Skandalizo
A sermon for Northminster Church
Preached by Rev. Jillian Hankamer
April 28, 2024
Luke 7:18-23
I.Into
“You’ve taken away everything I love about Christmas…” Sitting on the wooden steps of the church’s chancel I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly.
Taken aback I didn’t respond right away.
The church grand dame sat in “her” pew - third back from the front on the pulpit side of the sanctuary - looking at me with steel in her gaze waiting for a response.
My stunned, “I’m sorry, what did you say?” didn’t go over well and earned me a detailed accounting of her decades of generously overseeing (read: paying for) much of what had become the church’s traditional Christmas decor.
-what did I do?
-no decor
-no music
-no celebration at all
-Intro HOG service
-added Christmas trees
-have her and other folks (in their 70s) teach new folks
-didn’t take anything away
-What I did do
-Didn’t go to her first
-didn’t get her input
-right or wrong I offended her. Caused a shock to the system, the status quo
-No explanation helped
-relationship never recovered
-she never fully trusted me again
In Luke passage we see another relationship with potential to end badly
-John is a phenomenon
-name widely known in Palestine
-known as a prophet
-Historian Josephus - crowds who follow John were so inspired, Herod Antipas worried that his powers of persuasion might lead to rebellion
-this is why he has John arrested
-Jesus is less well known
-but knowledge of him is spreading
-in verses before this reading Jesus heals the Centurion’s son and raises a widow’s son
-will eventually eclipse John but hasn’t yet
-And yet men have a relationship
-cousins
-John recognized Jesus while in his mother’s womb
-John baptizes Jesus
-might not be close but certainly know each other
So why does John send his followers to Jesus?
-2 followers are ironic Lukan contrast to other pairs who’re witness to Jesus’ standing with God
-Simeon and Anna in the Temple….
-These followers are sent by John
-repeat John’s question word-for-word
-indication of John’s desire for them to take this seriously
-question: Are you the one we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?
-3 potential readings
-Jesus isn’t the housecleaner John is expecting
-Messianic expectation that Jesus would take political power
-get rid of people like Herod Antipas
-bring an end to Roman occupation
-John is a seeker
-Jesus is so different than what he expected
-Can he really be the one?
-John is as skeptical as his father was
-Zachariah doubted Elizabeth would have a child
-remember he’s struck mute until after John’s born
-No matter his reasoning, John “must have been wondering how his experience squared with what he had been proclaiming about the Messiah for years.”
-” What Jesus has been doing was miraculous, but it wasn’t enough. So, John asks the question: Should we be looking elsewhere? This doesn’t look like the kingdom of heaven. It still looks like the kingdom of Herod…of Rome.”
-” The status quo hasn’t changed; those in power continue to abuse their privilege, and the promise of change doesn’t appear to have materialized.”
- So John asks, “Should we look for someone else?”
Jesus’ response
-Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight; the lame walk; those with a skin disease are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
-Jesus’ response is a beautiful, lilting series of paired words
-Points out that people have been changed, healed, given new life
-Most interesting part of his response is the blessing it ends with, “Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
-Might wonder, as I did, why Jesus says this
-Greek verb is Skandalizo - means to cause to stumble, to offend, shock, excite feelings of repugnance, pain, to cause to stumble morally
-Jesus always struck me as someone who wasn’t worried about causing offense, wasn’t concerned with shocking people, maybe even took pride in being a stone in someone’s shoe
-but there’s a difference between pushing people to make change, to rethink the status quo and expecting people to go against their moral compass
-there’s a difference between reforming long-standing social systems so they work as they were intended and tearing infrastructure down only to dance in the rubble
-there’s a difference between pushing people to think and act and relate to each other differently, more lovingly and demanding they renounce their entire lives
-there’s a difference between change for growth and change only for the sake of change
-This is why Jesus says those who aren’t skandalizo, who aren’t tripped up or shocked by him are blessed because he’s doing this new thing.
-those who can see beyond their own expectations, their own defensiveness, their own prejudices will be blessed by who Jesus is
-Because he isn’t what anyone expects but he is what’s needed
-It’s understandable that John would ask if Jesus is the one
-Jesus isn’t following the anticipated Messianic role
-Rather, he’s redefining the messianic role
-Pointing in a new direction
-Following a different path
Is it possible to be offended, skandalizo by Jesus?
-Of course!
-Is it reasonable to wonder if Jesus is the “the one”?
-I’d worry about you if you’d never asked that question
-Jesus’ message and example continue to be misinterpreted, used in ways he never intended, twisted and weaponized to cause hurt and harm
-But Jesus was and is first and foremost the embodiment of God’s love
-Not always an easy, feel-good love. Not a Hallmark movie love, all neat and tidy
-Rather the love Jesus embodies, the unconditional love God has for each of us finds expression in mess, in change, in finding new direction.
-This love comes to life in healing, in liberation, in inclusion
-It’s not a love that seeks power, but rather equity and equality
-It is a love, a mission, a calling that perhaps isn’t what any of us expects but is so much more than we can conceptualize
-So perhaps the message of Jesus is skandalizo - scandalous and different and maybe even offensive - in exactly the way it needs to be for us to be changed. For us to be different.
-Perhaps Jesus’ message trips us up just enough to know that he is the one who’s come to help us fully be who God created us to be.
Comments