48. 10 Things Jesus Never Did

0:00We're learning to let go of condemning other people, blaming other people, being self-righteous, being superior other people. So what I want to talk about today is kind of a sneaky way of condemnation, and I'll do it this way. I want to discuss 10 passive-aggressive techniques Jesus probably never used. I'm very familiar with being passive-aggressive as part of my heritage. When my dad was literally in the hospital in the last several weeks of his life, dying of a cavernoma, he was reading a book on passive-aggressive behavior, how not to be passive-aggressive. He's a full-blooded sweet, so he was trained to do that, and I thought, what a cool saying

1:00that this man wants to keep growing right to the very end of his life. And of course, Jesus was remarkably direct with people, and yet he did not come into the world to condemn the world. So here we go. 10 passive-aggressive techniques Jesus probably never used, and you might want to think about that for your own life, come back to this. Number one, you never old his eyes. The eye role is just kind of a classic way of expressing contempt for somebody. And if I was Jesus, I would have done it. You know, Luke chapter 2, he's 12 years old, just getting his started, he's in the temple, and his mom comes, what are you doing? How could you treat your dad and I like us? Mother. The ones you want to stand, this is a great career opportunity. You're killing me, mom. No, he doesn't. He is the most fully differentiated person that ever lived, and he's able to tell his mom, he should know about my father's business, and yet go home and submit and all things. No, I will. Number two, you didn't do the martyr's side.

2:01Just letting you know, you're really causing me pain. Now he comes kind of close. In Mark chapter 8, the Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply. Now, to be passive-aggressive, when you give the deep sigh, you don't comment on it. You just do it. You just let them know without saying anything. Because if you talk, then you're being direct. You're not passing anymore. You can get in trouble. But Jesus goes on to say, why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly, I tell you, no sign will begin interestingly. That's directly on the heels of him feeding a crowd of thousands of people miraculously. Passive-aggressive technique number three, say, huh? Jesus never says, huh? Jesus, he never doesn't listen as a way to let somebody know they don't matter to him. And I would have said, how a lot of times, Luke 12, man comes up to Jesus. Tell my brother, make him to share the inheritance with me, huh?

3:01You talking to me? Or in Luke 20, a group of Sadducees, they don't believe in the resurrection. They come to Jesus. Master, there's a man who's got a wife. Moses tells us if a man dies. The offspring of his wife is to be married and cared for by his brother. This man dies, goes to his second brother. He dies, goes to the third brother, and so on all through seven brothers. At the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be? Huh? Seriously? This is what you guys center on making up. But no, Jesus actually deals with the question very directly at the end of it. Some of the teachers of the law, likely the Pharisees who do believe in the resurrection, say, well, sad. I'm going to be able to decide to stop asking a question. Number four, given the silent treatment, for all the provocation, all the people that go after Jesus, that's one of the most common ways for me to be passive-aggressive, because then I can let you know, I can punish you only if you call me out, I can say nothing's wrong.

4:02And Jesus never does that interestingly. The closest he gets is at the very end of his life when he's before the Sanhedrin number four pilot. And there, he is silent only. It's not to punish anybody else is to take the punishment that belonged to everybody else upon himself when words could have saved his life. That's the time he does not use them. Number five, saying, I'm fine, what I'm not fine. I'm really good at doing this. Jesus, when he was angry, be quite direct about that. When he was sad, when he was tired, when he was thirsty, he's remarkably what we in our day would call vulnerable or authentic or real. I think supremely at the Garden of Gethsemane, it's very interesting contrast. When Socrates dies, Plato tells us, he's very calm and actually comforting his students with Jesus. He begins to be deeply troubled and tells his disciples, now I am sorrowful and troubled

5:07to the point of death, sweating drops of blood. Please don't leave me alone. Please be with me. He's amazingly open about what he was feeling. Number six, change the subject to avoid unpleasantness. He's example, here is Luke 14, writer Yale philosopher, Nick Multershoff writes about this. It's a very edgy conversation and Jesus keeps torquing up the tension. It's the Sabbath. He's at the home of a prominent religious leader in Israel, guy needs healing, Jesus looks around. He says, is it better to heal on the Sabbath or not? Do good on the Sabbath or not do good. They won't say a thing. He heals a guy. That's very tense. And then he starts talking to you about what seat should you take? I notice you're all jockeying for the seats of honor and that's more tense. And then he says to the host, not when you give a banquet, is that inviting all the important strategic people? Why don't you try inviting some of the people that can't pay your back? So it's this very, very tense now. And then somebody, somebody in the crowd that doesn't like tensions says, well, blessed

6:13will everyone be who eats at the feast of the kingdom. And that's kind of an off-rent, oh well, at least we can all agree on that. Jesus, let me tell you a story about that. And then he tells the story where the punch slide is, all the people that were originally invited to the feast, they ain't going to show up. They're coming. I mean, he just keeps twerking up the tension. He was not a subject training guy, changing guy. Number seven, say whatever, this is an act of resignation. It's an act of a martyr, interestingly, all passive-aggressive steps or kind of claims to martyrdom. And of course, Jesus, ironically, paradoxically, is the ultimate martyr gave his life on the cross for us. And yet he never takes these kind of steps, whatever, you know, go ahead, have a year away if that's what you want. I don't care anymore. Jesus never doesn't care. And no matter how sorely it seems that his patience is being tested, he will keep coming

7:17back and appeal, often very strong or edgy ways. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say? The choices before you, Broadway or the narrow gate, choices before you, good tree or bad tree, choices before you, build your house on my words, house on a rock or a house on the sand, choices before you, sheep of the goats, he never says whatever, never. This cares. Number eight, this is a classic one. I'll just do it myself. I try to get you to do something. You're not doing it the way that I want. It's taking too long. It's kind of a pain in my neck. I'll just do it myself. If I had been Jesus, I'd have been so tempted to say that. You are a Peter. On this rock, I'm going to build my church. But you get out of the boat and you don't keep looking at me and you fall in the water. And when the soldiers come, you take off a sword and hack somebody's ear off. And when you talk to me, you are the voice of Satan, tempting me not to suffer.

8:19And when the pressure is on and somebody says, didn't you follow Jesus? You'd deny me three times after saying, you're willing to die for me? Yeah, I think I'll build the church myself. Or the Great Commission with the disciples. Go into all the world, make disciples. And then these are the guys that they're arguing about who's the greatest. Even when he's given him the Great Commission, it says they worshiped him, but some doubted. Go into all the world. Yeah, I'll do it myself. He doesn't do that. Number nine, passive-aggressive classic technique, slam the door. There's a very melodramatic way to leave the room. This is just exiting, letting the other person know without saying a word, my contempt for you. And Jesus is not a door slammer. Now, in the temple, you might know this story. He's over turning tables. He takes a whip. This is a prophetic act. If you've ever looked at the temple much or been to Jerusalem, it was an enormous place.

9:24And so when Jesus is doing this, it would have been in one corner of the temple. Most of the folks would not have known what's going on. This would do this kind of thing. They were kind of like performance artists in our day. And Jesus is declaring that the system of religion has been misused. The poor, the outsiders are being exploited. And God does not like that. And so he's expressing that in a way that prophets would. He doesn't do that to leave melodramatically. He doesn't to teach. Number 10, a sarcastic sticky note. Hey, here's my sermon on them out. Have you read it? I mean, he never does that kind of thing with his disciples. Dallas will had used to say he was constantly bawling them out. But not by leaving little passive aggressive notes by real direct challenging. So today, there is now, therefore, no condemnation. The invitation is monitor my, your passive aggressive tendencies.

10:29May me ask somebody who knows you well. Do you see any of that in me? Any ways where I get sneaky in the way that I can condemn or get self-righteous or avoid or communicate anger and break. God would you help me with this? I can be pleasant on the outside and condemning on the inside. Jesus could be very challenging on the outside, but always had a heart of love on the inside. God helped me be direct and honest. Speak the truth in love today. Because there is no condemnation. Hey, did you have a take away from that teaching? Don't keep it to yourself, share it in the comments or text it to us or email it to us. We would love to hear from you. My name is Tim.

11:29I'm a part of the team here at Become New and I'm a Pastor. We distribute 10 minute teachings just like this one every single weekday to help you and ourselves grow spiritually in Christ one day at a time. We're so glad that you're joining us on this journey. Subscribe to the YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss any future episodes from John or head over to Become New.com to find other resources like the email that we write to go along with every video. We're glad that you're here. We'll see you next time.