Matthew 18:7

B. THE WORLD IS BAD ENOUGH WITHOUT YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO ITS DEATH-TRAPS (18:7)

Matthew 18:7 Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come; but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh! In what sense does Jesus pronounce the first woe unto the world? His anguish over the sorry state of the world is caused by the fact that the world as such is both cause of its state and victim, And worse yet, it has no hopethere is no way out but His, The cause of the world's plight is the occasions of stumbling (tà skándala). This word pictures a trap whereby animals are snared, The skándalon is the bait-stick that holds up the dead-fall cage, so that when the animal goes for the bait, it knocks the stick out, causing the trap to fall around it, capturing it inside. The allusion, then, is to anything whereby the unsuspecting are led unconsciously into sin and entrapped.

But the world's plight has its cause in the very nature of the case: for it must needs be that the occasions come. There is no avoiding it, since this necessity is bound up in the very nature of the creaturely human condition. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13) In fact, when just two personalities meet each other on a collision course, with their contrasting wills, contradictory desires, varied consciences, diverse recall, differing value systems and unequal tastes, can there be anything but hurt, distress, grief and offense in the resulting clash? And the world is made up of billions of people all different, colliding everyday! Should it be any surprise even to the casual observer that Jesus should have said this? The greater surprise would be to learn that there is any possible way of avoiding the inevitable!

Two important conclusions arise out of Jesus-' observation that it is necessary that temptations come:

1.

This very sentence is proof that Jesus was no child of His age. He believed in no earthly Messianic utopia where people could look forward to the day when there would be no necessity for strength against temptations and stumbling-blocks. Rather, He realistically fortified His disciples to face and eliminate them, because His theology of the Messianic Kingdom involves the presence of evil in the world right down to the judgment. (See notes on Matthew 13:36-43.)

2.

The very existence of personality differences is precisely His reason for leading His people toward like-mindedness and unity of spirit. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 12:24-26; Ephesians 4:13; Philippians 1:27; Philippians 2:1-5; Colossians 2:2; Colossians 3:14) He knows that if He can create in us the same tender consideration for one another, the same forgiving spirit, the same earnestness of mutual love, the same patient forbearance, He can neutralize all the negative aspects of our creaturely condition and make us blameless, i.e. having no cause of stumbling in us, irreprehensible. (Cf. Colossians 1:21-23; 1 Timothy 3:2; 1 Timothy 3:10; Titus 1:6 f; Philippians 2:14 f; Jude 1:24; Revelation 14:5) This not only lessens the tensions created by scandals, but goes a long way to eliminate them altogether. (Romans 14:13)

From this it should be obvious that the necessity for occasions of stumbling is there, not because God desires it, but because selfishness, carelessness and ambition make men susceptible to the shock of others-' selfishness, carelessness and ambition. It is this fragility that makes it inevitable that temptations to sin come.

Rather than attack society en masse for its disorders that contribute to the ills of its members, since He knows that what is everybody's business is nobody's business, and therefore cannot count on society as such to do anything significant toward renewal, He begins grass-root reform by making His disciples aware of their own constant personal responsibility for the total impact of their lives on others: But woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh! The inevitable can be avoided only if one is aware of the horrible fate of those responsible for being the cause of others-' loss. Jesus has already warned that a terrifying drowning is preferable to the fate of such callous individuals. (Matthew 18:6) The man who is insensitive to the vulnerability of the weak is a man who is dangerous to everyone! If he can trample the children with lighthearted unconcern, how can he be consistently and authentically gentle with the undeniable and inevitable fragility of everyone else around him? That some men are deadly traps for the world's people is certainly a monstrous injustice, but is it not even more unthinkably outrageous that the men themselves should do their dirty work of their own free will and with pleasure? The irony is that Jesus is not discussing Nazi war criminals, but reasonably good, decent folk who are members in good standing of His Church! (Matthew 18:8 f; Romans 14:13 ff; 1 Corinthians 8:10-12; 1 Corinthians 10:32)

Is it best to look for stumbling blocks in our lives, or to let others point them out? Jesus will answer this by saying, Both! In Matthew 18:8-9 He will insist on the most rigorous introspection to eliminate all that we can see for ourselves as hindering to our godliness and service. In Matthew 18:15, if we ourselves are the offending brother who is approached by him against whom we have sinned, then it is implied that we listen to him and eliminate the cause of the problem.

It is almost as if Jesus were responding to those who would evade their personal responsibility for the effects of their lives on others: Your objection, that the world contains temptations so numerous, human nature is so weak and fatal stumbling blocks so certain that your own conduct cannot be significant enough to make a sickness out of worrying about its effect on others, has no basis. Rather, black terror awaits the individual who blocks the realization of the moral possibilities latent in every creature of God. How little we understand the human atrocity of stunting and stifling the development of the character of Jesus Christ in every little one! What monstrous wickedness it is to be the inducement that twists the dynamic possibilities of others into a power for evil unleashed on the earth!

Can the Lord stand impassively by while people with warped minds use tricks, menaces, persecution, persuasive arguments and other seductions to induce His people to abandon Him? Can He have no judgment of those who in every age and in every community derive twisted pleasure from the employment of their riches and culture, their achievements and professional influence to approach and seduce the unsuspecting into infidelity, sin and consequent ruin? No, His woe has in it the distant rumble of certain judgment and no one on earth has a more terrible responsibility to answer to God for it than they!

See Matthew 18:22-35 for Fact Questions.