Jesus Responds to Offense and Resistance

For Proper 15B the gospel reading is John 6:51-58, which continues from the previous reading.  In that reading, Jesus barely got started with the gritty physical metaphors, and the people were offended and resistant.  This theme of offense will surface many times in portion of John in which Jesus is addressing the crowd in general.

I am not one to promote offending people.  I have even written an article titled Witness Without Being a Pest. But there is a dividing line between two major types of offense, and it applies to the gospel.  The first type of offense is given when people say needlessly hurtful things or behave rudely.  This is you, the speaker, offending people.  The second type of offense is the offense many people take when the truth is spoken to them.  This can apply in the real world.  Point out to a reckless driver just what about his driving is reckless, and he may take offense even if you do your very best to do so appropriately, and you are one responsible for point it out to him.  You may be a parent or a police officer.

Obviously, both parents and police officers have to suffer through times when people are offended, not by their behavior but by the message they must bring.  This offense will come no matter what the person does to try to stop it.  Yet both parents and police officers generally know that there are ways in which you present a message that creates a different offense of its own.

So here Jesus offends his audience and meets there resistance.  They’re unhappy with this “bread eating” metaphor and what it implies, connecting Jesus with the miracle of the Manna in the wilderness.  So what does Jesus do?  He turns up the heat!

He moves from bread to flesh and blood and from implications to pretty broad and open statements.  When the truth offends, sometimes the truth has to offend even more in order to generate a right response.

It’s hard to give advice on the situation in which each is needed.  Sometimes one just needs to plant the seed and then let it grow, backing off before more offense is given.  At other times one needs to keep wielding the hammer at the hard rock.

Proverbs gives us this dilemna and some advice:

Don’t answer a fool according to his folly,
Lest you become like him yourself.

Answer a fool according to his folly,
Lest he become wise in his own eyes.  — Proverbs 26:4-5

May God give us the wisdom to know which advice applies in each case!