Offensive!

To some, Jesus said some offensive things.  Take for example:

(Mat 23:27)  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

(Mat 23:15)  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

(Mat 15:7-12)  You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:  (8)  "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;  (9)  in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"  (10)  And he called the people to him and said to them, "Hear and understand:  (11)  it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person."  (12)  Then the disciples came and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?"

Of course these statements don't seem so offensive to us because there is not much our culture likes less than a religious hypocrite.  We are likely to applaud Jesus for sticking one on the nose of these puffed up, arrogant, religious buffoons. But there are words that fall from Jesus lips which strike a huge chord of offense to many of us in our cultural context today.  Perhaps the most offensive thing to modern man (more accurately post-modern man) is the statement (John 14:6)  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Do you hear the exclusivity in that claim? This is viewed by our culture as the highest arrogance.  Jesus claim is that He alone is it.  He does not claim to be one way of many.  He does not validate other religions and beliefs even as he puts forth His own.  He says "I am the way."  There is only one.  "I am the truth." If you reject the Jesus of the Bible you have jettisoned truth and hold to some variation of lie.  If you teach it to others you are not only deceived by the lie but become yourself a liar.  "I am the life."  Apart from Jesus, only death awaits.  No one comes to the Father except through Jesus.  Only Jesus, God the Son,  takes you to God the Father.  This means it is a lie to claim that Christians and Muslims and Jews all worship the same God in different ways. (John 5:23)  "...Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him." If you approach your god apart from Jesus Christ, you are not approaching the one true God.  Any of the worlds other religions or atheism lead only to death.

I realize I may offend people in my presentation of Jesus' truth.  I do not wish to be offensive.  At the same time I do not wish to be unoffensive either.  Jesus made this claim, and others, which can be offensive claims.  Hear him though, and believe him.  Instead of offense, take note of his claim.  Jesus also said (Mat 11:6)  "And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."  Don't miss the blessing of Jesus by offense.