What Should and Should Not Offend You
Advent 3| Matthew 11:2-10| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| December 17, 2023
“And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
People who are quickly offended are difficult to live with. It can make you feel like you’re walking on egg shells trying to navigate around people, who might get offended by what you say, your tone of voice, or a look you might inadvertently give them. We’d all breathe a bit easier if people would just relax and not get offended so easily.
Yet, Jesus does not teach us not to get offended at all. In fact, there are times when you should be offended. You should be offended when people are mistreated and abused. Crass words and sexual immorality should offend you. Blasphemy, like setting up a shrine to Satan in the Iowa Capital Building, should offend you. False doctrine should offend you. What should not offend you is Christ, His teaching, and His life. The reason why it is wrong to be easily offended is because people are often not offended for the sake of Christ, but they are offended for their own sake. They are offended, because they think too highly of themselves. They take themselves too seriously. And they are offended that others do not.
But you are not taking yourself too seriously when you are offended at evil, when you take offense at pornography, crass joking, and violence against the innocent. And you are not thinking too highly of yourself when you are offended at false doctrine, which perverts the Word of Christ, so that people do not believe the truth. Christians should take offense at the things God takes offense at. Indeed, we were taught in our Small Catechism to take such offense when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, as we all once memorized, “But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to the Word of God profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father.”
But blessed are you if you do not take offense at Jesus Christ. John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if He was the Christ or if they should look for another. John knew Jesus was the Christ. He proclaimed Him the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He baptized Jesus and witnessed the Holy Spirit descend as a dove and God the Father speak from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” But John’s disciples doubted. So, John sent them to ask Jesus. Jesus answers their question by pointing out that He is fulfilling the Scriptures before their eyes, by giving sight to the blind, healing the lame, cleansing the lepers, healing the deaf, raising the dead and preaching good news to the poor, as the Prophet Isaiah foretold, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” (35:5-6) and again, he prophesied, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” (Isaiah 61:1)
The Scriptures are clear that Jesus is the Christ, God’s anointed. Yet, people still take offense at Him because of His humble appearance and His ministry of grace. The chief priests and Pharisees were offended at Jesus, because He was not what they expected. He did not come praising them for their religiosity. He did not come with power and might, but meek and lowly. They were too proud to worship Him, who lay in a manger, who sat with sinners, who was hanged on a tree. Yet, Jesus’ warning is written for us. Blessed are you if you are not offended by Jesus. Blessed are you if you are not offended that He tells you to repent of your sins and consider others more significant than yourself. Blessed are you if you are not offended that He saves you by grace, through His humiliating suffering and death. Blessed are you, if you are not offended that He expects you to receive Him through faith and not through sight.
Those who are offended by Jesus will not receive Him through faith, and so they will be condemned eternally in their sin. Yet, those who are not offended, receive Jesus and are saved eternally. That is what it means to be blessed.
If you are not offended by Jesus, then you will not be offended by John. John is more than a prophet, who makes straight the way of Christ. In fact, all faithful pastors are more than prophets. The prophets looked into their own writings to see what person and time the Christ would come (1 Peter 1:10-12) Yet, John does not prophesy of what he does not see, but He points His finger directly to Jesus Christ and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) And this is the ministry into which all pastors enter, a ministry that is more than a prophet, because we are not servants of the Old Covenant, which was brought to an end, but of the New Covenant, which is found in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 3). We do not need to guess which of David’s sons will sit on His throne. That Son has already been born. He has manifested Himself to us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) As the book of Hebrews asserts, “Long ago and at various times, God spoke to our fathers of old by the prophets, but now in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.” (Hebrews 1:1). The New Testament has completed the Old Testament, so that the Holy Christian Church has God’s full revelation of salvation. We don’t have prophets anymore, because we don’t need prophets anymore. We have something more sure, the prophetic Word of Holy Scripture (2 Peter 1:19-21).
This is why St. Paul says, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” All pastors are servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. A steward manages that which is not His own. This is why Jesus says to His disciples, whom He sends out to preach, “The one who hears you, hears me.” (Luke 10:16) They do not speak their own words, but the words of Christ. The mysteries of which pastors are stewards are the mysteries of Holy Scripture, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the two natures in Christ, the vicarious atonement of Christ, and justification by grace through faith alone, the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, in short, the whole council of God, which governs the Church on earth and grants salvation to those who receive it in faith.
And so, those who are offended by John the Baptist are offended by Jesus. Those who are offended by Christ’s ministers are offended by Christ. Yet, this does not mean that you should accept every preacher, who claims to be sent by God. Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets, who come to us in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Matthew 7:15). So, you should be offended by preachers, who preach false doctrine. And you should be offended by teachers, who publicly live contrary to the Word of God.
By listening to Jesus’ description of John the Baptist, we learn which preachers we should take offense at, and which preachers we should not take offense at, lest we take offense at Christ. “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” Jesus asks. “A reed shaking in the wind?” Reeds shake in the wind, because they are flimsy and hollow. They are empty on the inside. A reed shaking in the wind is a preacher who has no substance inside him. He licks his finger and puts it to the wind and preaches what he thinks his hearers want to hear. We see this among those churches, whose preaching is remarkably different than what they preached fifty years ago. Twenty years ago, homosexuality was a sin. Now, it no longer is. Fifty years ago, sex outside of marriage was a sin. Now, it is fine. Five years ago, Jesus was the only way to heaven, now there are many ways to heaven, and hell probably isn’t real. Such reeds shaking in the wind should offend you. You should be offended at preaching that rejects God’s Word trying to please the crowd.
John the Baptist is no reed shaking in the wind. He stands straight and calls sinners of all sorts to repentance, and proclaims clearly Jesus as the only one who redeems sinners. And so, those who are not offended by John’s steady preaching are not offended by Jesus, who remains the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). And this is why Paul is not concerned about being judged by anyone, nor should any minister of the Word. It is the Lord who judges every sermon. When the pastor stands in the pulpit, the only listener he should be worried about offending is God, who listens to every sermon and judges. And so, you should not be concerned about your feelings being offended by a sermon, but rather whether God is offended or pleased with it.
“Did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothing?” This is laughable, because John wore camel’s hair and a leather belt and now languishes not in the king’s palace, but in the king’s dungeon. And so, Jesus not so subtly digs at King Herod, who decks himself in soft clothing. That Greek word for soft is also used to mean effeminate. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul uses it to refer to homosexuals. The word effeminate should be distinguished from the word feminine. Feminine refers to those good qualities of women, such as gentleness, modesty, gracefulness, etc., qualities, which describe a good wife or mother. It is polite to refer to a girl or woman as having feminine qualities. You wouldn’t describe a woman as effeminate. Effeminate describes a man, who takes on a negative caricature of women, that is, an offensive satirical depiction of women. Effeminate usually describes a man, who is weak, soft, and decadent. Men are not described as feminine, because by nature, they cannot be women. And when they try, they become an offense to both men and women.
You should be offended at an effeminate preacher, because he is soft and weak, meaning, he will not stand on God’s Word, but will seek the easy way out. And it means that he is obsessed with his own comfort, like Herod, who enjoys the feeling of soft silk on his skin. Sissy pastors, who obsess over their feelings and comfy living should offend you. You should not be offended by a pastor, who forsakes the world’s pleasures, and proclaims the truth of Scripture, even if he must suffer persecution for it, as John did.
John made straight the way of the Lord through his preaching. And so every preacher must make straight the way of Christ. The purpose of Law and Gospel preaching is that sinners may repent and turn to Jesus and be saved. Those who are offended by the Law, for hurting their feelings, will be cursed. Those who are offended by the Gospel, for hurting their pride and saying that only Christ can save you, will be cursed. However, those who humble themselves and receive Christ in humility will be blessed forever. Christ had every right to be offended by our sins, our pride, our lusts, our hatred, and our idolatry. But instead of rejecting us, He bore our offenses on the cross. And so, we must not be offended by Christ, but rejoice in the Savior preached to us. Amen.