This apparent detour has finally led us back to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18. If his prescription for those whose bodily desires regularly lead them into sin seems drastic, his anathema on those who “scandalize one of these little ones who have faith in me” is truly terrifying: “it would be better for him that he should have a mill-stone hung round his neck and be drowned in the deepest sea” (v.6). Jesus has just used a child as a visual aid to understanding the humility and simple faith needed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Such a childlike attitude enables one more easily to swallow one’s pride and accept the truth of the gospel, but it is also particularly vulnerable, until one has matured in understanding, to the false teaching of some plausible authority-figure. In view of the other passages cited, and of the context here, this seems to be what Jesus means by ‘scandalize’ in this verse: enticing young Christians into sin by teaching self-indulgent licence rather than Christ-centred liberty. The strength of Jesus’ condemnation of such false teachers is indeed, from their point of view, truly terrifying; but it is also an indication of the depth of his love for, and commitment to, each individual member of his flock, especially “these little ones”, each of whom has an angel (a guardian angel ?) who “constantly beholds the face of my Father in heaven”. And he reinforces this point by going on to tell the parable of the lost sheep, led astray, presumably, by false teaching, who means so much to the Good Shepherd (who laid down his life for each one) that he leaves all the others to go in search of it.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
SKANDALON 2 (c): false teaching [ii] Matthew 18. 1-11
This apparent detour has finally led us back to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18. If his prescription for those whose bodily desires regularly lead them into sin seems drastic, his anathema on those who “scandalize one of these little ones who have faith in me” is truly terrifying: “it would be better for him that he should have a mill-stone hung round his neck and be drowned in the deepest sea” (v.6). Jesus has just used a child as a visual aid to understanding the humility and simple faith needed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Such a childlike attitude enables one more easily to swallow one’s pride and accept the truth of the gospel, but it is also particularly vulnerable, until one has matured in understanding, to the false teaching of some plausible authority-figure. In view of the other passages cited, and of the context here, this seems to be what Jesus means by ‘scandalize’ in this verse: enticing young Christians into sin by teaching self-indulgent licence rather than Christ-centred liberty. The strength of Jesus’ condemnation of such false teachers is indeed, from their point of view, truly terrifying; but it is also an indication of the depth of his love for, and commitment to, each individual member of his flock, especially “these little ones”, each of whom has an angel (a guardian angel ?) who “constantly beholds the face of my Father in heaven”. And he reinforces this point by going on to tell the parable of the lost sheep, led astray, presumably, by false teaching, who means so much to the Good Shepherd (who laid down his life for each one) that he leaves all the others to go in search of it.
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