Scandal

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

It’s sad to say, but scandals are almost commonplace. They become the lead story in the evening news. They get first page treatment in newspapers. They are what everyone talks about at work. Scandals are quick to grab hold of the public’s attention.

On any given day, you hear plenty of bad news. But a scandal is something special—it is something so shocking that it makes people sit up and take notice. A school bus crash that kills several children is tragic, but if it comes out that the bus driver was drunk at the wheel, the crash becomes a scandal. We can grudgingly accept that accidents happen, but we cannot accept that a school hired someone so irresponsible to transport our children.

Scandals always involve human beings. A forest fire is not a scandal—not unless it was the result of arson. It is not a scandal if a building collapses during an earthquake—unless it turns out that the structure was not built up to code. Scandals provoke strong feelings in people. How dare that politician make a racial slur? What was that judge thinking, letting a murderer go free on a technicality? Scandals challenge our sense of right and wrong.

In all of history, no one has provoked more scandal than Jesus Christ. He angered the Jews by saying that He was the Son of God, a claim they could not accept. His death on a cross freed us from sin, a teaching that many educated people find ridiculous—they cannot embrace the idea that weakness and suffering give rise to strength and happiness. The apostle Paul says that we are so tainted with evil that it is impossible to please God—only faith in Jesus can save us. This angers folks who believe that they are basically good people who deserve God’s blessings. And Jesus claimed that salvation is found exclusively through Him; many people resent these words, claiming that Christians are narrow-minded and judgmental of other faiths.

Jesus and the cross—they have always provoked strong reactions among the public. Some have even been scandalized. But if you are fascinated by scandal, then I invite you to come to church—where you can get the whole story!