Dn. Raphael Have you ever stumbled?
Did you stub your toe? Ouch!
Did you fall? BOOM!
Or did you catch yourself and regain your balance? Whew!
One night I was at my sister’s. We were taking things to the car, preparing to leave. I always get to carry the heavy and bulky things. It was late. It was dark. I was almost to the street. I misjudged my step over the curb. With the load I was carrying, there was no way to regain my balance. I fell flat on my face. BOOM!
Fortunately, no broken teeth or bones. The pain didn’t last long. If anyone more than my wife and daughter had seen this I would have felt foolish.
A stumbling block is a metaphor for a person or thing that causes someone to stumble, to sin. It’s a warning to beware of sin, the person or thing that leads us to it.
At times sin can seem like something pleasurable. But it’s really a fall.
There are places in scripture where Jesus and the cross are stumbling blocks for the wicked.
Funny, there is no word for stumbling block in the Greek per se. The Greek word is skandalon, which means offend or offense . We get our word scandalous from it.
The King James Version uses the word offend or offense. All other translations prefer a variety of synonyms. Stumble, stumbling block, sinners, hinderance, and entice (to sin).
According to Strong’s Bible Dictionary, skandalon has another connotation. It is the name for the part of a trap that holds the bait that springs the mechanism to capture or kill. A trap can kill a small rodent. A larger trap might not kill a larger animal, but will hold it until the hunter can come kill it. Some animals have been known to gnaw off their paw to escape the danger. Yikes!
Think of temptation as bait. Think of the trap as sin.
It’s easy to see that a stumbling block is much more perilous than falling or stubbing a toe. This term and its synonyms are much more lethal than the average English speaker realizes.
Jesus understood. In Matthew 16 He told His disciples He would soon be killed. Peter took Him aside, rebuking Him for such talk. He insisted it would not happen, not with him around to protect Him. Jesus saw Peter’s advice as scandalous, a trap. He was not timid telling his well-meaning disciple to get behind Him so He could boldly face the cross.
A stumbling block means danger. Beware. It’s a deadly trap!