There is a remarkable account in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus is dining with a religious Jewish man, a member of the Pharisees, who were highly esteemed in the ancient Jewish world. When the Pharisee questioned why Jesus did not follow their hand-washing custom, the Lord proceeded to rebuke him and his fellow-Pharisees in the strongest possible terms.
At this point, another guest at the dinner, himself a Torah teacher, said to Jesus, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”
Now, you might have thought that the Lord would have been diplomatic, saying, “Hey, I didn’t mean to offend you. I was only speaking to hypocritical Pharisees. I didn’t have you and your group in mind.” Perhaps His answer would carefully thread the needle, not bringing needless offense?
To the contrary, Jesus responded to this Torah teacher’s comment with a series of rebukes against that group too.
Yet the Lord pulled no punches, exposing hypocrisy wherever He saw it, even if it caused intense opposition and offense. In that sense, Jesus was (and is) the perfect example of an equal opportunity offender.
He makes everyone uncomfortable...
