Stumbling Block

Have you ever been walking down the road and tripped over something?

Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians says, “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles,”

The cross of Christ is a stumbling block and folly.  Stumbling blocks are things that impede our progress or cause us to question what we believe or understand. Folly is a foolish act or idea.  It is something that just does not make sense.  How is Christ crucified a good thing?  Why is the day the “savior” died on the cross called Good Friday?  What is so good about the death of your teacher?  How is it that you are suppose to continue on if your teacher is dead?  It really does not make sense.  And the cross is not where the messiah is suppose to be enthroned.  The messiah was suppose to come and clean out the enemies of the Jews and bring about power and rule that would put the Jewish nation back where they belonged as the highest most chosen people, so Jesus coming to die in our place on the cross, the most humiliating death is not what is suppose to happen.

But what happens when you trip or stumble over something as you are walking?  I mean other than you falling wildly and look around to make sure no one is looking…

Paul continues in his letter to the Corinthians, “For consider you call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth;”  God calls those who have the gifts for ministry.  Usually knowledge leads us to question faith, power causes us not to want to submit, and nobility gives us a place of honor, which we do not want to humble ourselves from.  “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,”  God uses every resource to make known his love. He called the shepherds to be the first witnesses of the birth of the savior of the world.  He then sent the Gentiles from the East to come and pay homage to the King of the World.  Jesus chose as his disciples fishermen, a tax collector…  Men that were not the most dignified or looked up to people in society.  God uses us where we are when he needs us.

So when I stumble, I stop and look and try to figure out what caused me to trip…  The cross is that which we need to ponder and focus on this season as we walk with Jesus to that same cross.  Look at that which is the wisest and most profound thing to us who believe, but to those who don’t is one of the greatest hurdles to get over.  The cross is that place where our death was taken away, and our sin paid for.  Focus on this cross, and stumble no more!