Are You Offended?

Have you ever seen, known, or maybe even been, someone who seems to be offended by everything? From their perceptive there seems to be a problem with virtually everything that comes along. Every action someone else does. Every word someone else says. There are never any exceptions. Unless they said it, or did it, or thought it, it was wrong.

I've been there. Perhaps not to the extreme I describe, but close enough. Whatever it was, I was right and everyone else was wrong. On my better days I kept those thoughts to myself, but there were plenty of times when the words came out my mouth, and I never cared who would happen to hear them. Praise God that that way of seeing and living in the world is not my default any more.

In a curious paradox there is one person who, at the same time, is both the most offensive, and the least offensive, person who ever walked the earth.

Who could that be? The Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaking to the disciples of John the Baptist in Matthew 11:6 Jesus tells them,

"And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

Jesus assumes, rightly, that what he has to say to people will be found by many to be offensive. One place where we see this is in John's gospel, in what are known as the "I am" statements. They are:

1.      “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35)

2.      “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12)

3.      “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7)

4.      “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11)

5.      “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25)

6.       “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)

7.      “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1-2)

Seven statement in which Jesus says something that is radically exclusive. Seven statements in which Jesus says that the only way is his way.

Our natural inclination is to see our way as the best way, in all things. We are offended by the idea that someone else's way, for anything, is the only way. And perhaps more than anything else, we are offended that Jesus' way is the only way to peace with God.

Praise God that one day I came to see that his truth in Jesus really was best. I still read things in the Bible that I'm not fond of, but for the most part they are the words that show me where things still need to change in my life. Perhaps not the words I want to read, but certainly the words I need to read, as I live day by day with faith in Jesus. 

The words of Jesus are no longer offensive, but words of God's love for sinners, like me and you.