The notion that Jesus was not rude or that He did not stir up strife is not well supported, nor is the notion that He was only offensive to the religious elite. He was very much a troubler of Israel, as Elijah and the Prophets before Him (1 Kings 18:17). This includes both the Pharisees and regular church folk. It seems, however, that many modern American evangelicals have lost sight of this; therefore, they only have a partial Christ, not the full Christ as presented in Scripture.
Gathering the Missing Pieces
We need to start where Jesus did. Jesus began his ministry enraging ordinary synagogue attendants at his local synagogue (Luke 4:16-30). No, seriously—that’s what the text says. Read it. These are not the Pharisees, although it’s likely that they or some elders were present. Rather, these are what we might call church folk.
But that’s not all. At a meal where He was the guest, Jesus intentionally offended and insulted His host, the Pharisees, scribes, and the lawyers (Luke 11:37-54). He did something similar at another meal (Luke 7:36-50). At another meal, he confronted them again (Luke 14:1-6).
So what’s the point? Jesus purposefully and repeatedly provoked these people, in the midst of what is typically supposed to be a context of peaceful fellowship, escalating the tension between Himself and them, until it culminated in them murdering Him by proxy.
Christians must reckon with these things.
It May be Time for a Food Fight
Does this mean we are to confront and offend others at meal-time? Not necessarily, although, believe it or not, there may be instances where that’s righteous, even in the church (Galatians 2:11-14). This does tell us, however, a number of significant things about the Lord Jesus.
It tells us that His chief concern is not social expediency, nor is to be well-received, nor is it to placate. In other words, Jesus could be quite rude, impolite, blunt, and unfriendly, both in private and public settings, upsetting many norms and expectations.
You don’t typically insult people that invite you over for a meal.
Yeah but That’s Only the Pharisees!
One of the usual objections to this is that Jesus only offended the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law, the scribes, and the lawyers. There’s only two major problems: the fact that He provoked all in the synagogue in the incident of Luke 4 above, and much of the gospel of John.
John’s Jesus
John’s gospel is rife with Jesus offending ordinary Jews. In John 6, Jesus piled offense upon offense on his teaching, leading the disciples (John 6:60) to grumble, dispute, and many to ultimately turn away (John 6:66). In chapter 8, Jesus immediately offended the Jews who had just believed in Him, again piling up the offenses until they were provoked to murder (John 8:31-59). It happened again in John 10:22-39.
Point being, Jesus offended great and small, elite and ordinary, unbelievers and disciples. Now, did He have harsher words for the apostate leaders? Yes. There’s no doubt about that. But there is no room for us to pretend that Jesus was a well-mannered, people-pleasing charmer of men. He’s just not. Period.
How Did We Get Here?
Part of the reason the church at large can read and preach through the gospels and still miss these things is it thinks that the sum and substance of Christianity and Christlikeness is to be nice to everyone, at all times, in all ways.
Voddie Baucham calls this the 11th Commandment: Thou shalt be nice, and we don’t believe in the other 10. This means the grand offense is to offend. Jesus totally disrupts such an arbitrary standard. He would utterly fail the modern test of nuance and winsomeness that many believe marks a godly teacher.
Thus, the above image is actually very relevant because this is likely how modern Pharisees would react to Jesus today, thinking that they were guarding the true way of God. The pattern of Scripture is actually that the godly and ungodly are at enmity (Genesis 3:15). In some sense, children of God ought to be offensive, not necessarily for the sake of being offensive ultimately, but as an inevitable consequence of their fearing and obeying God and hating sin.
Yeah, But We’re Not Jesus
Now we come to another common objection: since Jesus is God and therefore perfect, He could do these things, but we can’t. On the surface this looks like a viable objection. But its logic is inconsistent. If that’s the case, then we have no business following Him in His tender, compassionate, and patient moments. He is no less God in those ways than He is when He offends others.
Instead, what is necessary is for the church to develop a theology of controversy/offense and teach it, holding in tension both the fact that we are to be peace-makers (Matthew 5:9) and at the same time we are to expose darkness (Ephesians 5:11). This often yields not peace but continuing enmity and hatred. Of course that’s what Jesus actually promised (John 15:18-19), and that’s the general pattern of the righteous beginning with Abel, the Prophets, to Jesus, the Apostles, and onward through much of church history.
The only problem is this requires faith and may cost us something, and we have grown so very fond of our flatteries and pleasantries.
May the Lord show His mercy to us.
May we follow the full Christ.
And may His zeal be ours.