Today’s Reading: Matthew 15:1-20, John 6:60-71
Optional readings: Matthew 15:21-39, Mark 7:1-8:10, John 6:25-59
Bread of Life, healings, Feeds 4000
The spirit of offense can lead to murder.
Just like when we discussed anger, it seems everyone is offended all the time. And this is supposedly the age of tolerance and inclusion. (It’s really just the age of deception.)
I think much of this is rooted in the deceptive idea that truth is relative. When we can each determine truth for ourselves, it makes a lot of space for us to be easily offended. And if we are walking in pride (see days 3, 6, & 9), we can count on being offended frequently.
I suppose there is righteous offense, but once we examine our hearts and eliminate pride, deception, and fear, there are few reasons left to be righteously offended.
We have to view these offenses with the knowledge that God sees all things impartially. Even I don’t see myself without prejudice. If my conscience is clear before God, like I’ve really checked myself, then whatever anyone else does or says should make little difference to me.
Being easily offended is a seed of bitterness that will want to grow.
The Pharisees were offended early on in Jesus’ ministry. They were offended by John the Baptist even before Jesus started his ministry! There was no grace in their tradition, no representation of the patient and merciful God that gave them the very Law they lorded over people.
In addition to their strict instruction, the Pharisees were prideful and powerful, which meant their hearts were also fearful. Jesus called out their hypocrisy, and “it was on.”
When we take offense at a perceived slight, we often fail to communicate about it because we either 1) secretly recognize that we’re making too big a deal of it; or 2) we are scared of confrontation. If we can truly rein in our emotions in deference to our logic and generosity, then it may not be worth discussing. If we find we hang on to that spirit of offense, however, we need to work through it.
Here are two major problems with a spirit of offense:
It’s dangerous. It grows like a cancer and keeps us from seeing truth.
It shows ingratitude.
The first time we are offended, we may not bring it up, but we log it away in our mind. This gives the devil something to play with. He can take a little seed of insecurity and feed it lies until it grows into hatred.
The next time you are offended by the same person, it just confirms your initial suspicions. You will now see every interaction with cynical eyes, and therefore everything the offending person does will be used to confirm your bias and skew reality to look like the antagonism that you’ve convinced yourself is happening.
This is what the Pharisees did. Once they had decided that Jesus was a trouble-maker, they tried their hardest to make each interaction confirm that. Most of them closed their mind to any possibility other than the narrative they chose (this is pride again). The offense grew into bitterness, which grew into hatred, which grew into murder.
We’ll talk more about the Pharisees later, so let’s look at ourselves now. Here are some common offenses at any church:
“I missed church last week, and no one even called.”
(Christianity isn’t about our right to receive love, but rather our call to give it.)
“So-and-so walked right past me and didn’t even speak”
(What you don’t know is that person is walking in a fog of depression and trying hard to just keep from crying.)
“My Sunday school teacher prayed for everyone except my great-aunt’s neighbor.”
(You get the idea…)
Do you notice where the focus is? Me.
A spirit of offense is me-focused and not kingdom-focused.
Generous Lord, You spent your entire life focused on others. I didn’t realize that I am so focused on myself. I thought I had a right to point out when people offend me. Help me guard my heart and my mind against bitterness, and I pray I not give the devil a foothold. Give me a charitable spirit. Amen.