We all know the feeling.
It’s that comment that nags in the back of our brain.
It’s that conversation that sits like sandpaper under our skin.
It’s that argument that we’ve had with a loved one…in our heads…several times…while we pace the bathroom floor. (Let’s be real, that’s the only place we can have some alone time right now).
That feeling has a name: offense.
It’s a feeling felt by every human, and it seems to be especially easy to come by in our day and age. In fact, people are calling our time, “The Age of Offense.” As we connect with more people than ever before over the internet, we have found that many of these people are different from us. While this could lead to a wonderful age of understanding and respect, it more often leads to bickering and—you guessed it—offense. The chance to communicate with more people than ever before has been twisted into the chance to be more offended than ever before.
Brothers and sisters, it should not be this way with us.
Our example is not the offendable world. It is not the political debate that rages over Facebook or the generational mud that people are slinging across the decades. Our example is God the Father.
Have you ever considered the fact that God experiences offense?
To the holy eyes of a perfect God, our sin is more than just unpleasant. It’s offensive. In the beginning, God desired perfection for his creation. He put his beloved humans in a garden and simply asked that they choose him over their own selfishness. They didn’t. We chose our own selfishness in the garden, and we continued to choose it throughout history. We built cities and empires out of sin, hatred and injustice. We continued to try and prove to God that we did not need him, his love or the good world that he wanted to give us.
In the face of so deep an offense, what did God do?
Did he yell and rant at humanity? Did he give up on us as a lost cause? No. Our God took a proactive step. He extended even more love to us. He sent His Son to suffer. Jesus took the punishment for all of humanity’s offenses, past, present and future. God chose to be gracious in the face of offense, and he calls us to do the same.
In Matthew 18, Jesus told a story about a servant who had offended his king. He owed the king more money than he would make in the next twenty years, and for that he deserved to go to debtors’ prison. The king, however, chose forgiveness. He chose to forgive the debt entirely. We would imagine that from that day on, the servant showed that same grace and forgiveness to others. Instead, the servant chose to be offended by his fellow servant and refused to forgive others.
Are we any different, when we choose unforgiveness? We have been given so great a gift!! When we choose to be offended, we forget the great offenses that God has forgiven us. We, like our Heavenly Father, need to take the proactive step of grace.
What does that look like in our everyday lives? Maybe it looks like listening to that family member, rather than insisting on our own way. Maybe it looks like calling that person we’ve been ignoring. Maybe it just looks like choosing understanding over outrage in our social media use.
Brothers and sisters, offense is real, but so is forgiveness, so is God’s love, and so is Jesus.