Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” – Matthew 11:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 1, 2017): Matthew 11

Winston Churchill argued that “We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” Churchill meant that too often when the truth sneaks up on us, we try to ignore it. Why let something as insignificant as the truth mess up what it is that we already have decided to do. So we stumble, try to make sure that no one saw us, and move on. It is a great description of our contemporary society – and, unfortunately, our contemporary church. I think it is why we try to sweep so much of what we might consider to be “unpleasant issues” under the rug. Let’s not talk about it. Better yet, let’s threaten anyone who is willing to enter the discussion with banishment from our social elite. They are obviously not Christian anyway.

Which of course leaves the truth that we are stumbling over on the outside. Not only have we stumbled over truth, but we have run the other direction when we have encountered it. It is from this side of the argument that Jesus speaks. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble, and does not run the other direction, on account of me. So much of what Jesus said and did was totally unexpected. Rather than honoring the religious elite, Jesus made great strides to spend time with the very people that the religious elite had rejected. Instead of proclaiming the incredible superiority of the law, Jesus preached a message filled with forgiveness and grace. Rather than proclaiming a political upheaval that would destroy Rome and anyone else who sought to place themselves as superiors to Israel, he taught his followers to be servants of those who thought themselves to be politically superior, becoming like children. Be brought revolution, but his focus was on the sin that had been with us since the Garden rather than political society. And all of this was truth that was bound to make most people stumble, and then get up and move in the other direction.

The reality that we so easily avoid is that we are the ones who are stumbling over this Jesus’s truth. We are the religious elite that Jesus strove against. It is us who stumble over truth and then run in the other direction lest we are challenged to change our behavior. This is me.

I think I would like to rephrase Jesus statement. Blessed are you when you stumble over me and follow me anyway. That is what I want my life to reflect. I will hold onto truth lightly. I will hold no opinions. All I want is to follow Jesus, even though in following I often seem to trip. So much about him is unexpected. Which means that my life should be unexpected to all of those who encounter me. Because I am following him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 7