At times, Jesus seems to deliberately say and do things that other people will find off-putting or that will make him enemies.

This is seen, for example, in John chapter 6, where Jesus drives away a crowd of potential disciples because of the offensive nature of his language.

The reason he does this is because he knows that the most loving thing he can do is make clear what the stakes actually are: life and death.

Jesus wants to bring everyone to a point of decision: will you follow him, or will you decide to leave?