The Stumbling
“Does this offend you?”
Jesus
asked the disciples when they were murmuring and complaining about some of the
hard words He had spoken and they didn’t understand.
Do
some parts of the Bible that are hard to understand “make you stumble” (John
6:61 NASB, ASV)? The Greek word
for offend or stumble is the same word from whence we get the English word
“scandal”.
Maybe
it’s not the difficult to understand parts of the Bible, but rather the parts that you DO understand that offend you. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
said, “Some people are troubled by
the things in the Bible they can’t understand. The things that trouble me are
the things I can understand.” (Watertown Daily Times, 1915)
The Ascension
Flash forward, several decades from when Jesus
said, “Do my words offend you”. The Apostle John, now an aged man after
hearing this as a young disciple, was exiled to the island of Patmos. An angel with a
voice like a trumpet came from heaven and said, “Come up here!”
Immediately, the old apostle was ushered up into
heaven to the very throne room of God, standing before God the Father and Jesus
the Son.
That word, “Come up here” (anabaino in the Greek) was also used again in Revelation when two
prophets in the end times were raised from the dead after three and a half
days. “And they heard a loud voice from
heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they ascended to heaven in a
cloud, and their enemies saw them” (Rev. 11:12).
What is significant about “anabaino”? After Jesus said, “Does
this offend you?” He immediately asked a second question.
The Seeing
Look at how Jesus follows up His question in John 6. “Does this offend you? What
then if you should see the Son of Man ascend (Greek: anabaino) where He was before?” (John 6:61b-62)
After the resurrection of Christ, the disciples saw Jesus
ascend to heaven in the clouds. One day, we also will anabaino to heaven. On
that day, which will matter most? To be offended by the hard words and commands
of Christ. Or to offend Him by our disobedience and lack of faith?
The word of God may be offensive to the world,
but not to the believers. Jesus said, “Blessed
is he who is not offended because of Me” (Matthew 11:6, Luke 7:23).
The very words that may originally cause you to
be offended or stumble are given to keep you strong, especially in times of hardship.
“These things I have spoken to you, that
you should not be made to stumble (skandalizo). They
will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills
you will think that he offers God service.” (John 16:1-2)
