Chapel Talk, March 6, 2006
James M. May
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew (16: 15-23)
We have just entered upon the liturgical season of Lent, so let me ask you a few Lenten-type questions: When was the last time you were personally involved in a scandal? Or better, when was the last time you engaged in scandalous behavior? Or, when have you most recently caused a scandal yourself? If you are like me, or I would guess like most people sitting in this chapel today, you’re probably asking yourself, “What’s up with this guy? What kind of questions are these? Who does he think I am? An Enron executive? Or a big league baseball player who’s been pumping steroids for the last couple years? Or an Emmy-winning actor whose private sex life has been plastered again on the cover of National Enquirer? Or maybe one of the Vikings who had a ticket on Lake Minnetonka’s version of the Love Boat?
Indeed, when we use the word “scandal” today in its normal usage, these are certainly the kinds of things that first pop into our minds. So I would trust that for most of you here today, being involved in, or having been involved in such a scandal is probably a pretty slim possibility. But let’s take a closer look into the matter. As most of you know, when I’m not being the dean, my real job here at St. Olaf is teaching the ancient languages, Greek and Latin. And as such, I am both by inclination and by training someone who is interested in the meanings of words, particularly root meanings, etymologies, and derivations. And our English word, “scandal” is a direct transliteration of the Greek word, skandalon, a word along with its relatives used more than 40 times in the original Greek text of the New Testament. The root meaning of skandalon is actually an object that is thrown into the path of someone that causes him to trip; i.e., a stumbling block, a trap or a snare. The verbal form of this word, skandalizo, is even more vivid, taking on, as verbs do, action, i.e., the act of causing someone or something to stumble. You will all remember the all-too vivid, even shocking assertion made by Jesus earlier in Matthew’s Gospel (5: 29), “if your right eye causes you to stumble (the word is skandalizei), pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
You can easily see, of course, how the word, which is used almost exclusively in a metaphorical sense in the New Testament (i.e., as something that causes one to trip up morally, or to sin), has evolved today into its present usage; but I would like to concentrate your attention for the next few minutes during which I have you as a captive audience on that root meaning of the word, and suggest that “scandals” aren’t necessarily reserved for the rich and famous; on the contrary, when we think on the root meaning of our word, most of us are guilty of being involved in scandal all too often in our daily lives. Consider for a moment the Gospel passage that I just read. I find it an extraordinary passage for many reasons, but not least of all for the dramatic juxtaposition of the two radically different attitudes toward Peter that Jesus expresses within just a few verses—how quickly and easily Peter slips into scandalous behavior. One minute, he is Petros, the Rock upon which Jesus will build his Church, who is given authority to bind and to loose on earth; the next minute, he is no longer Rock, but literally Satan, tempting Jesus (as Satan had done before him), throwing another kind of rock, a stumbling block (the word is skandalon), in Christ’s way—this time a stumbling block thrown into the proposed way of the cross, that bitter yet essential journey that must be taken by Jesus to fulfill his mission on earth. Think about that: Peter, the Rock, whom Jesus will later command to feed his sheep, and who takes on the role of leader of the apostles as recounted in the first 12 chapters of Acts of the Apostles, at one moment rides the crest of the wave, but in the next is plunged into the depths as a literal scandal to Jesus and his teachings! Wow, what perspective that should give to us. The situation both terrifies me and offers me solace and hope, and ironically it does so for the same reason! The thought terrifies me, because someone as close, as favored, as blessed as St. Peter could, within seconds of bearing true witness, turn and bear false witness--just as I might do in the same situation. Yet the thought offers me solace and hope, because someone as close, as favored, as blessed as St. Peter could, within seconds of bearing true witness, turn and bear false witness--just as I might do in the same situation.
As Christians, indeed as thinking and caring human beings, we are called upon (especially during this season) to sit down with some regularity and examine our consciences. And in doing so, I would like to suggest we should take the question of scandal seriously. In this day of rugged individualism, of “doing my own thing,” we all too often forget about the effects that we, and our personal behavior, have on those around us. Indeed, example and peer pressure are extremely powerful motivating forces on our fellows. In reality, whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, both our own actions as well as the actions to which we induce others can present a scandal, or a stumbling block to our peers. How often has my bad example, even without saying a word to another, caused a friend or an associate to stumble and fall. For example, the next time you might be tempted to violate the honor code, thinking it will affect no one but yourself, think again about those who are sitting around you and might be watching, who might be tempted by your actions to do the same, who might be put in the terribly awkward and uncomfortable position of not signing the pledge, or if they sign, thereby violating their own honor and pledge.
Or what about a more active tossing of stumbling blocks. How often have we egged on our friends to do something that we’re doing, knowing full well that we are causing them to stumble. “C’mon,” we say, “don’t worry about that test or assignment that’s due tomorrow; you can spare another hour to hang out here.” Or, “have just one more drink; you’re not totally wasted yet!” Or, “boy, you won’t believe what I just heard about so-and-so, my fellow office worker (or classmate)—let me tell you something else about her.”
The list of examples could, of course, go on, and each of us here could recall being involved in these kinds of situations. So engaging in scandalous behavior, at least in the word’s original, root meaning, is a lot easier and a lot more common than we might at first be willing to admit. And if throwing stumbling blocks into the paths of those with whom we come into contact is considered a scandal, it is only certainly logical that avoiding such behavior, or even clearing the path of stumbling blocks for our fellows is the opposite of scandal and scandalous behavior. Providing smooth paving stones and solid bedrock for their paths, rather than snares, potholes, and stumbling blocks is the kind of activity to which we are called by our commitment to the Christian Gospel.
Just a few days ago, we celebrated Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, the chief penitential season of the Church. While certainly none of us has been cruising with the Vikings on Minnetonka, all of us engage, perhaps even on a regular basis, in our own version of scandalous behavior. As we prepare again to celebrate the Passion that Jesus foretold to Peter and his disciples so many years ago, let us not, like Peter, remonstrate with him and indulge in scattering stumbling blocks aimed at hindering others on their path of righteousness. Rather, let’s think on this whole notion of scandal as something we can avoid; and instead of setting traps and roadblocks for ourselves and those around us, help to provide clear and unencumbered roads by which we can walk together through our lives in this world, literally to the next. Amen.