Was Jesus Rude?

Was Jesus ever rude?  Of course not!  But there are a couple of incidents that might cause the casual reader to get that impression.

For example, as Jesus was visiting the coasts of Tyre and Sidon (Matt. 15:21-28), a Canaanite woman besought him to cast a devil out of her daughter.  "But he answered her not a word."  His disciples asked Jesus to send her away because she was "crying after" them.  But Je­sus answered, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  The woman worshipped him and begged him to help her.  Jesus said, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs."  To which she replied, "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."  Jesus said, "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt."  Her daughter was healed that very hour.

In contemporary thinking, Jesus would be accused of gross racial dis­crimination.  After all, he was refusing a Gentile woman's plea simply on the grounds that the good things belonged exclusively to Israel.

But I really can't believe that.  For Jesus eventually did grant her request for healing.  He even complimented her on her great faith.  Consider that in another similar incident (Matt. 8:5-13), he pronounced the faith of a Roman centurion, who also requested healing for his ser­vant, as greater than any he had found in all of Israel.  He even prophesied of the inversion of the order of things:  Gentiles would come from all quarters of the earth to enter the kingdom of heaven, whereas the Israelites, the "children of the kingdom," would be thrust out.

I think that, in the case of the Canaanite woman, Jesus was teaching tolerance to his disciples.  His comment that he was sent only to Israel was designed to see what their response would be; they, being Jews with a strong racial bias against the Gentiles, were in danger of misin­terpreting the mission of Christ.  The message which he conveyed to them that day was that compassion and the love of God is always paramount in our dealings with our neighbor, and we must love not only our brethren but our enemies as well.  Too, Jesus may have been test­ing the woman's faith.  I do not think that he grudgingly granted her request, but was glad to be able to do so.

Nevertheless, he didn't go out of his way to preach unto the Gentiles or to minister unto them.  Only a very few cases are recorded where he did so.  It was just as he said:  God did not send him to anyone but Israel.  Paul tells us that Israel is beloved for the fathers' sake.  In other words, God dealt in a special way with the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because of these men's faith­ful­ness to him.  God's spe­cial purpose for Israel was for them to be the bearer and  guardian of the oracles of God, and to be his evangelists to the whole world (Rom 3:2, 9:4-5).  It was only after Israel had been given the first chance to enter the kingdom of God that the disciples were sent unto all nations to preach the gospel unto every creature.  It must be emphasized that in neither the Old nor the New Testament does God seek to exclude the Gentiles from salvation.

There is another case, however, that always seemed to me to reflect rather badly on Jesus' good manners.  This is recorded in John 12:20-32.  About five days before the Passover (and the crucifixion), "certain Greeks" came to Philip saying, "Sir, we would see Jesus."  Philip con­sulted with Andrew and both came to Jesus.

There is absolutely no record that Jesus ever granted their request.  Of course, it is possible that he did so, but I rather think not.  Nor does he explain, or so it seems, for the answer he gave the apostles ap­pears to have little, if any, relevance to the request of the Greeks. ⁵ His reply was in substance this:

It is time that I should be glorified.

In order for a grain of wheat to produce fruit, it must be planted into the soil and die.  Otherwise, it will be the only grain of wheat.

He that loves his life shall lose it.  He that hates his life in the world shall keep it unto life eternal.

If any man serve me, let him follow me.

My servant shall be wherever I am.

My Father will honor any man that serves me.

I am now troubled.  Shall I pray to be delivered from this hour?  But for this cause came I unto this hour.

Father, glorify your name.

Then Jesus went on to explain that he must be crucified ("lifted up from the earth"), which act would draw all men unto him.

As I said, for years I could find nothing, or very little, in this dis­course that seemed like a suitable answer to those Greeks who wanted to see him.  Recently, however, I have had occasion to revise my entire thinking on the subject.  And I have discovered that not only was Je­sus not rude with them, he was most kind and gracious and went out of his way to . . .   But that is getting ahead of the story.

There is a legend, found in the apocryphal writings of the early church, concerning a certain king Abgar of Edessa, a city of Macedonia.

King Abgar wrote a letter to Jesus, professing belief in His messiahship and asking Jesus to come and heal him from an incurable disease; he also invited Jesus to take refuge from His enemies in the King's city.  Jesus answered the letter, blessed him because he had believed on Him without having seen Him, and promised to send one of his disciples after He had risen from the dead.  Supposedly Judas Thaddeus, one of the seventy, actually visited King Abgar and healed him.

Of course, there is little or no real evidence that this legend is true.  Even so, it is in total harmony with the character of Jesus, as I wish to establish with the following remarks.

With hindsight, we can see that Jesus intended that all men be saved, Gentiles as well as Jews, though the apostles didn't realize this at first.  Not only was it prophesied in the Old Testament, but he practically said so himself.  Here are a couple of Old Testament prophecies:

Ask of me [the Lord], and I will give thee [the Son] the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" (Psa. 2:8).

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.  For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising (Isa. 60:1-3)

Jesus himself said,

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd (John 10:16).

As the time of the crucifixion drew near, Jesus could see the in­creasing hostility of the Jews.  At the same time, he could see signs of an awakening interest among the Gentiles, as, for example, the incident of the Greeks who wished to see him. ⁶ Therefore, he knew that his earthly ministry was nearly finished, and that the hour had come when he was to be taken up to the Father.  He would be glorified, as he said.

But the route to glory lay through death.  He must first be crucified.  He was as a choice grain of wheat which God would sow into the earth resulting in a great harvest of other sons of God, most of whom would be Gentiles.

This much is now taken for granted by all Christians. But somehow I felt an essential point  was missing.  Why did Jesus give such a reply at that particular moment?  Was he trying to tell the Greeks something?  If so, why didn't he permit them to see him and tell them personally?

The metaphor of the grain of wheat is found in only one other place in the New Testament.  Paul used it to explain the concept of the resur­rection:  we should not expect that the present body of flesh be the one we shall receive.  This body must be sown into the earth, as it were, and decay: the result will be a glorious new body similar to the old, but one that though sown in weakness is raised in power; though sown in corruption is raised in incorruption; and though sown in dis­honor is raised in glory (1 Cor 15:35-55). ⁷   Now the seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11).  Jesus was that Word made flesh.  We have that same word sown in our "heart of earth," a corrupted heart, and a heart of dishonor and weakness.  But the promise is, as Jesus was raised in power and glory and honor, so shall we.

As I was thinking along this line one day, it suddenly dawned on me:  to whom was Paul addressing his comments?  Why, to the Corinthians!  This was a church that Paul started in Corinth.  And Corinth was the cultural and trading center of ancient Greece!

Then Jesus did, in fact, address his remarks that day to the Greeks.  Though he apparently did not see them personally, he sent the message to them by his servant Paul. ⁸ As Jesus said, "where I am, there shall also my servant be" (John 12:26).  Jesus did visit the Greeks--in the person of his servant Paul!  He was not wasting his words that day.  As the angel Gabriel said, "No word from God shall be without power" (Luke 1:37, mg.)  And that same Paul commented, "for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16).

Let me paraphrase and amplify Jesus' message, adding a few words from other New Testament texts:

I am pleased that you Greeks wish to see me.  However, there is something you need to know.  I have not been sent to you Gentiles, but only to the house of Israel, for that is God's will for me.  It is not important to satisfy your idle curiosity to see what I look like.  The flesh profits nothing.  But your interest in me is a sign that I will shortly be glo­rified and taken back into heaven to sit with the Father on his throne. Then, if you truly wish to see me, you will ac­cept in my name the servant that I will send you after I am glorified.

Your interest in me has me troubled.  Shall I stay here for the sake of those who, like yourselves, wish to see me?  But I must go, for that is the whole purpose of my life.

Yes, I wish to see you, so much so that I must sacrifice my earthly life.  For that is the only way I can go back to the glory I had once had with the Father.  I must go to pre­pare a way for us to be together.  You must also be willing to sacrifice your life.  You cannot love this present life, and inherit eternal life.  You must be like a kernel of wheat that falls into the ground, dies, and brings forth much fruit.  You understand, of course, that I am speaking of that glori­ous resurrection that I shall share with you.

Therefore, my friends, if you still want to see me, then I will be waiting for you in glory, for that is the only prof­itable way for us to meet.  I will not then be ashamed to call you brethren.  Remember this:  I came to my own and they received me not.  They had eyes to see but believed not what they saw.  But there are those who have no eyes to see, such as yourselves, who will yet believe upon me even unto death (1 Pet. 1:7-8).   Should you decide to obey my words that I shall send to you by my servants, then in the resurrection you will be those who, though you were afar off in outer darkness, have come to my light and to the brightness of my rising (Isa. 60:1-3).

When I appear in glory, then you shall be like me for you shall see me as I am.  Yes, friends, I do want very much to see you--in glory.

In the second epistle to the same Corinthian Greeks, Paul made this point:  that Christ died for all men that they which live should not live unto themselves (they must "hate" their own lives in this world), but must live unto him which died for them and rose again.  "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh .  .  .  ." (2 Cor. 5:15-16).  Again, we see the point that it is not necessary to know Christ "after the flesh."  All that is necessary is faith in the crucified One who is no longer present in the flesh.

In light of this, I must confess that Jesus is indeed the kindest, most mannerly, and loving man who ever lived.  He wants very much to see not only the Greeks, but all of us Gentiles (for, in Paul's definition of terms, Greeks are simply Gentiles) so much that he suffered the cruci­fixion to prepare a way for us to share his glory.  He did not wish to remain alone, the only Son of God upon the earth.  His will is God's will that there be much fruit (John 15:8).  I don't know him after the flesh, but I do know him in the Spirit.  I have often wondered if, had I been a Jew living at the time of Jesus, would I have believed on him.  We might think that our faith would be stronger if we could only have seen him perform his miracles or heard him teach.  But I don't really think so.  As a matter of fact, it might have been more difficult to see beyond the facts of his earthly life to accept his Sonship, knowing that he was a mere neighbor of ours, an ordinary carpenter's son, and a citizen of Nazareth which was not known for men of good reputation (John 1:46).

We do know that, for the most part, those who saw believed not. And it is equally true, many of those who saw not, though there was a time they did not believe, yet now believe even unto death.

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Rom. 11:32-33).

No, Jesus was not rude, then, or now, or ever shall be.