I think I've always pictured Jesus as being nice. He was powerful and spoke into people's lives in a new way but he was still kind and gentle and loving. Those things are true but I've been discovering another side of Jesus these days, the not so nice side.
As I work through Luke with the translators discussing what Jesus taught I am sometimes a little shocked by some of the things Jesus said. I have read these words many times before but never sat down and really thought through all the implications. But at the end of Luke 11 when Jesus is criticizing the religious leaders, he says some really harsh things. Remember he is talking to the Pharisees, respected leaders of the community. He calls them fools and points out exactly how they are missing the important things that God wants. He calls them graves, comparing them to dead decaying bodies that are corrupting the people walking over them. And Jesus says all of this while he is a guest at one of their houses.
In response to that attack on the Pharisees one of the other religious leaders, an expert in the law, points out that Jesus has also insulted the law experts by saying those kinds of things. He probably assumed that Jesus would realize how harsh he had been and apologize. Instead Jesus turns on that expert in the law. He tells him how they crush people with the burdens they place on them. He holds them responsible for the murders of all the prophets that were committed by their ancestors and then tells them they are preventing people from knowing God, the opposite to what they think they are doing.
As I read those verses I thought, wow Jesus what are you doing to that poor guy? He just was pointing out how harsh you were. Maybe you could say the truth to them but in a nicer way. Then I realized that Jesus wasn't concerned about being nice. He wasn't concerned about making everyone happy but about what God wanted. He was concerned that the people who were supposed to be God's representatives, the people who should be showing others the way to God were in fact showing their own way. Lowly servants who should have been following their Lord had in fact slowly taken over ruling, supplanting his wishes with their own. Jesus could not sit back and let this situation continue.
He was still loving and would not have rejected any of them who repented and truly wanted to follow God. He was not being mean or cruel but speaking straight to the heart of the matter with powerful words. And those words stung because they were true. The pride of those religious leaders could not bear to hear that they were doing anything wrong, let alone the graphic descriptions Jesus used.
I am not like Jesus. My culture says it's always good to be nice. Don't offend people, don't upset them, try to get along with everyone. This is ok sometimes but sometimes I think I need to speak the truth boldly, in love without trying to be nice. The words used shouldn't be said out of spite, to provoke, or out of pride but rather out of a genuine desire to draw people back to God. And if people don't think I'm nice anymore, that's ok because Jesus wasn't nice either.
