I have always liked songs that tell stories. That is why one of my favorite Christian artists is Michael Card. In his collection of stories about the Life of Jesus, he has a song called Scandalon. It is the Greek word for a snare, the part of a trap that snaps to capture you. We get the word, scandal, from it. It is used in the Bible to describe an offense or a stumbling stone that can lead you away from faith. Yet, the plan of Salvation crafted by God the Father hinges on such a stumbling stone.
Michael Card’s song begins this way:
The seers and the prophets had foretold it long ago
That the long awaited one would make men stumble
But they were looking for a king to conquer and to kill
Who’d have ever thought He’d be so meek and humble?
He will be the truth that will offend them one and all
A stone that makes men stumble and a rock that makes them fall
And many will be broken so that He can make them whole
And many will be crushed and lose their own soul…
(© Birdwing Music, Mole End Music)
The seers and the prophets saw it. From the very beginning, God the Father knew what the response of fallen humanity would be to His plan of Salvation.
It is easy to understand. All we have to do is look around us; and look at ourselves: No one likes to be told they are wrong. No one relishes to be told to repent. Yet the whole point of God declaring that we need a plan of Salvation is the evidence that, on our own, living by our own power and whims, we all end up destroying ourselves and those we love.
But God’s solution to that problem, God’s reasoning, God’s expectations run contrary to all that this flesh wants and values. So, what else would we expect to happen, when He sends someone to live among us, made exactly like us, and who tells us: “Turn around! You are going the wrong way”?
Isn’t the obvious reaction going to be: “Who made you King over us?” “Who says that you know better?” “Hey, this is my life. You live your life the way you want; I will live mine the way I want.”
I mean, really, would you expect something different? If all of us go around thinking that what we have decided is true, is the truth, do you think we would just roll over and surrender our convictions because he said so?
Yet, that is precisely what God the Father expects.
And then He tells us that what is at stake is eternal life.
And faced with that assertion, the human rection is: “Wait a minute… If you are serious, if this is all true, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?” “Don’t just send someone just like us… Make it obvious that He is more powerful than any of us; make him a miracle worker, make him be somebody we could not dare contradict.”
I have talked about this before… That whole mindset is based on a fallacy: the fallacy that we finite, created beings, could even hope to barter with God. It always reminds me of that old joke…
It starts with the Devil and God in the Garden of Eden. And the Devil sees Adam and Eve just created; and has heard from God what is going to happen soon thereafter and then throughout the centuries, and he tells God: “Look, I can do better than that.” And God says, “You think so? Ok, go ahead…” And the Devil kneels down to start shaping some of the dirt of the ground into his new creation. And God says, “Uh-uh. Go get your own dirt.”
He is God and we are not.
Such a simple truth and yet so easy to forget. Even God’s people, with the written Word for centuries kept missing this point, time and again. But God spelled it out for them in advance. That is why He sent His prophets.
And that is a double mercy: Not only did He warn us ahead of time through the prophets, but the fact that He warned us ahead of time is the very kind of “miraculous proof” that we keep telling Him is what we want in order to listen to Him.
Think about it: Can you travel through time? All Science Fiction aside (and all silly quantum mechanical nonsense about multi-verses aside), it is physically impossible: no one can ever go to the future to take a peek or travel back in time to undo a mistake. But God wrote down things that would happen, centuries in advance, so that we would know He is God. That is the proof that He, sovereignly, chose to give us.
Whether we like it or not
And so, the prophets are full of information about who Jesus the Messiah would be… so that we would recognize Him when He showed up. Many of those prophecies confirm what I said would be the obvious reaction of fallen humanity to Him: He would be rejected because we would insist that the Messiah we wanted, had to be the powerful warrior king we all wish we could be…
Psalm 118:22-23 (NASB) A stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord; it is marvelous in our eyes.
That word translated marvelous means exactly that, literally; in the sense of making us marvel, or wonder; in other words, it is extraordinary; no one would have ever expected it… Because if the Messiah is not that warrior king, then, Who is going to defend us against our enemies? Who is going to give us the victory we want (we deserve) on this Earth?
And so, we will reject Him because of our own cowardice.
Isaiah 8:12-15 (NASB) “You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’ regarding everything that this people call a conspiracy, and you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of armies whom you are to regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. Then He will become a sanctuary; but to both houses of Israel, He will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many will stumble over them, then they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and caught.”
Doesn’t sound very comforting, does it? Trust in God and He will be your sanctuary… But you (you who ought to know better) will not trust; and you will be forced to face that contradiction between your desires and what God the Father has decreed; and the only possible outcome is that you will stumble, and many will in fact be offended.
Isaiah 28:16 (NASB) Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. The one who believes in it will not be disturbed…”
But if you accept the contradiction and surrender, accept God’s plan for the cornerstone, and believe (resist being offended) then you shall not be moved. (That’s where victory over the enemy lies.)
As you would expect, it all turned out as God the Father spelled out throughout the book of Isaiah and the other prophets.
Faced with the unrelenting hostility of the religious leaders of His people, Jesus brought together those prophecies and tried to make them understand:
Matthew 21:42-44 Jesus says to them, Have ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which they that builded rejected, this has become the corner-stone: this is of [the] Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing the fruits of it. And he that falls on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.
He is still trying to make us understand today…
The first scandal: There are only two choices: be broken or be pulverized.
This is the essence of the Gospel; this is the scandal. There is no other way into the Kingdom of God; as Jesus and John the Baptist said, “Do you want to get into the Kingdom of Heaven? Then repent!”
And if I say, “But, but, I am a good guy. I don’t really need to repent of anything.”
Then they would simply reply, “In that case, you have come to the wrong place.” Or a little less diplomatically, as John the disciple said in one of his letters:
1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us [our] sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
The only way in, is to let myself be broken: let my pride be broken, let my self-assurance be broken, let all the rules I have set in place to govern my life and to decide how to relate to those around me… be broken.
Does that make it sound like there’s nothing good, nothing salvageable inside me? Well, that’s precisely what Paul the apostle said:
Romans 7:18 (NASB) For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
That is the first scandal of the Gospel: that there is no other way in but Repentance. Tell that to the world and you know how they will react: “How dare you be so intolerant?”
The only answer we need to give is: “Take it up with Jesus.” You see, their argument is with Him not with us.
But what if they persecute me? Won’t God defend me? Aren’t I in the right? Don’t I have rights?
The second scandal: Why does that bother you?
“But that’s not fair!” Have you ever said that? … to God?
Maybe all of us do at one time or another. And by us, I mean believers. Yes, the world says it all the time, and precisely as an objection to God. But anyone who is not willing to take that first step of repentance has no “leg to stand on” to make any further claims of God. In fact, as the young man born blind, that Jesus healed, said to the Pharisees: John 9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if someone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him.
You see, once you have repented, the moment you have called on Him to forgive you, at that very instant, He forgives… No delay, no questions asked. And then, from then on, He listens to you the way a Father does to his beloved child. Does this idea bother you?
Let’s go to the cross:
Luke 23: 39-43 (NASB) One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other responded, and rebuking him, said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our crimes; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Again, if that doesn’t seem fair, take it up with Jesus.
“Ok,” we can say, “God is magnanimous; but what about those of us still living in this world, who have chosen to follow Him? Won’t He defend us from our enemies?”
Well… remember that old punchline, “with friends like that, who needs enemies?” Let’s just hear it from Jesus’ lips and then decide:
Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Like I often say: Truth in advertising. This is the Good News Jesus called us to live in.
What do you think? Ready to sign up? Better hurry up because I can see the line getting longer and longer, wrapping around the block.
Do you feel the scandal now?
If you don’t, then, as Jesus said, you are blessed! You get it!
But I know there are a lot of people (myself included, at times in my life) that would be moved to argue and say: “Wait a minute, didn’t you promise to be my Sun and Shield?”
Psalm 84:11 (NASB) For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.
There it is: A promise! God will not withhold any good thing from those who follow Him. And once we start there, we could find all sorts of other verses in the Old Testament like:
Deuteronomy 30:8-9 And you will again obey the Lord, and follow all His commandments which I am commanding you today. Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in every work of your hand, in the children of your womb, the offspring of your cattle, and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers…
And we begin to build a (legal) case that we deserve good things in this life, health, prosperity, success… to be the head and not the tail.
But the question we need to ask ourselves before we get carried away is…
Is that what Jesus taught?
Not the way I read it…
Matthew 5:1-5 But seeing the crowds, he went up into the mountain, and having sat down, his disciples came to him; and, having opened his mouth, he taught them, saying, Blessed [are] the poor in spirit, for *theirs* is the kingdom of the heavens. Blessed they that mourn, for *they* shall be comforted. Blessed the meek, for *they* shall inherit the earth. Blessed they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for *they* shall be filled.
I know we all have heard the Sermon on the Mount. And yet, when He begins by saying blessed are the poor, we hurry up to add “in spirit, it says in spirit!” But that is missing the point. Matthew is writing this gospel to his kin, the Jewish people. They know the Old Testament. As soon as Jesus starts saying these words, they can hear in the back of their minds the original Scriptures He is referring to…
The poor he is talking about are the poor and destitute, the poor through and through, so poor they are poor all the way down in their spirit. Jesus is referring to Psalm 82, a Psalm He will again use against the Pharisees when they object to Him calling Himself the Son of God.
Here in this Psalm, God the all-powerful is judging for their failures those to whom He has delegated power on Earth…
Psalm 82:1-7 God standeth in the assembly of God, he judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unrighteously, and accept the person of the wicked?
Judge the poor and the fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and the destitute; rescue the poor and needy, deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
They know not, neither do they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are moved. I have said, ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High; but ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
God the Father absolutely cares about the poor and destitute.
A similar thing happens when we get to that verse that says the meek will inherit the Earth. Plenty of times I have heard the preacher say that that word meek doesn’t mean powerless, that it really means strength under control.
Really? Why? What is the problem with being meek and humble, with being powerless…? Does that offend you? Here is the Scripture Jesus is referring to:
Psalm 37:10-11 For yet a little while, and the wicked is not; and thou considerest his place, but he is not! But the meek shall possess the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of prosperity.
The Hebrew word meek there is anav, meaning meek, humble, afflicted.
The whole Psalm is about the fact that God (not me) has the ultimate and absolute power. Yes, I may be powerless but my Father is not.
You see, Jesus’ audience understood. Why do we not? Are we, perhaps, offended?
Luke the physician, a Greek with an analytical scientific mind, honed even sharper by association with the Apostle Paul, also wrote a gospel. But his is directed to Gentiles like him. And so, when he tells of this Sermon, based on eyewitness testimony, he makes absolutely certain that his audience will understand:
Luke 6:20-26 And *He*, lifting up his eyes upon his disciples, said, Blessed [are] ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from them], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as wicked, for the Son of man’s sake: rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in the heaven, for after this manner did their fathers act toward the prophets.
But woe to you rich, for ye have received your consolation. Woe to you that are filled, for ye shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe, when all men speak well of you, for after this manner did their fathers to the false prophets.
God cares about the poor and the powerless. And knowing how the powerful invariably oppress them and abuse them, He has no qualms in saying so. This is why Jesus warned us more than once in the gospel about how dangerous it is to be rich.
Why is it so dangerous? Because he knows us.
He knows that no one can serve both God and Mammon. If wealth and power is what I want, what I value, what I think is what defines me, then I am loving Mammon. Sure, I may have all these nice caveats that I spout to myself, that I know God gave me this wealth and that the reason I treasure it is because it allows me to bless His kingdom…
Really? Does God need me to bless His kingdom?
Do you feel the scandal?
If not, next time you get asked to read your favorite Scripture, pick James 2:5-7
James 2:5-7 (NIV) Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
And then listen to the reaction that follows. “Wait, wait, aren’t you taking that out of context?” If you are asked that, then read from the beginning of the chapter:
James 2:1-4 (NIV) My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
“See? It was out of context. Those people were being guilty of favoritism in Church, making the poor sit way in the back… We don’t do that in my Church!”
Don’t we?
When was the last time we praised the poor in Church? When was the last time we thanked God for their example of faithfulness and mercifulness, in the face of adversity?
I wonder if that would be… scandalous.
This is the second scandal of the gospel… and you wouldn’t think it needs to be said:
That if I claim to be a follower of Jesus, that means I have chosen to walk in His footsteps; to live by His standards alone… regardless of what that does to my life or popularity here on Earth.
