Falling Down

“These things I have spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling” John 16:1

Stumbling – But we did stumble, didn’t we?  That’s the story of our lives.  We are no different than those men and women who heard these words in person.  They listened but did not understand.  Jesus poured out a heart filled with sympathy and trembling over the ones he loved.  He told them everything they needed to know in order that they would not fall apart when the world came crashing in on them.  But they did fall apart.  So do we.  Life is not always victorious.  Sometimes the pavement rushes up to meet us face first.

The Greek word for “stumble” is skandalizo.  You can hear the English “scandal” in this root.  That gives us a clue to its real meaning.  It comes from the Greek word for “trap”.  To fall down is to fall into a trap.  Jesus wants us to be able to avoid those snares.  He doesn’t want to see his friends caught in the webs of deceit and the claws of confusion.  So he tells us how to avoid those instruments of the world designed to lead us astray.

What traps you?  What acts as a bait so tempting that you are mesmerized by its allure?  If you’ve lived at all, you know the answers to these questions.  You and I have stumbling experiences.  And we have the remarkable propensity toward repeat cliff jumping.  If anyone in the world needed to know how to avoid skandalizo, it’s you and I.

What’s the secret?  “These things I have spoken”, that’s the secret.  To avoid the trap, I must devour the Word.  A tablespoon of the words of Jesus will not be enough to divert a torrent of temptation.  I need gallons and gallons of his thoughts.  I need indoctrination!

Every time I get a request from someone to be removed from Today’s Word, I am dismayed.  My contribution to the gallons they need will go missing.  I tremble over that thought.  I know that I can’t make it without his words.  I spent enough time in close proximity to the ground to know the difference between manna and dirt.