Taking Offense: Delicious but Deadly

From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

Taking Offense: Delicious but Deadly: The Very Revd Dr Peter Catt

• Genesis 45:1-15
• Romans 11:13-36*
• St Matthew 15:10-28

One of the more delicious ways to exert power over others is to take offence. To take offence. To cherish the feeling of being offended. The delight of being in a position to let others know that they have offended one. Delicious. As delicious as gossip. And just as deadly.

I guess that at one level that might seem like an odd thing to say. We usually do not see taking offense at a person’s behaviour as the exertion of power. Rather, we see it as a legitimate response to an attack made upon us or upon our core values. So we take offense when someone swears or tells a racist joke if propriety or inclusiveness are values we prize. We do not see ourselves as exercising power when we take offense, but as behaving justifiably. Even righteously.

But taking offense can be a very delicious delicacy indeed. For the ‘taking of offense’ gives us something to build community with: we connect with others as we share with them our feeling of being scandalised, as we gather their support for our cause; as they legitimise us through their understanding of why we are scandalised. We love to be scandalised together. And so we make community over and against those who have affronted us. And the community we build has the capacity to exclude the offender, to discipline, to shame or belittle. Further the taking of offense can also be the exertion of power because we cannot help but display some degree of judging those who we see as having offended us. For a sense of superiority always companions judgement. Whenever we take offense we are intimating that we are a person with values and integrity, a person of proper belief and good values.... unlike the one who offends.   As I hear myself say these things, I find myself troubled; troubled because the taking of offense is such a visceral response that it seems that it would have to be legitimate. Today’s gospel assists us as we explore this issue. It helps us shed some light on this most basic of behaviours. It helps us see where the taking of offense can lead us.

The two stories which make up today’s gospel reading are linked by the concept of scandal, by the taking offense. They are stories which peel back the veil covering this basal human activity.

Jesus acts offensively in the two encounters described by the writer of Matthew. And those he offends respond in very different ways.

Firstly, Jesus offends the Pharisees by suggesting that one can eat the foods which they understand to be unclean . The laws and rules regarding food were believed to have come directly from God. And part of being a good Jew, one who honoured God, was to follow these rules. To the Pharisees, Jesus’ comments would have been heard, not only as a direct affront to God, but also as an attack on human dignity and Jewish righteousness. His comments were deeply offensive and scandalous. They take umbrage. And when Jesus is informed that they feel insulted and scandalised by his comments, he adds insult to injury and chides them for their response. He says that they will be weeded from God’s garden, and refers to them as blind guides. How would you feel if someone said that to you?

One can imagine the response of the Pharisees as Jesus moves away. Resentful; supporting one another in their outrage. They become a community of righteous indignation. A community united by hatred. No wonder they developed the urge to kill him.   In the second scene, Jesus insults the woman from Canaan . He calls her a dog. The insulting tone of his reference is not lost on us, even at this distance of years. If we call someone a dog it is still an insult!

But the woman’s response to Jesus’ offensive behaviour is directly opposite to that of the Pharisees. She actually gains power by tackling the offense head on and manages to push through Jesus’ attack. She is driven by love, love for her daughter, and no insulting man is going to deflect her from her track. She does not retreat to gain the solace of friends. She does not walk away. She does not react in kind. She is not paralysed nor isolated by her sense of virtue. Rather, she uses the insult of being called a dog to her advantage: ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table’.

In my opinion, it is at that point in the story that we are gifted with a most interesting insight. Jesus is impressed with her response. He praises her faith. He reveals that to have faith is to be one who does not take offense. In fact, ‘having faith’ is the opposite to ‘taking offense’ . Earlier in Matthew’s telling of the story of Jesus, John the Baptist sent messengers from prison to enquire of Jesus, whether he was the one they had been expecting . Jesus sent back the message, Look at what is happening to the poor and the lame. ‘And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’ The faithful and the blessed are those who do not stumble on the tripwire of ‘taking offense’.   This provides an amazing, and possibly very challenging, insight into what faith is, and what it means to be called to be faithful. For it suggests that to be faithful is to pursue love rather than the negative energies which come to us when we are scandalised.

I think it also makes sense of the earlier assertion that being affronted is not only delicious, but also deadly. The taking of offense prevents us from living in that it prevents us from honouring our deepest selves. It prevents us from acting on the love which is the expression of faith.

Both the Pharisees and the woman had the right to be affronted by Jesus. The Pharisees responded with such effrontery that they became murderous. The woman on the other hand pursued the loving path which lead to her daughter’s healing.

+Amen © Peter Catt