Scandalon

Luke 17:1

“Offenses will certainly come, but woe to the one they come through! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble

Offences are skandalon, a trip bait in a trap. In todays world it is easy to give offence, as we struggle to be politically, racially, gender correct in all sorts of ways that carve up society into segments that take easy offence on some pretext or the other. Whom are we offending, and what is this offense? Jesus warns that offenses will only increase. We offend as we illuminate one aspect of some knowledge over another. The original offence was also a distortion of knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil. As long as man had a viable relationship with God, he really did not need to face the consequences of the knowledge of good and evil. He by nature knew all he needed and did all he needed without any offence. But the moment he stepped out of the protection of God’s penumbra, he inherited the consequences of knowing good and evil. This offence became a generational sin. Only the offence of the cross is now able to remove this inheritance from our genes.

Today how we handle knowledge also casts the lot on our capacity to offend. Our pursuit of knowledge and our ability to create increases the onus to use what we create for the common good. What was originally created for good can easily be distorted for disaster. Nuclear power, the internet, are all powers that can become sources of woe rather than blessing. As man proliferates profusely, the capacity for offences also exponentially increases as his behavior patterns and thinking progressively distance him from a relationship with God.

What is an offence to another may not be an offence to me, even as Paul highlights this in 1 Cor 8, giving the example of food offered to idols. Paul’s knowledge liberates him, but he willingly subjects himself to restrictions on account of jeopardizing another person’s relationship with God on account of his actions. This ideology is not something we practice as our world spins relentlessly on to individual expression and individual freedoms.

Everything is permissible, Paul writes in 1 Cor 10:23 , but not everything is beneficial , everything is permissible, but not everything builds up. These touchstones could be very useful to us as we ponder our actions. Will this be beneficial to me and others? Will it build me and other up?

If we become causes for others to trip up, or be trapped (scandalon), jesus pronounces a woe upon us, something that should make us tremble because of its finality.  How we should guard our steps and examine our paths!

Summary of our bible study from Luke 16

LUKE 16:19-31

The rich man would dress himself in fine clothes and feast lavishly daily. Excess becomes a daily ritual. Addiction to progressive ostentation.

Lazarus was left outside. He longed for some offal from the table, but probably did not get it since the dogs came to lick his sores. If the dogs had food, they probably would not lick his sores. His desire and longing was also probably a daily ritual.

The rich man recognized the existence of Lazarus only after his death.

The only reply he is given was from Abraham who called him his son. This sonship pre existed during his life. But now all he is asked to do is remember. Memories transcend death with us into eternity. We will be asked to remember, even our daily feasts. We think what will be remembered will be the good things we have done, but we will be provided with a screening of our daily doings, and that memory will be the only solace we are provided with if we are on the side of hell.

The rich man received all he had, but probably never looked at his possessions that way. If he had done so, probably Lazarus may have got more that he did at the gate.

Lazarus also received his lot, though we do tend to justify his position at our gates by attributing it to laziness, or slothfulness.

A great chasm has been fixed by God. God fixed chasms in the universe. In Genesis we read how he fixed chasms for the light and darkness, for the heavens above and the waters below. Nature does not transgress those divisions.  And in eternity, this divide is eternally uncrossable.

An eternity of memories awaken emergent concern for our loved ones on earth and a plea is made for evangelism of their lives. Again, Abraham unmoved, only offers what they already have, Moses and the prophets, or the law and the prophets. This knowledge was near every Jew. It was in their mouths.

The rich man raises an If question. There are so many ifs to our acceptance of salvation. If this happens, or that comes about. Repentance is not conditional, it is regardless of circumstance. However, we make it conditional for ourselves and others.

Even so, Jesus did come to them and has risen from the dead. So now, we who live in this time, have both the law and the prophets and also Jesus who was raised from the dead. What excuse do we have not to believe?

Jesus came to cross the chasm, and permit our translation from death to life 

John 5:24 : I assure you:Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all,

the righteous for the unrighteous,

that He might bring you to God,

after being put to death in the fleshly realm

but made alive in the spiritual realm

So for us who believe, we have already crossed that chasm, and death for us is not a barrier to our communion with our Father any more. It is a transition. What are we doing on this side of eternity in preparation for the other side?