Jesus Spoke to Offend and to Awaken

Jesus Christ was never worried about offending the right people.

One moment in His ministry makes that especially clear the day He challenged the religious elites, cut through their spiritual façades, and refused to soften His words even when the disciples warned Him He had gone too far.

When the Pharisees confronted Jesus, not over major moral failures but over His disciples skipping hand-washing rituals, Jesus didn’t just correct them. He exposed them. In Matthew 15, He pulled back the curtain on their entire religious system. These were men more concerned about appearances than obedience, more worried about tradition than truth. And Jesus, with divine authority, declared their worship vain.

The disciples, likely caught between their loyalty to Jesus and the religious leaders they’d grown up revering, stepped in with hesitation: “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended?” (Matthew 15:12). They asked it like someone trying to keep a PR scandal from spiraling.

But Jesus didn’t retreat. He didn’t apologize. Instead, He said, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides” (Matthew 15:13–14). His response wasn’t soft diplomacy it was fearless fidelity to His Father.

The Myth of “Nice” Christianity

In today’s culture, this kind of boldness often feels foreign. We’ve traded truth for tone, clarity for congeniality, and substance for style. Even within the church, an unspoken rule governs speech: whatever you do, don’t offend. It’s as if “nice” has become the eleventh commandment.

But Jesus’s ministry doesn’t fit that mold. He was kind, compassionate, and gentle but never at the expense of truth. He spoke plainly, often painfully, and always purposefully. He knew when the heart needed tenderness and when it needed a rebuke sharp enough to awaken the soul.

Jesus's words were never aimless. When He risked offense, it was to bring the proud low, lift the humble, and plant the truth deeply. The same Jesus who welcomed children and dined with sinners also flipped tables in the temple and called hypocrites by name. He didn’t just expose sin; He disrupted the systems that allowed it to hide in plain sight.

Offense Isn’t the Opposite of Christlikeness

In our age of outrage, we’ve confused rudeness with sinfulness and assumed that any offense means something went wrong. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes the truth offends precisely because it's true. Sometimes love confronts, because sin kills.

Being offensive isn’t the goal being faithful is. But faithfulness will often offend, especially in a culture where feelings rule and truth is subjective. Jesus reminds us that a gospel without offense is no gospel at all (Galatians 5:11). If your version of Christianity never provokes, never unsettles, never challenges, then it may not be the real thing.

The gospel is a sword before it is a balm. It cuts before it heals. It uproots before it plants.

Why Jesus Spoke the Way He Did

When Jesus called the Pharisees blind guides or compared unrepentant cities to Sodom, He wasn’t just being provocative. He was speaking with divine precision, aiming to wake up dead hearts and expose religious deception. And His words landed with power because they were rooted in truth.

Consider the Gentile woman in Matthew 15 who came to Jesus for help. He initially compared her to a dog not out of cruelty, but to test and ultimately reward her faith. She pressed in, and He marveled at her. While the Pharisees took offense and walked away, she took the challenge and drew closer.

Jesus’s words, sharp as they were, didn’t repel those hungry for truth. They repelled only those clinging to self-righteousness.

Where Are the Plain Speakers Today?

Our churches need pastors, leaders, and everyday Christians who are willing to speak plainly not harshly, but with clarity and courage. As Richard Baxter once wrote, “When they are more offended at the reproof than at the sin, and would rather we cease reproving than they cease sinning, then it’s time to sharpen the remedy.”

That sharpening is not unloving. It is the medicine of a church that still believes sin is deadly and truth is necessary. The apostle Paul understood this well. When false teachers threatened the Galatian church, he didn’t hold a debate he said he wished they would emasculate themselves (Galatians 5:12). Graphic, yes. But also inspired. Paul didn’t soft-pedal heresy. He crushed it with words that carried the weight of eternity.

We’re not all called to be prophets in the wilderness, but we are all called to be faithful witnesses. That means saying what needs to be said even when it’s uncomfortable, even when others may misunderstand. Love that always avoids discomfort isn’t love. It’s self-preservation.

How to Speak the Truth Like Jesus

1. Start with Scripture.
   Let God’s Word shape your convictions. Jesus’s words were always rooted in truth. He wasn’t trying to “win” arguments. He was exposing hearts with the Word of God.

2. Check your motives.
   Offense for the sake of attention is pride. But offense that flows from love for God and others is often necessary. Speak from a place of humility, not superiority.

3. Ask what faithfulness requires.
   In any conversation, ask: What would it mean to be faithful here? Not popular. Not liked. But faithful. If Jesus were in this situation, what would He say?

4. Care more about eternity than comfort.
   Eternity is long, and people’s souls matter. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do is tell someone a hard truth they don’t want to hear because you love them enough not to let them perish in silence.

5. Remember the cost.
   Jesus knew that speaking plainly would lead to a cross. Yet He spoke anyway. Let that sober you. Truth-telling often comes with a price. But silence can cost even more.

Faithful Are the Wounds

Proverbs tells us, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6). Faithful. Not safe. Not smooth. But faithful.

This kind of speech is rare today but desperately needed. We don’t need more voices that flatter. We need voices that pierce, that wound in order to heal, that bring gospel clarity to a foggy world.

And when we do speak plainly, we should not be surprised if we are misunderstood. Jesus was. Paul was. So were the prophets, apostles, and reformers. Let us be willing to be accused of impertinence when truth is on our side. Like David to Eliab, we may simply respond, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” (1 Samuel 17:29).

Let’s reclaim the power of that word the Word that calls sin what it is, calls grace what it is, and calls us all to the feet of Jesus in repentance and faith.

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