Are You Feeling Offended?( Part 2 )

I started the first article with this same title and confessed I get offended. I also admitted I don’t have this idea or practice under control and often need to confess my frustration and anger to God. All that being said, I also stated that we all get offended from time to time. If you never get offended I would suggest you aren’t passionate about anything or anyone. To have strong beliefs opens you up to being offended when someone or something seems to violate your values or loyalties. If you haven’t read the first article on this subject please do so before continuing as it will make more sense.

So, since being offended seems to affect all of us, I thought I would illustrate how the disciples handled offenses and how Jesus instructed them to deal with them. The first example relates to James and John. They were traveling with Jesus towards Jerusalem and Jesus wanted to stop in a Samaritan town. Remember there has always been a conflict between these two groups. The Jews thinking they are superior to the Samaritan and the Samaritans don’t trust the Jews. The Jews believe the temple in Jerusalem is the only true place to worship God and the Samaritans believe it is in Mount Gerizim. To be fair, the Samaritans fear God but don’t follow the scriptures, thus the animosity between them. You might compare it to certain liberal denominations and some conservative ones. Anyway, we find James and John getting offended and wanting to call down fire on them. Their anger must have been boiling over to make this suggestion to literally kill these terrible people. I would call that being really offended.

Luke 9:51-54                                                                                                                                                                                              When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 

James and John were nicknamed “Sons of Thunder” so we get the idea that they were passionate about what they believed. The offense they experienced had to do with what they thought was right and wrong. They believed that Jesus was the Son of God and that others should not only believe the same but people should honor him, like providing a place to stay. Their zeal for their Lord and friend seems praise worthy but their application was not.  Look at how Jesus used their passion to challenge their loyalty and the reason for it.

Luke 9:55-56                                                                                                                                                                                                  But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.

Can you imagine their confusion from this rebuke? They thought their zeal would be praised and yet they were rebuked. I think we often think God is pleased with us when we act similarly. When we get ticked off because someone treats our Jesus poorly. Maybe our understanding of loyalty and defending Jesus is not what God is after. Maybe he is after us loving people in spite of their disrespect?

Another time a disciple was offended with Jesus was Peter. Jesus starts telling his loyal disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Peter actually got offended with Jesus and pulled him aside to correct his misguided words. Pretty gutsy huh?! What does Jesus do? He openly rebuked Peter and called him “Satan” because he was listening to Satan whisper this offense. This seems pretty harsh until we realize that Jesus is more concerned with Peter’s heart and his influence with the other disciples and the general public. How often we foolishly think that God is most concerned with our comfort and feelings than he is with our character and decision making.

It is not wrong or sinful to be offended but how we deal with these offenses could be. If we look back in the book of Genesis, we can see Satan using the suggestions that caused an offense to twist our first parents perspective about who God is and who he isn’t.

Genesis 3:1                                                                                                                                                                                                   Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 

Satan fuels our emotions if we let him and then puts questions in our mind and heart about who we think God is. I think it’s easy to discount how and why people offend us but there is a much bigger picture here. People either reflect the goodness of God or the evilness of Satan yet we can so easily blame God for what others do or don’t do.  For example, when we pray and God doesn’t deliver some need we feel we have. When I was in a missionary organization workers would long to go to the mail box to hopefully get a check they were sure God would move people to donate. Their disappointment was not just in people they thought should give but in God as well. Or sometimes we are hurt by some tough life event and we were sure God will send someone to help us but it doesn’t happen. What we think about God often is predicated on what people do or don’t do. The end result is we move farther from a personal walk with God and people.  This brings a smile to Satan because he got us to respond poorly to our offenses. Rememeber, being offended is not a sin.

Jesus showed his close disciples how to handle being offended by how he reacted to those who truly deserved God’s judgement. From the Jewish leaders who were jealous of Jesus to a Roman leader named Pilate who ordered the death of Jesus for the support of the Jewish elders. When we see how he didn’t retaliate but loved his enemies we get amazed, or at least we should be. He didn’t just preach and teach people to treat others like they would like to be treated, he demonstrated under pressure how to hold true to his Heavenly Father’s morals and principles while others lied and cheated in front of and to him.

His disciples experienced amazing love when Jesus prophesied that these close friends would all desert him and, after they did, he would still love them. Was Jesus offended by their betrayal? I have to believe he was even through he was the Son of God yet his love always won the day. Maybe our love needs to be strengthened more than we realize so, in spite of things that offend us, at the end of the day our love wins the day also? I hope and pray it does.

I will write more on how and why we handle offenses after my Africa trip.

Questions:

1) Are you experiencing things that offend your sense of right and wrong? First, take those hurts to Jesus and ask for his love to strengthen you and secondly, if possible, share your thought without judgment with people involved.

2) Has the fact that others have not helped you in your time of need caused a sense of offense with God?  Cry out to God in prayer and tell him how you feel and then ask him to speak to you about these things.

Trying to love God with all my strength and soul,

Pastor Dale