COMMENTARY: Good Friday Reminder: Jesus an Equal Opportunity Offender

c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) “Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended?” asks the Passion hymn “Herzliebster Jesu.” Amid the excitement of Palm Sunday and Easter, this Good Friday question is never easily answered. If Jesus was so manifestly good, why did his people kill him and his followers desert him? The “Hallelujah!” of […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) “Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended?” asks the Passion hymn “Herzliebster Jesu.”

Amid the excitement of Palm Sunday and Easter, this Good Friday question is never easily answered. If Jesus was so manifestly good, why did his people kill him and his followers desert him? The “Hallelujah!” of Easter never makes sense without the “Why?” of the cross.


In this season of bitter division within Christianity, with faithful people arguing relentlessly on a host of issues, it seems fitting to remember that Jesus offended virtually everyone, including people like us.

Jesus offended the powerful. He threatened their hold on power and wealth. They called him “blasphemer” and “enemy of Rome,” but in fact they were protecting themselves, not the sanctity of God or the prerogatives of emperor.

Jesus offended the religious establishment. He called them “hypocrites” because they used the ancient Law to acquire modern privileges. He exposed their self-serving pieties, as had the prophets before him. He spoke to them about the heart of the Law _ love of God, love of neighbor _ and turned away from the rest.

Jesus offended self-righteous moralists. He gave them no room for creating outcasts or judging others. He gave them no extra points for quoting the Law of Moses correctly. God was doing something new.

Jesus offended traditionalists. He said they wouldn’t find God by looking backward.

Jesus offended religious institution-builders and their finely tuned hierarchies of privilege. He cleansed the temple rather than anoint its self-serving compromises. He created circles of belonging, not orders of ministry. He gave no doctrine, no special places at his right and left, no laws, no excuses to erect boundaries or to establish thrones.

Jesus offended boundary-keepers. He welcomed both women and men; gentile and Jew; sinner and righteous; children and grown-ups. He treated wealthy and poor with equal respect. He ate with enemy and friend, Pharisee and disciple. At a time when the keeping of boundaries was deemed faith, he stepped across every line.

Jesus offended the wise and intellectual, who sought refuge in definition, law and precedent. He told stories, parables of considerable ambiguity. He urged people to think and speak for themselves.

Jesus offended those who waged holy war. He urged them to love their enemies, not smite them, and to forgo retaliation.


Jesus offended his own disciples, by asking more of them than they were prepared to give.

In the end, Jesus offended almost everyone, and he died virtually alone, watched from afar by a few and up close by his mother and a friend, as well as two thieves and a Roman centurion.

We have built a global religion on Jesus’ resurrection, but increasingly ignore the message of his crucifixion. We control vast wealth and power _ the two commodities that Jesus urged his followers to give away. We speak with utter certainty on almost any topic _ even though Jesus consistently evaded calls for certainty. We wage righteous war in Jesus’ name _ ignoring the call to love our enemy. We never lose our enthusiasm for voting some people out. We argue incessantly and call it faith _ paying scant attention to what Jesus actually said about self-denial and servanthood.

We do this because, like the first disciples, we are human and lost. I doubt that Jesus would be at all surprised by our behavior. It’s the reason he came. It is difficult, however, to imagine the one who offended so many suddenly being pleased by our wars, doctrines, laws, exclusions, sumptuous buildings, clever displays, ardent alliances with politicians, and jealous clinging to perches that have little of Calvary about them.

MO/PH RNS END

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, consultant and leader of workshops. His book, “Just Wondering, Jesus: 100 Questions People Want to Ask,” was published by Morehouse Publishing. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. His Web site is http://www.onajourney.org.)

Editors: To obtain a photo of Tom Ehrich, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.


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