16 “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.
“Go astray” in the NIV is actually the Greek word skandalizo, from which we get our word “scandal, scandalize.” But here is where a little knowledge is worse than a lot of knowledge. The English word “scandal” in the modern sense is some disgrace, especially involving a public figure. There is a sense of moral shock, but what was a scandal thirty years ago might not be considered one today. Two hundred years ago, the word “scandal” almost always referred to some public disgrace of a clergyman.
In Greek, skandalon is really a picture of a box-trap held up by a stick. When a critter wanders under the box to get the tidbit of food, the trapper yanks on a string, and out comes the stick and down comes the box—the critter is trapped. A second meaning of skandalon, “stumbling block,” also sometimes applies, but here Jesus is using the idea of the trap. “I have told you all of this so that you won’t get trapped by the devil’s snare.”
Jesus doesn’t want them to go out into the world without knowing that the world hates him, and will hate them.
We have the gospel to tell. We have the audience to hear. We have the moment to tell it to them. Everything seem right for us to carry on with the work God has given us—but Jesus warns us that the audience is a hostile one. There will sometimes be a struggling soul ready to listen to the words of comfort, but more often there will be those who have no time to listen, no patience, and ears that are filled with the roar and the hum and the buzzing of their toys. There is little room for the bitter taste of the law and the clear water draught of the gospel when they touch the syrup-coated taste buds of our culture. But we keep telling the tale. We keep it clear, and we keep it pure, and we keep clear of the devil’s box traps by listening to that gospel message ourselves, over and over again.
Your sins are forgiven; you are at peace with God.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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