“Then fear came over everyone, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited his people.”….. and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.”……..Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?”” Luke 7:16, 23, 49 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/luk.7.16-49.CSB
How can Jesus be offensive? He commands we love one another as we love ourselves. He gave us the golden rule, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Jesus is humble and gentle among us, His burden easy and His load light. How can Jesus possibly be offensive? He is very offensive to the proud, the arrogant, the self-important, and all those who think they know better than God, so ignore His Word and fail to work His will in this world. Jesus claims to be God. Offensive to nearly everyone. To all the world religions, they deny His deity. To the atheist and agnostic, they refuse to believe in His divinity. Many Christians do not believe God has come as a man to die as a man and rise again from the dead as God to judge all humanity. Jesus requires everyone to go to Him for the forgiveness of their sins so they can be received into the Kingdom of God. This is offensive, for so many do not believe they have sinned. Many think there are many ways to get to God, not just one exclusive path, obedience to the Lord Jesus. His only way to life is offensive to millions of people who think they can make their own way to heaven. Only Jesus can forgive sins because only Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of humanity unless we wish to pay our own by suffering eternally in pain and fire. Jesus is offensive because He requires absolute allegiance and total loyalty to His person and His ways. What else would God require from His creation than our greatest love and complete surrender to His will? If we have not bowed the knee before Jesus and confessed with our mouths He alone is Lord and God, and have not yielded our lives to the will of God recorded in the word of God, perhaps we too find Him a bit offensive and so jeopardize our own souls for eternity in the kingdom of God.
