Many Christians today assume that part of the job
description of being the messiah included suffering and dying. However, while
some passages in the Book of Isaiah called the Servant Songs do speak of one who
will suffer on behalf of others and bear their iniquities and transgressions (see,
for example, Isaiah 52:13-54:12), there was never the expectation that the Messiah himself would be a suffering servant.
To
the contrary, one of the few texts from around the time of Jesus that describes
popular expectations regarding the Messiah, a text called the
Psalms of Solomon 17, describes him as
one who would rout out the Roman overlords, not get crucified by them. This is
why Paul speaks of Christ crucified as “a stumbling block to Jews and
foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23).
Last week we studied Mark’s first passion prediction (Mark
8:31-33), and we saw that right after Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah,
Jesus silences him and goes on to explain that he must suffer and die. Since
this doesn’t fit Peter’s conception of the messiah, he rebukes Jesus, to which
Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan!” In Matthew’s version of this narrative,
Jesus’ chastisement of Peter continues with these words: “You are a stumbling
block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human
things” (Matt 16:23). You might notice here that Matthew’s contrast of human
and divine things parallels Paul’s contrast of human wisdom and God’s
foolishness (1 Cor 1:25).
Even more striking, however, is their shared use of
the word “stumbling block,” which translates the Greek word skandalon, from which we get the English
word “scandal.” As you reflect on this weeks reading, you might consider this
question: in what sense was Jesus scandalous to his contemporaries, and how are
we scandalized by the gospel today? |
