Continuing on with 'The Content of the Skandalon' - by James Alison
Although the apostolic witness derives the main lines of force in its understanding of skandalon from the postresurrection understanding of the way in which Jesus had fulfilled the Scripture, it would be wrong to think that this exhausts the meaning of skandalon. The words skandalizo and skandalon appear too often in Jesus' mouth with too coherent (as well as too rich and too dense) a set of meanings for it to be doubted that Jesus himself taught in terms of the stumbling block before his death. When Jesus was teaching the disciples how to avoid being scandalized by him, he was not only teaching them something about him, but something about them: what it is to live in a world of skandala. That is to say, he was not only preparing a particular group of people under particular circumstances to avoid being scandalized by a particular event; he was doing that as part of a general teaching about the human condition and the way out of it as involving a certain sort of imitation called discipleship, a sort of imitation which is a moving out of a being caught up in a desire which leads to victimizing, and a moving into a sort of imitation which, in the structure of this world, will lead the disciple to run grave risk of victimization. The skandalon defines the former desire (in John, the flesh) while the Spirit defines the latter.
The way out of the brokenness of the human condition is this thing called 'discipleship'. That is a radical notion. it is radical in that discipleship is so often used as something that is dropped on us. We get baptized - we go to church - we say we follow Jesus, therefore we are disciples. And yet, this call to discipleship is one that involves us in a life that is scandalous. It is a life in which the status quo is no longer our calling in life. Rather, we are invited and (I would add) pulled by the Holy Spirit to walk into the path of Jesus' abiding presence with the any and all who are considered rejected - unworthy - less than the rest. It is there in that company (that scandalous company) that Jesus shows us the very face of God - the image in which we have been created - an image from which we so often run. Rather than go along with any of the many ways in which we are able to make victims of others - blame them - used them as scapegoates, we are - in the line of Jesus - raised up to be ones who take sides with the victims. In that way, we (again, like Jesus) shine a light on what is happening to them at the hands of 'good and holy' people and how it is the 'good and holy' people who are farthest from the presence of God among God's people.
Connection: Imitation. This is not always a good word in the context of the church. Even though Paul will admonish folks to imitate him and he imitates Christ, it seems like we have let that word fall to the side. Since we appear in the same kind of mess as we have always lived, it is as though we say to hell with imitation - it doesn't work. And yet, we do not enter into imitation of Christ with the expectation that something will work. We imitate because it is the texture and character of God's Reign. For that kind of imitation, we may just be rejected and be considered failures. And yet, we imitate again today and tomorrow - the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hmmmm.
O God of life, it is a grand day when the life of your beloved Jesus, becomes part of the character that gives us vitality and hope. Continue to open our hearts to his way and his life. Amen.
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