Skandalon

 The Spiritual Waiting Room

                              Skandalon

Offensive Defensive

Stumbling Disparaging Offending

Lead One Into Doubt

Trap

(photograph and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture: Matthew 16: 21 to 23

Jesus was talking to his disciples and told them that he had to go to Jerusalem to suffer, be killed, and rise on the third day. Peter spoke to Jesus privately and said, "No, Lord! This shall not happen to you." Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are not looking at this as God does, but as human beings do."

(adapted by John J. McNamara)

At first Jesus seems rather harsh in this passage. He calls Peter "Satan" and an "obstacle" (or in Greek a "skandalon") because Peter wants to stop the suffering and death of Jesus. Peter loves Jesus so much that he does not want anything this bad to happen to Jesus.

We can understand why Peter feels this way. We too love Jesus and would love to spare Jesus any suffering at all just like we work so hard to make sure that anyone we love dearly does not suffer.

 Jesus reacts so strongly because He is presenting His mission in this passage. Jesus was faithful in proclaiming the Good News and came to offer us the gift of salvation.  Because Jesus remained faithful, there were some who thought that He was a danger. They did not understand that Jesus was trying to bring all of us to the Father. They felt threatened by the words and deeds of Jesus.

In this moment Jesus wanted to prepare the apostles for what was going to happen. Jesus knew that this would be a difficult moment for them. He wanted to get them ready for this. This was hard news Jesus was sharing. 

Peter reacted strongly to this news. Jesus calls this type of reaction an "obstacle to me" or a "skandalon", that is a stumbling block that causes us to trip and fall. Jesus reminds us that it is important to look at this with God's perspective and to see that Jesus must remain faithful to His mission just as we are called to remain faithful to our mission to follow the teachings of Jesus. This faithfulness led Jesus to the resurrection and leads us to eternal life.

Reflection: 

1. Why does Peter get in the way of the mission of Jesus?

2. What are the "skandalons" or obstacles that you have tripped over as you have tried to follow Jesus?

3. Why do we sometimes miss the Good News of Jesus, as Peter did, when we are dealing with suffering and death?