Pentecost 6, July 4, 2021

Today we have a scandalous episode in the life of Christ a scandal that revolved around Jesus. It was something he said.  It was something he did.  It was who he was.

It took place in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth and there is no better place for a scandal to simmer and brew then among the hometowners, right?  He was preaching in the synagogue that day and there were many in the crowd who could walk up to Jesus and say, “I remember when you were this tall. I remember when you would run around outside with sawdust in your hair from your father’s shop.” Because he is so familiar to them, because he seemed so ordinary to them, they don’t receive this message.  “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” they asked each other not with pride but with scorn. “Where is getting all this?”

The Gospel reading says, “the people were offended by him.”  The word here for “offended” is SKANDALON.  It’s where we get the word scandal from. They were expecting more from their Messiah – from their God – than just one of their own.  And so Jesus became a scandal.

I suppose we shouldn’t be so surprised at the people’s offense at Jesus.  People can get offended too easily.  And people can be very hard to please.  But it’s also very true that those entrusted with the message of Jesus can GIVE offense very easily without necessarily intending to but sometimes knowing exactly what we’re doing.  It’s easy for us to present obstacles to the gospel message with what we say and do. It’s not difficult for people to detect hypocrisy and judgment in church or from religious people. We let our own opinions and our own hang ups and our own perceptions get in the way of delivering the message of Jesus. Sometimes we might even make people feel like they are not good enough.

But the offense – the scandal — that Jesus presents is not like that at all. The hometown folks were not offended by Jesus because he was too holy or two righteous. It wasn’t that he was too good for them. It was that he wasn’t good enough in their minds. He wasn’t righteous enough or holy enough for them.

He was too ordinary.  He was too familiar.  They wanted someone with a halo – with a shining nimbus who emanated light from his eyes. Someone who would bring God’s power and judgment. Someone who would restore their status as God’s chosen ones.  Someone who would lower the boom on sinners and speak forcefully against those who broke the commandments.

Jesus presents a scandal because he loves so freely and gives so generously.  And is willing to go where to the deepest, darkest places to love us and give us what we need.

This should come as no surprise.  The prophet Isaiah prophesied this scandal.  He is quoted twice in the NT in reference to Jesus calling him “a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall – literally, a rock of SKANDALON.  The apostle Paul wrote, “We preach Christ crucified – a stumbling block – a scandal.”  

Yes.  Jesus IS AN OFFENSE.  The Bible says so.  The prophets predicted it.  The apostles agreed.  He was a scandal because of scandalous love.   His birth was scandalous:  he was born to a virgin a little Bethlehem village almost completely overlooked were it not for a handful of redneck shepherds.  His life was scandalous: he reached out to tax collectors and prostitutes, inviting sinners to the table.  His death was scandalous:  he hung bleeding like a common criminal rejected by his people, deserted by his friend and abandoned by his own Father. The scandal of his love is behind everything he said; it’s the basis of everything he did; it is WHO he is.  Everything revolved around this one thing needful.

And in his life and death, Jesus IS what we need so desperately.  He is one of us and comes to be with us and for us.  And what he gives us is so completely unrelated to our own efforts, our own instincts, our own achievements and abilities. What he gives us is unconditional.  It’s a love that is undeserving.  It strips us of our own ideas of righteousness and goodness and holiness.  It takes away the control and power over others we seem to crave.  And it makes us completely dependent on love – on Jesus – on gifts we did nothing to earn.

And so today in our gathering, the scandal continues.  It simmers and brews among us as his dearly loved people.  In the ordinary words and stories and promises of his Word, in the very ordinary bread and wine at this table and the ordinary water in this font, in the familiar faces all around us, we can see and know and touch the scandalous God who requires nothing of us but only gives – only loves. He doesn’t ask us to be more righteous and holy and perfect than we are but loves us where we are and how we are and who we are.  And today he sends us out to a world armed only with the message of Jesus’ love into a world that needs it more than anything.