The One about Vipers and Jesus the Not-So-Nice Guy

"It is bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but worse also to keep others from Him." -- Matthew Henry

Imagine your loved one was diagnosed with a fatal disease--not an incurable disease, but one that would surely lead to death if not treated properly. 

Now imagine your loved one was offered the ONE cure that would rid him of this disease--and not only is it the ONLY guaranteed cure, but it is also FREE!  Wouldn't you want him to IMMEDIATELY partake of the remedy? 

But what if your loved one decided that the ONE, GUARANTEED-TO-WORK cure was not right for him.  What if your loved one told you he found a physician who offered a different remedy that had a better taste?

What would you say to your loved one who is sealing his fate with a false cure?
Would you passively watch him die because you don't want to seem critical of his choices in life?  Would you keep silent because you don't want to offend him by disagreeing with what he believes may work for him?

What would you think of that physician who offers a phony fix that will only guarantee the death of the one you care for so deeply?

***Jesus has much to say to both the sick loved one and the deceiving physician.  Please read on...

Recently, I shared with my highschool students some information that I discovered in my Chronological Study Bible. My students enjoyed it for its "gross" factor, but it has been on my mind ever since because of its implications to me (and hopefully some of you) as a born-again believer in Christ.  [I realize some of you may stop reading at this point, but for those of you who read this entire post, please consider leaving your thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of this page.] 

Have you ever heard the expression "you brood of vipers"?  In the New Testament, both Jesus and John the Baptist refer to the religious elite and the teachers of the law as a "brood of vipers," or as I learned in my study Bible, "offspring of vipers." 

The notes I read suggest that Jesus' use of that expression could have been a reference to a common belief held by the people of His day.  Several centuries before the birth of Christ, the Greek historian Herodotus and other ancient writers believed that vipers did not lay eggs like other snakes; instead, they believed that the viper's eggs hatched inside the mother's body and that the baby vipers would eat through the mother's stomach to be born.  This process would, of course, kill the mother. However, the Greeks believed the death of the mother was the baby vipers' way of getting revenge on behalf of their father who was supposedly eaten by the mother during her pregnancy.  (Gross, huh?)  In the minds of many Greeks and Jews during Jesus' day, the murder of a parent or close blood-relative was considered, as my Bible note says, "an inconceivably wicked crime." To be called a snake was an insult, but to be called an "offspring of vipers" was HORRIFIC because it implied that you were not just an ordinary scumbag but rather the most VILE and WRETCHED scumbag that could possibly exist.

Can you wrap your mind around the idea that Jesus Christ (the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd) hurled insults at a group of religious people? Besides calling the scribes and Pharisees a "brood of vipers," He also slams them with some other harsh words in Matthew 23.  Does this image of Christ disturb you a little?  Have you only imagined Him as the gentle Savior who came to heal diseases, teach people about God, and make life a more pleasant experience for those who come to Him?  Yes, He's the Healer and the Teacher, but He is also the one who vehemently opposes anyone who tries to lead people down a path of eternal destruction.  These are the words of Christ to that "brood":

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."(Matthew 23:13-15)

Those were the words of our Gentle Shepherd. 

Jesus doesn't sound like a very nice guy in that passage, does He?  Why should He be nice, though, when these groups of people were trying to persuade people that Jesus was NOT the promised Son of God and that Jesus was NOT the one sent to rescue sinners from eternal condemnation?  Jesus opposed them and publicly criticized them because these religious leaders were doing everything they could do to keep people from hearing and believing the TRUTH.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus had no tolerance for people who tried to offer another way to  receive salvation.  Yes, He uses some strong language to communicate His feelings, but the truth of those strong words has the power to open hearts and minds to the only truth that can set a soul free. 

Does this mean Jesus was NOT a nice guy?  I don't think so.  I think it demonstrates His fierce love and protection;  He knows the sacrifice of His body on the cross is the only God-ordained WAY of salvation, and He knows that our belief in any OTHER way only leads to hell.  He loved those people in the New Testament enough to warn them of dangerous deceivers like the scribes and Pharisees.  Today, He loves you and me enough to warn us of any seemingly religious person who would try to offer us alternatives to the one WAY that Jesus has already provided.

Is Jesus intolerant because He insists that He is the only WAY to heaven?  Yes, I believe He is.  He cannot tolerate the idea of people slipping into an eternity in hell because they believed the lie that there are many paths to heaven.

Part of me wants to pump my fist in the air and scream, "You tell 'em, Jesus!" Another part of me wonders if I have allowed others to continue in their misconception of salvation.

Jesus cared enough about people to risk sounding intolerant because their souls were at stake. If I truly believe Jesus is THE way, truth, and life, shouldn't I care enough to warn people who are seeking salvation from other sources?  Shouldn't I care more about someone's salvation than I care about what others may think of me?  Should I keep silent to avoid confrontation or hurt feeings, or should I risk my own comfort for the sake of someone's soul?  Can I be as bold and loving and truthful as Jesus?  Can you? 

We may not be like the Pharisees who willfully oppose the message of Christ, but in our silence and in our desire to not offend someone, are we allowing others to continue down a destructive path? Will we let our loved ones seek a remedy for their soul-sickness apart from the true cure, Jesus Himself?  May it never be.

"The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the gospel of Christ, and therefore to the salvation of the souls of men. It is bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but worse also to keep others from Him." -- From Matthew Henry's Commentary on the 23rd Chapter of Matthew