He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against;

for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over - 

a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken;

they shall be snared and taken.

 

Isaiah 8:14-15 NRSV

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  A stumbling block.  A scandal.  Few of us ever think of Jesus in those terms, yet both the Old and New Testaments present him that way.  The prophet Isaiah understood, perhaps better than any of the prophets, that when the Messiah would come, he would be an offense, a scandal.  That is why he said, in another place, that the Messiah would be despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.

  The scandal fanned into flame when the ministry of Jesus began.  Now it seemed that everyone who came into contact with Jesus stumbled because of him.

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JOURNAL: How have you experienced Jesus as a stumbling block?

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