As strange as it may sound, the Lord Jesus (who did everything perfectly) offended people by his life-giving teachings! Remember, Jesus is love in the flesh, yet his wiser than Solomon teachings (which were also 100% pure, sound and accurate) were offensive to some because they were truth! The problem, therefore, was on the receiving end, not the giving end, that is, the heart of the truth rejecters:
Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” (Mat 15:12)
If such happened in our day, some unbelievers might wrongly accuse the sinless and perfect Lord Jesus, as being guilty of a hate crime! Jesus’ reaction to the disciples also seems different from what we might expect. That too is noteworthy!
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Mat 15:13,14)
Jesus showed no remorse, no apology and no regret in what he said or how he said it that caused the Pharisees to be offended. Truth is truth, like it or not. Take it or leave it. It’s not going to change. If people get offended over truth, it is their flaw and to their harm, not the giver of the truth of God. The offended ones are the ones who need to change. Furthermore, Jesus said leave them. They are blind guides. Blind guides are very dangerous to themselves and to their blind following, but they still deserve the truth, which they reject. The Pharisees were wrong and Jesus publicly corrected them for the sake of the crowd:
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’” (Mat 15:10,11)
Jesus elaborated several verses later:
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.'” (Mat 15:17-20)
The parallel listing in Mark is more comprehensive:
He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.'” (Mark 7:20-23)
Sin is the issue with God and has a lethal contaminating effect on the one who yields to it (Gal. 6:8,9; Eph. 5:5-7; James 1:14-16; Rev. 21:8; etc.). A pure heart can become defiled by sin (1 Tim. 1:5,6). That is why Paul told Timothy to keep himself pure (1 Tim. 5:22). Sin makes one spiritually unclean, unlike eating with ceremonially unclean hands. That precious truth should have never offended the Pharisees, but it did. It conflicted with their Scripture nullifying traditions (Mt. 15:6). They were offended, because they were not on the side of truth (John 18:37) yet unwilling to change. If they would have received the truth and changed accordingly it would have been to their major advantage. Instead, they were offended, rejected the truth and remained blind, as they continued down the road to hell in their sins and without eternal life.
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