Disturbing Behavior

February 2009: Sean Delanos is an editorial cartoonist in New York, working for a newspaper. Sean has unintentionally offended people. What he did was to equate the congressional authors of the stimulus bill with a crazy, rampaging chimpanzee. The situation has erupted into a huge hullabaloo as students at a New York college are urging boycotts. Sean recently learned what happens when you offend people.*

Students at a New York college burned newspapers, demanding that anyone involved in the cartoon be fired because they saw racial overtones in it. Not to be outdone, a well-known agitator jumped into the fracas, asking that the Federal Communications Commission move against the ownership of the newspaper.

Last year, Geert Wilders -- a Dutch politician who produced the film "Fitna," which asserts that Islam is a threat to enlightened Western values -- was refused entry into the United Kingdom because of that nation's policy to "stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages."*

People can and will be offended, but the latest tactic is to involve the government, as if it’s a constitutional right not to be offended. Remember the branch bank manager who removed the American flags put on the property to honor a fallen South Carolina soldier? Her rationale was that somebody “might be offended.”

Paul writes about “the offense of the cross” in Galatians 5. What’s so offensive about a nice piece of jewelry? Don’t women wear it as a prominent accessory of the well-dressed? It dangles from the necks and wrists of the finest of the fine. As jewelry, it’s the acceptable accoutrement.

Jewelry, yes; message, no. It’s not the cross dangling from the neck that’s offensive; it’s the content of the message of the cross that is.

Think of it: the cross carries a message that says, “You’re so evil, it takes the death of the Son of God to make the, not “a,” satisfaction for your evil.” The cross says, “There’s not one good act you can perform to make the needed satisfaction for your evil.” The cross says, “There’s not one wrong thing you can give up to assuage God.” The cross says, “There’s not a single vow you can promise to satisfy God.” The cross says, "Try harder? Forget about it." The cross is not a message of self-improvement. The cross says, "Jesus is God."

The message of the cross is that of total human impotency and total Christ sufficiency to do all that needs to be done to satisfy God’s holiness and righteousness.

That message stings the human ego to the point of puncture and deflation. “Don’t talk to me of my inabilities; you offend me when you do. You hurt my feelings.” Take the Geert case. The message of his film is “extreme” and “violent.” The message of the cross is “extreme” and “violent,” as it speaks of a beaten and bloody Savior with gashes on His back, nails driven in His hands and feet, thorns embedded in His head, and a Roman sword plunged into His side, and it gets extreme when the message is, “He’s the only Savior.” You can’t get more extreme than that.

The message of the cross is so violent and extreme that the world requests, "Tone it down and include something about human potency to earn salvation; it says, "Don't be so exclusive. Don't say Jesus is the only one because that’s hateful to other saviors and religions.

[There is a disturbing note to the Delanos' and Wilders' matters: when the government is asked to step in because people believe they have a right not to be offended, something out of “1984,” is set in motion in that it allows the government to dictate what opinions their citizens should hear.]

Paul wrote: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul was proud of this offensive message. Just think, here’s a person who’s proud of being offensive! Sounds un-American.

Paul’s behavior was disturbing, so upsetting that it offended the ancients to the point his contemporaries said, “Those who’ve turned the world upside down have come here!” Paul was offending people all over the world, and proud of it. Unlike the cartoonist Sean Delanos, Paul deliberately offended people.

A person, a church, must be willing to show this disturbing behavior if there’s going to be an eternal impact.

There’s no way the world can handle a person like Paul. No individual or group controlled him. The only way they could shut him up was to kill him. Nero did. His behavior was disturbing.

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor

*David Harsanyi, columnist

For more information about our church or comments on this web site, please contact webmaster@countylinechurch.com.