Why Was Jesus So Darn Offensive?

A little while ago I talked about Jesus being the most judgmental person ever. Now I want to talk about something else that may seem counter intuitive.

Jesus= gentle, meek, and mild. Right? That’s the idea so many people like to frame about Jesus Christ. It’s partially true. It’s just not the whole story. Jesus was all those attributes…and more.

Jesus was perhaps the most offensive person in history.

That may sound shocking. And it is.

No, Jesus wasn’t like me. Sometimes I like to say little jabs at certain people because I know it will set them off. Like with my friend Ben.

He has a pretty good southern drawl when he talks. Once he was telling me about his first car, which was an Oldsmobile. Only he can’t say Oldsmobile. When he says it it sounds like Ohh-smoe-baheel. There’s no ‘d’ and some syllables are unnecessarily accentuated. So I kept saying I didn’t understand the make of the car. This time it was funny, but sometimes I peeve him a little.

Jesus wasn’t offensive just to be offensive and piss people off (Woops! Did I say that? Did if offend you? Sorry.). He had intent and reason to what he said and Jesus said many things that were offensive. And it wasn’t because he had a drawl when he spoke. What he said was clear as a Spring day.

So offensive were the things he said that people wanted to kill him, and eventually they saw to that.

Jesus said things like:

*he is God
*there is only one God
*there’s only one way to salvation and forgiveness of sin
*that salvation and forgiveness only comes through believing in him
*he called some people’s sin out
*he called certain things demonic
*he called the religious leadership of the day both of those last two things
*if you want to be blessed you must not be offended by him

So there are some of them. Don’t be fooled. Jesus was very offensive.But he wasn’t trying to be. He simply was speaking what he viewed as important truth that needed to be spoken.

Furthermore, Jesus was not a moral relativist or a philosophical pluralist. That means that many of the elites and academics of our day would consider Jesus a primitive idiot as they diced him on some cable news panel (metaphorically speaking, of course).

Yes, Jesus was offensive. And since I believe in Jesus and the things he says, I am sometimes called offensive. Oh well, I guess. My mission is not to be offensive. It is to be kind, respectful, but be clear what I believe when asked or when necessary.

So if you have ever been called offensive for your faith, you are in good company!

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