On Scandals

 

On Scandal – the 2^nd Sunday of Easter 2026

(Acts 2.14a, 22–32; 1 Peter 1.3–9; John 20.19–end)

I’d like to say a few things about ‘scandal’ this morning.

I don’t mean the kind of thing we post-moderns usually mean when we talk about scandal. What we usually mean is something to do with financial or sexual impropriety. By the word scandal we mean gossip.

That’s not what the bible means when it talks about scandals. The word comes from a Greek root: ‘Skandalon’, which had nothing to do with anything salacious. A ‘Skandalon’ was a snare or a trap, or a stumbling block. Something that tripped people up and set them off course.

In the New Testament, the preaching of Christ crucified is stated by Paul to be a stumbling block (literally an offence) to the Jews (1 Cor 1.23). St. Peter says that Christ and him crucified becomes the cornerstone for those who believe, but a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense for those who don’t (1 Peter 2:8).

We are presented this morning with three scandals, in the proper sense  of the word.

Our 1^st reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a glimpse of the earliest sermon ever preached after the resurrection of the Lord. Peter stands before a large crowd of people who have come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost and effectively accuses them of killing the Messiah. It’s brutal: ‘You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know - this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law (Acts 2:22-23).

Peter goes on and the crowds response is telling. Later the text says this: Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37-38).

Not everyone was able to receive what Peter said and I am not surprised. It’s a hard truth, isn’t it?

There’s good news though because we are told that those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls (Acts 2:41).

So for some, on that day, Christ and him crucified becomes the cornerstone (the centre and focal point of their lives) and for others he remains a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense to use St. Peter’s words.

I wonder how we react to that accusation today? I imagine that some of us would say something like, “If I was around at the time I wouldn’t have been involved in the crucifixion of an innocent man”. Others might well take a different approach and say something like, “I know that as a human being I suffer from the tendency to sin and I am potentially subject to all the violent impulses of my species. God have mercy upon me!”

The second approach seems to me to be the wiser one because to admit to a share in his death and to repent is also the doorway to a share in his resurrection and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

The 2^nd scandal served up by todays readings is also a very hard truth. In St. Peter’s letter (the 2^nd reading) we are taught to rejoice in our suffering because that’s where the genuineness of our faith is tested by fire. He uses the imagery of a crucible to describe suffering and compares it to the smelting of gold, which removes impurities.

It’s a prominent theme in the NT. The Letter of St. James says something very similar when he writes: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:2-4).

I have lost track of the number of people I have come across who say that they cannot bring themselves to believe in a God who allows suffering. I’ve also met quite a few people who once called themselves Christians say the same thing, usually after a personal difficulty or tragedy has made them question the goodness of the God they previously pledged allegiance to.

Suffering is a very powerful ‘Skandalon’ isn’t it? It’s a real stumbling block for many people.

When we are faced with personal suffering it seems to me that we have a choice and it boils down to something like this: either God is my servant and his job is to provide me with a comfortable, pleasurable, pain-free life; or I am God’s servant and my job is to allow him to make a saint of me through the trials and difficulties of my life.

So I wonder how we react to scandal number two?

Do we take the view that suffering is a necessary step to a resurrection-life in which Christ crucified is the cornerstone (the centre and focal point of our lives) or does it become a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense to use St. Peter’s words again?

And finally we move on to scandal number three and this is found in our wonderful Gospel reading about Doubting Thomas.

I love his honesty, don’t you? ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe’ (John 20:25).

I wonder how we react to the proposition that what God wants from us is our honesty? He wants the unvarnished truth from us. He would rather hear our doubts, candidly voiced, than our half-hearted recitations of the Creed and its declaration that we believe in the ‘resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come’.

This is risky isn’t it? To take the decision that from this moment on I will be radically honest in my prayer life is a brave step, but I think it’s one well worth taking, and it implies something: the one who knows they can be honest with God is also the one who knows that God can and does love them ‘warts and all’.

How will we ever know the extent of God’s love if we never allow him to get a glimpse of those warts?

Jesus didn’t react to Thomas by condemning him or calling him an infidel – quite the opposite; he rewarded him with a clearer understanding of his resurrection.

When we know that we are loved no matter what, then Christ crucified is the cornerstone and not the stone of stumbling, to use St. Peter’s line for the third time.

We might take encouragement from some very famous words from the prophecy of Isaiah: Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool (Isaiah 1:18).

So Let’s take Isaiah’s advice and reason with God; tell him exactly what’s on our minds; take the veil of pretence off our faces and let him know those things we struggle to believe and those things we can’t help feeling.

God comes to meet those who come to him in truth, with an open heart. He answers those who reason with him. He enlightens those who admit they struggle with doubt and those who admit they don’t understand.

Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief.

God bless you all.