The Gospel Should Be Offensive

The title of this article is taken from the title of an article on the Sojourner’s Magazine website.  I want to share a bit of what it says.

Before Jesus was born, his mother Mary predicted that he would offend some people….  She probably didn’t realize how right she would be; that in fact Jesus would offend and challenge so many people in high places that they would kill him for it….

Scripture constantly should be challenging our assumptions about our lives and every aspect of society.  Transformation is needed on a personal and also a political level. Scriptural priorities shouldn’t be glossed over in order to protect political ideologies and comfort zones…. As I continue on my own Christian journey, I am growing increasingly certain of one thing: if you never feel uncomfortable when you read the gospels then you aren’t paying attention.

Almost 70 years ago, in Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis said much the same thing about the specific issue of forgiveness:

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think it is too high and difficult a virtue; it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. “That sort of talk makes me sick,” they say…. “I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew.”

I think these statements are closely related and true – the gospel offends our modern sensibilities about any number of things, and real forgiveness can be a very difficult challenge for us.  But I think leaving those statements as they are is incomplete and potentially dangerous. Let me pose a hypothetical situation. Suppose you are the parent of a child who has been abused, molested, or hurt in some serious way. And suppose you are a Christian and take seriously your need to forgive people who have hurt you. How would you go about even trying to forgive the person who hurt your child? How would you start? How long would it take, or would it ever happen? Now suppose you read an article in a Christian magazine that you had to forgive or else, and that’s all it said. Do you think that would be helpful?

It is true that the gospel easily offends our modern, secular sensibilities; but it is also true that God’s grace in Jesus Christ is more powerful than our sin, and God’s love is more powerful than our apathy or refusal. It is probably true that God gets exasperated at times if we refuse to forgive even the smallest, most accidental slight. But it is also certainly true that in the earlier hypothetical situation, God is with that parent and child in deep empathy, love and comfort. In fact, as Christians, we say that in the death of Jesus Christ, the Child of God, God shares the pain and misery of that hypothetical parent. I know that is a metaphorical statement, but I believe it is also a true statement. The death of God’s beloved has a permanent place in God’s heart, so the pain of every human being is also held close to the heart of God.

The gospel may, indeed, offend us. But God’s love calls us away from being offended, and calls us toward the possibility of hope and personal transformation. How do Jesus’ words about forgiveness, about wealth, about enemies, about welcoming the Prodigal, about love of God and neighbor, fit with your life? 

Curt