To Offend or Not To Offend

11What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "

12Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"

13He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

15Peter said, "Explain the parable to us." Matthew 15:11-15

I hear all the time that we should be extra careful not to "offend" people these days. What is offend anyway? One of the definitions that Miriam-Webster gives is to cause difficulty, discomfort, or injury; to cause dislike, anger, or vexation. I'm just going to think aloud today, because I confess that this issue of offending people is bothering me as of late. How do we define what offends people and what doesn't? As an extreme thought, if you had disposable paper towels, and you chose to go with the white, bleached version, you could (in theory) offend a person who is passionate about recycling and a green earth because you didn't choose the more organic unbleached towel made from recycled materials. So should we head off the offense on the random chance such a person will walk into our home? To me, that would be just silly. I could be walking down the street with my children singing a Veggie Tale song together, and we could potentially offend someone by singing "Christian lyrics." So should I instruct my children to not sing to the Lord because we don't want to offend? Hardly.

And what about sharing God's Word in general? I think that people have a skewed view of being offended. I have heard of people telling a preacher that they should use a different passage in the Bible when partaking in Communion, because they didn't feel worthy enough to take Communion, and were offended because of that. Darn skippy! No one is worthy. I am soooo not worthy of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, that is why we celebrate communion together, to remind us of the wonderful gift he gave us of eternal life. It's cause for introspection. If we are uncomfortable with the message, perhaps that is the Holy Spirit gently suggesting we change something in our lives. We KNOW we aren't worthy.

I used the above passage because it shows an instance of offense in the Bible, and Jesus dismissed it. And look what he said! "Leave them." He dismissed their offense and probably further offended them by calling them blind. And later on in the book of John, Jesus was discussing the "Bread of Life" and what we now call communion, with his disciples, and he called them out for being offended by it.

55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"

61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. John 6:55-64

We live now in such a PC society, that simply smiling at someone as we pass them in the store can cause them to be offended. We have just started a series at our church called "Walk Across The Room." The concept is to embrace the idea that simply walking across the room and saying hi to someone could lead them to The Love of Christ. It's such a simple, yet wonderful concept. But how do you embrace the idea of "Walking across the room" when there is that fear of offending someone? The answer is that you have to let go of that fear. Yes, there is a chance that you may offend. You can't walk through life being afraid to offend people. You have to accept that on occasion, someone may become offended, but you also have to think that for every one person you offend, there may be 10 more that you could lead to Christ. I think it's high time for us as Christians to stop worrying so much about offending, and worrying more about reaching lost souls. There are so many, and so little time. We have no time to be worried about offending.