"Skandalizo" by Rev. Jillian Hankamer

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

1. 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 

1. 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?”

1. 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

1. 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.