God did not, after all, appear in a cloud, but rather in the attire of a man. Kierkegaard emphasizes that the sufferings of Christ were primarily of inwardness. But everything called purely human compassion is related to direct recognizability. Therefore, by the step he takes out of love he at the same time plunges that person, mankind, into the most horrible decision. Kierkegaard reiterates the theme of offense, that it is a necessary aspect of indirectness.
People can wary of indirectness.
Judas apparently did so, and tried to force Jesus' hand in the garden. He apparently wanted Jesus to start his kingdom on the spot and put the Romans down. Kierkegaard criticizes the Hegelian notion that faith and knowledge are synonymous, that faith is the immediate. Faith, Kierkegaard asserts, is the mediate. It is the bridge that spans the chasm between offense and inwardness.