Stumbling
John 16:1-15
We are judgmental people.
Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash
“I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. - John 16:1-15
We are quick to judge and slow to forgive.
We can't help it. It is in our nature. That's what we tell ourselves, and we tend to believe what we tell ourselves.
Jesus knew this. That is why he said we should keep our judgments to ourselves.
When he was with us, we didn't have to ask what Jesus would do, because he was here and we could go to him and ask directly.
He spent his entire ministry teaching us, through his disciples, how we should live our lives, acting out of love for one another and not saying or doing anything that would cause someone to stumble.
Stumble.
What does it mean to stumble?
The obvious examples are clear to us. Your best friend has quit drinking, but when you go out to a party, you tell him one drink won't hurt.
You say that because you don't want to drink alone.
If we can get others to join us in our belief, we reaffirm the validity of that belief. The more people we can get to affirm us, the better.
We begin with uncertainty, and end with certainty.
We see this everywhere today, from the protests in the street to social media, and the more we see it, the more we believe what they are saying is true.
We have perfected the stumbling model.
It doesn't matter if what we say is true or not, so long as we can get others to believe us.
We have found a way around the old peer-pressure problem. In the past, if we said something in public, our peers would immediately judge us and we would be embarrassed for voicing an uneducated opinion.
Yes, that was cruel, and many who were right were shut down.
But today? The loudest voices are the ones we follow.
We think there are two sides to every issue, but what if we are wrong? What if both sides are wrong?
That would mean we are all guilty of causing others to stumble when we speak.
So, we should take five. We all need a time-out.
When we feel compelled to speak out, we should take a breath, count to five, and then decide if it is worth the effort to join in.
If we step back and take a bird's eye view of the situation, we may realize that no one on either side is convinced by anything said or done on the other side. Instead, we all just regroup and reaffirm our positions.
More to come...