Taking Offense

What the Bible says about offending and taking offense.

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

During this week’s Olympic Ceremony scandal, many Christians were offended by what might have been a parody of The Lord's Supper, a painting by Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci. The scene in question featured drag queens and other queered characters standing alongside a runway stage as though it were a table. Christians around the world immediately shared their disapproval calling the clip a mockery and blasphemy. Several church leaders responded in kind. The General Bishop of the Church of God, one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the world, claimed to speak for all Christians saying, “This action was highly offensive to the more than 2 billion Christians around the world.” Despite some ambiguity surrounding the producers' intention, offense had already been taken.

The subject of offending and taking offense is a theological subject within Christian belief. On a practical level, pastors and members navigate offenses within the context of parish life. Everything from worship styles to lifestyles provides an opportunity for offense to be given and taken among the congregation. Things were the same for the first Christians and the writers of the New Testament addressed offense in the epistles and the gospels.

The prevailing argument in the Bible is that Christians should strive to live non-offensive lives. Jesus gives a strong rebuke to those who offend little children saying, “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6). The Apostle Paul warned Christians not to use their freedom if it would offend a weaker believer saying, “But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (1 Corinthians 8:9).

Two primary words in Greek are translated as offense in English Bibles: scandalon (σκάνδαλον) and proskomma (προσκοπή). Jesus uses scandalon in Matthew 18. Paul uses proskomma in 1 Corinthians 8. Scandalon is the word from which we get the English word “scandal.” Scandalon is derived from a related word describing a stick in a trap to which bait is attached, which acts as a trigger. It is used metaphorically and translated as a stumbling block, offense, or scandal. Scandalon is used by Jesus almost exclusively. In Matthew 16, Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to suffer and die at the hands of their religious leaders. Peter is triggered. He rebukes Jesus, and then Jesus rebukes Peter saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense (scandalon) unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:23).

Proskomma has a similar definition absent the etymology of a trigger or trap. It means an obstacle, hindrance, or something that bruises. It is used when describing offenses that hinder or trip. In Corinthians, for example, Paul says Christians are free to eat food offered to idols unless eating in front of a weaker Christian would cause them to stumble in their faith.

Whether the offense is in the form of a scandal that triggers or an obstacle that hinders, one thing is clear: offense is generally taken by a person who is immature (a child) or weaker-minded (weak believers). Dallas Willard was once asked how he would define a mature Christian. He said, “I think a mature Christian is someone very hard to offend.”

This generation of Christians purported to understand this principle when they took to social media to stand for their faith and ridiculed anyone they offended by calling them “snowflakes” or worse. It looks like their ridicule may have just been an unconscious projection. The tables have turned. Now they are taking offense and doing it en masse.

Offense is a real feeling, though. We can’t just dismiss it. It invokes emotions such as sadness, anger, embarrassment, and regret when the offense causes us to stumble in some way. I experience the sting of offense mostly as embarrassment and regret. When I am offended, it looks like someone tripping in public then standing up and cursing the thing that tripped them. I am embarrassed that I got tripped and I regret that I didn’t have the self-control to moderate my emotions better. It has been said, “You cannot control the actions of others, but you can control your reaction.” That isn’t wrong. But, it isn’t the best response for every offense. It is entirely unhelpful to tell an abuse victim, for instance, that they couldn’t control what the offender did to them, but they can control how they feel about it. It is just not true. Trauma has a way of overriding our emotional control system, at least for a while, and that is normal. There are times when it is okay to not be okay. It may be better to say, “You can be mad, angry, sad, upset whatever. But you can't force me to feel the same way or react the way you want me to.” This is why the Bible cautions us not to offend as much as it teaches us to not be offended.

French philosopher Rene Girard has written volumes on the role offense and scandal play in societies that find themselves in times of upheaval. In short, he argues that human rivalries lie at the heart of all scandal and when left to run its course scandal and offense will lead to a web no one knows how to escape without finding a scapegoat- someone or some group to blame for all the confusion and scandal in the world. He believes this historic cycle of rivalry and scapegoating has been recorded most concisely in human myths. In contrast, Girard believed that the death of Jesus on the cross was the ultimate scandal because it revealed and exposed the satanic nature of offense and how it facilitates scapegoating. Jesus was the supreme scapegoat as, unlike Oedipus and other mythological sacrificial scapegoats, Jesus was indeed completely innocent and non-complicit in the web of human scandal and rivalry.

Indeed, the cross of Christ is the ultimate offensive idea. Of all the symbols from our faith that we esteem, the cross remains central. Saint Paul said, “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block (scandalon) and to the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). The fact that a symbol of shame, torture, and death is now proudly worn around our necks or tattooed on our arms is scandalous enough. Telling societies that seek signs or wisdom that the death of Jesus on the cross is the sign and key to understanding the deepest wells of wisdom and truth trips them up. Talk about triggering! Once the cross of Christ is no longer taken as an offense, it becomes a blessing. We are freed from the web of scandal, and from our own proclivities to be complicit in it. Jesus teaches us how.

Jesus taught the principle of transforming offense into blessing first in his famed Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. He said, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

Christian author and leader Ed Stetzer wrote an article regarding the Olympics opening ceremony entitled “Being Offended by Offensive Things is Good, Actually.” In it he offers some helpful nuance about the interplay of offense and outrage and argues that they are not the same. I agree. After all, Stetzer wrote the book “Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World is at Its Worst.” He concludes this article by saying that Christians should speak up about offensive uses of the symbols of our faith. He says that symbols are a crucial part of how we communicate meaning and that on a basic human level, it is normal to be offended by their misuse. He says “it’s fundamental to tolerance in a pluralistic society.” Stetzer chastises Christians who rebuke other Christians for being offended by a “mockery of their savior.” I am one of those Christians. But I do not classify my reaction as a “rebuke,” but more of an observation.

I have observed over the years a growing anger among Christians about the changing world around us. They believe there is a war on Christmas because businesses and institutions have opted to be inclusive and say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” They were livid when Starbucks changed the design of its seasonal cups. Viral preacher, Joshua Feurstein passionately declared that they were trying “to take Christ and Christmas off their cups.” Presidential candidate Donald Trump has used the alleged “war on Christians” when he stumps; claiming that he will stop the war on Christians and the war on Christmas. He says we are bringing Merry Christmas back! It has been an exhausting decade of victimhood, culture-blaming, and scapegoating among my tribe. So forgive me for not feeling as passionate as you were when a parody of a Renaissance painting was used in a secular and inclusive international event like the Olympics.

I have observed over the years a growing anger among Christians about the changing world around us. They believe there is a war on Christmas because businesses and institutions have opted to be inclusive and say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” They were livid when Starbucks changed the design of the seasonal cups.

Two differences I notice between those who were unphased by the possibility of the Lord’s Supper being used in the ceremony and those who weren’t come down to differences in the way we feel about living in a pluralistic society and the role symbols should play in that society. Many Christians are still kicking and screaming as they are dragged into the reality that we now live in a post-Christian and post-religious world. My friend Mark Tidsworth wrote, “I know it’s hard for you, long-time Christian friend. But when we finally recognize and accept that we live in a Post-Christian and even Post-Religious context, that’s when we are liberated from trying to recreate the past, with all its expectations of cultural privilege and place, Making The Shift into new, life-giving, robust, and beautiful expressions of Jesus followers and churches. So please, grieve it, rant and rave over an era gone by, do whatever you have to do…and then come join us on the other side. God’s pouring new wine into new wineskins as we speak, and there’s a glass waiting for you friend.”

I am on the other side of that scandal. Christian entitlement to be respected and tolerated is a pipe dream for our historical moment. And I am fine with that. In fact, I feel this is what the church needs. I did not find the Olympic ceremony scene a mockery because we live in a world with a changing sexual ethic and understanding. It is little wonder that would be reflected in the art and symbols of the world.

But let’s be honest. It is not only that they parodied a painting produced at the height of Christendom in the world, it is that they used people that many Christians view as an existential threat: queer people. A Christian leader in a prominent Pentecostal denomination told me recently that he views the LGBTQ+ people as “a nation” with a militaristic agenda. In his words, they have their own flag, their own pronouns, ambassadors, embassies in each country, an oversized presence at the Olympics, and a militarized ideology. I, on the other hand, have not experienced any of that with the queer people that are my friends and family. Many Christians and Americans, however, are thoroughly convinced of this. I do agree with Stetzer about symbols though. They do convey meaning. Gay-hating churches often chant disparaging phrases about the people they believe God hates. I won’t quote them. Instead, I say “God hates flags!”

“God hates flags!” Memes and symbols have taken on a godlike status in our culture. When it comes to faith, I am finding myself increasingly disconnected from the use of static symbols as a central part of Christian practice.

Memes and symbols have taken on a godlike status in our culture. When it comes to faith, I am finding myself increasingly disconnected from the use of static symbols as a central part of Chrstian practice. I love crosses. I wear a 600 year old silver cross around my neck every day. However, I am realizing that apocalyptic times are deceptive and demand more incarnational meanings. The scandal of rivalry and offense is stirring up dust all around us and the way that every person sees symbols and their meaning is always in flux. Forgiveness, love, and presence are the symbols of Chrisitan meaning. Rather than doubling down on defending our symbols as a means of sharing our message, I believe the better reaction is to double down on incarnational living that enlivens our message. Less flags, less paintings, less cross charms, less Christian t-shirts and more conversation, more love, more understanding, more laying on of hands, more eating and drinking together.

In the words of my friend Randall Worley, “When I’m offended, I’m reminded with each offense there is an opportunity for me to grow in love or to vilify my offender. God knew and loved the offender and the offended before the offense took place. George Will said, ‘Taking offense has become America's national pastime; being theatrically offended supposedly signifies the exquisitely refined moral delicacy of people who feel entitled to pass through life without encountering ideas or practices that annoy them.’ Once you take offense it is difficult to know what to do with it. Jesus could have taken offense on many occasions. He was accused of blasphemy, of being a drunkard and casting out demons by the power of Satan. Not once did He take the bait of offense. I am sure the toxic comments were a blow to His emotions in the same way they are to ours. But He never defended Himself and He doesn’t need us to defend Him. With His last breath He said, “Father forgive them; they don’t know what they are doing.”