the answers, and they had the seats of honor because of it. They were proud. The scene with the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14 tells it all: They were perfect and had no need of anything.

I call them the “smug religionists,” and I pray often that God will protect me from falling into that same category. I don’t want Jesus taking aim at me as He did with them.

Jesus Tailored His Methods to His Listeners’ Needs

But they needed it — for their own good. They needed to repent and submit to Christ and His way. They weren’t the type to respond to care and compassion, so He had to give them the proverbial two-by-four between the eyes. Only then would they pay any attention to His life-giving message. Only that way would other Jews know they shouldn’t trust them as anything better than blind guides (Matt. 15:14).

Nicodemus was just a bit different. He came to Jesus asking for guidance, so Jesus didn’t have to work so hard to get his attention. But He still had to show Nicodemus he wasn’t the “teacher of Israel” (John 3:10) that he thought he was. What better way to do that than by telling him something he couldn’t understand?

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It’s worth noting, too, that when Jesus gave the Pharisees offense, He almost never did it in a sermon, but in dialogue instead. The one great exception is in Matthew 23, during the last week before His crucifixion, where He was teaching the crowds again not to follow them. Otherwise He confronted these smug religionists close up, not from a distance.

Sure, there were smaller exceptions here and there, like Matthew 5:20, where He told the crowds their righteousness had to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. They might have recognized themselves in Matthew 6:1, 2, and 5, But that was only about 3 percent of that sermon. It wasn’t His major message that day. Read to the end, too, and you’ll find it didn’t ignite any explosions. Was this “confrontational to the entire Jewish religion and culture?” Sure. Was it tossing a grenade on the congregation, though? Obviously not; see their reaction at the end (Matt. 7:28-29). That’s what I was cautioning against, remember.

Are We Willing to Follow Jesus’ Method?

So are we going to follow Jesus’ model or not? If we are, then we have to pay attention to our audience, so we can tailor our message and our method to them.

So let’s apply this to the LGBT controversy, as I did in last week’s article.

Congregations are diverse crowds, as I’ve already said. There’s no way to craft a message that fits everyone. The question, then, is how to get the truth across to the right people the right way.

Tailoring Our Messages

A lot of people — including church people — think the church is wrong to oppose same-sex relationships. But that’s not a studied conviction, it’s just something they’ve absorbed from the culture. These people need teaching. Unfortunately, though, based on my experience as an author and speaker, it’s an involved and complicated topic, so it’s impossible to do it really well in the length of a sermon. You have to leave things out; and anything you leave out leaves room for confusion.

Of course you must teach the truth, but there are better venues and worse ones. The Sunday sermon is one of the worse venues for this topic. I suggested some better ones in last week’s article.

Then the confrontation can proceed, as it should — very personally. In dialogue. Face to face. Following Jesus’ model.

Some people feel drawn unwillingly toward same-sex relationships. They need to know the truth, not as condemnation but rather as guidance, with support. The church can do that for them without ever mentioning homosexuality in a sermon. Any of the suggestion I gave in last week’s article would teach them what they need to know. But they need someone to walk alongside them in their struggle.

Some people have LGBT friends and family members. This group’s views toward same-sex relationships run the gamut, but they all need to know how God would have them love the gay, lesbian, or trans person.

Confronting Others

Then there are the false teachers in the Church who want to tell us that Jesus and the Bible support same-sex relationships. Outside the Church, there are gay activists telling us Christianity is evil for not approving of homosexuality. They need a stern answer. They’re wrong, and they’re doing massive, horrific damage. They could use the metaphorical two-by-four between the eyes, but they’re probably not sitting there for your pastor’s sermon.

Churches aren’t homogeneous groups that need the two-by-four treatment, as the scribes and Pharisees were in Jesus’ day. If there actually is someone who needs it, chances are the pastor or teacher doesn’t need to find him; he’ll find them. Then the confrontation can proceed, as it should — personally. In dialogue. Face to face. Following Jesus’ model.

 

Tom Gilson (@TomGilsonAuthor) is a senior editor with The Stream, and the author of A Christian Mind: Thoughts on Life and Truth in Jesus Christ and Critical Conversations: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Discussing Homosexuality with Teens, and the lead editor of True Reason: Confronting the Irrationality of the New Atheism.

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